A farmer holding male bovine animals on his holding may qualify, on application, for a special premium. It shall be granted in the form of an annual premium per calendar year and per holding within the limits of regional ceilings for not more than 90 animals for each of the age brackets referred to in paragraph 2.

When in a given region the total number of bulls from the age of nine months and of steers from nine months to 20 months of age, for which an application has been made and which satisfy the conditions for granting the special premium exceeds the regional ceiling referred to in paragraph 8, the number of all eligible animals under paragraph 2(a) and (b) per farmer for the year in question shall be reduced proportionately.

Within the meaning of this Article, ‘regional ceiling’ shall mean the number of animals entitled to benefit, in a region and per calendar year, from the special premium.

By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 4, Member States may:

• on the basis of objective criteria that are part of a rural development policy and only on the condition that they take into account environmental as well as employment aspects, change or waive the headage limit of 90 animals per holding and age bracket, and,

• where exercising this power, decide to apply paragraph 4 in such a way as to reach the level of reductions required to comply with the applicable regional ceiling, without applying such reductions to small farmers who, in respect of the year in question, did not submit special premium applications for more than a minimum number of animals determined by the Member State concerned.

Member States may decide to grant the special premium at the time of slaughter. In this case, for bulls the age criterion referred to in paragraph 2(a) shall be replaced by a minimum carcass weight of 185 kilograms.

The premium shall be paid or passed back to the farmers.

The United Kingdom shall be authorised to apply in Northern Ireland a system for granting the special premium which differs from that applied in the remainder of its territory.

The following regional ceilings shall apply: