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The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has now opened applications for the Productivity and Slurry Grant and the Animal Health and Welfare Grant through the second round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund.
This fund offers grants for specific items which will increase productivity, improve animal health and welfare and be environmentally sustainable.
Farmers (including contractors) can apply for a grant of between £1,000 and £25,000, with grants funding around 40% of the cost of specific items included in the Fund.
Following the first round of funding, DEFRA has reviewed and added to the list of items available under this grant. There are an additional 19 items to aid productivity, 2 items to improve slurry management and 66 items to support animal health and welfare.
Some examples of items eligible for funding under the grant are detailed below:
| Productivity & Slurry Grant | Animal & Health Welfare |
| Direct Drill 3m, 4m, 6+m | Mobile or fixed cattle and sheep handling systems |
| Direct Drill with fertiliser placement | EID panel reader for cattle and sheep |
| Retro fitted yield monitoring | Snacker feeder |
| Grain stirrers | Enrichment block holder for pigs |
| Tractor mounted stubble rake 6m | Automatic weigh scale for poultry |
| Slurry separators | Cameras for monitoring livestock |
However, following this review, some items from Round 1 of the funding have been removed.
The grant funding is competitive and will be allocated based on a scoring system, and therefore if the scheme is oversubscribed, funding will be allocated to those applications which best meet the objectives of the scheme.
Applying for the grant must be done online, through either the ‘Productivity & Slurry’ portal or the ‘Animal Health & Welfare’ portal, depending on which item is being applied for. If an application is successful, the applicant will receive an offer via email and from here they can accept the offer and purchase the items.
It is important that the item applied for is available, as it must be paid for and installed before the claim can be made for the grant payment. Currently, the claim submission deadlines are expected to be October 2023 for the Productivity & Slurry items and January 2024 for the Animal Health & Welfare items.
These capital grants will not be available in the long term so it is important to consider them now and to look at the full list of available items.
For more information or to find out how our Rural Property & Business department can help you please contact 01234 352201 or 01280 428010 or email bedford@robinsonandhall.co.uk
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