Following the latest announcements made by Defra, we have outlined the main updates and changes to the different grant funding schemes below:
Improving Farm Productivity Grant
For robotic or automatic equipment and systems, wavelength specific LED lighting and/or advanced ventilation control units, grant funding between £25,000 to £500,000 is available per applicant business. Items could include robotic spraying technology, feeding robots and voluntary robotic milking systems. For Solar PV Systems such as solar PV panels, solar batteries and utility meters, grant funding between £15,000 to £100,000 is available per applicant business. Applicants can apply for both grants but the maximum grant total will be £500,000 per applicant business.
Initial applications for the online checker are now open to farmers and horticulturists to apply for a Solar Grant and/or Farm Productivity Grant. The online checker is used for applicants to make an initial application which checks the project’s eligibility and how it fits with the funding priorities. If your initial application is eligible, your application will be scored, and successful applicants will be invited to make a full application. The online checker is open until 21 March 2024. More information on Improving Farm Productivity Grant here.
New Veterinary Attestation Rules
From 13 December 2023, livestock farmers that are not part of an assurance scheme require a signed declaration from their vet to comply with export requirements for disease and biosecurity issues. Non-assured farmers must provide evidence of annual health visits from their vet if livestock and/or animal products derived from livestock enter the food chain and may be exported to the EU. In order for your vet to provide you with a Veterinary Attestation Number (VAN), you must have an annual vet visit to assess the biosecurity and disease risks of your livestock. Annual vet visits for TB testing could be sufficient. Grant funding under the Annual Health and Welfare Review can fulfil this requirement by funding annual vet visits. These visits are non prescriptive and can be tailored to your needs.
You can apply for the Annual Health and Welfare Review grant if you have:
- 11 or more beef cattle
- 11 or more dairy cattle
- 21 or more sheep
- 51 or more pigs
You will be paid:
- £522 for a beef cattle review
- £372 for a dairy cattle review
- £436 for a sheep review
- £684 for a pig review
Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)
The application window is currently open on a rolling basis with rolling agreement start dates. Defra have increased payment rates for some SFI actions by 10% on average for all new and existing SFI agreement with effect from 1 January 2024. Alongside the existing SFI actions, Defra plan to introduce 50 additional actions in Summer 2024 to include agroforestry and orchard management actions for instance. Defra also plan to streamline Countryside Stewardship (CS) Mid Tier and SFI into a single online application process.
Countryside Stewardship Standalone Capital Grants
The application window is currently open on a rolling basis with rolling agreement start dates. Applicants currently have 3 years to complete the capital items within their agreement. There are opportunities for applicants to have multiple capital agreements running in conjunction with each other but applicants are limited to applying for one Standalone Capital Grant per year. We anticipate that once SFI and CS Mid Tier have merged into one application process, new capital items will be available in Summer 2024 and these can be combined with new SFI and CS agreements. View the Applicant’s guide: Capital Grants 2024 here.
Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier
The application window is currently closed. We anticipate that CS Higher Tier will open in Summer 2024, if not earlier, and will run as a rolling application window with rolling agreement start dates. Defra have increased the payment rates for many CS Higher Tier and Mid Tier actions, specifically those that are focused on creating or conserving distinct habitats.
The most notable payment rate increases include:
- AB10 unharvested cereal headland (£1,072 per ha)
- AB5 nesting plots for lapwing (£765 pa ha)
- GS13 management of grassland for target features (£528 pa ha)
- GS15 haymaking supplement (£157 pa ha)
- GS6 management of species rich grassland (£646 pa ha).
We expect that Higher Tier applications will require more support and advice from Natural England following the review of CS payment rates. With the increased payment rates, we anticipate that many farms with species rich grassland will be required to resurvey their fields if they have not been reviewed in the last five years. If you have any small field areas which might be suitable under Higher Tier, this would be the perfect opportunity to incorporate them into the scheme. Defra do not expect whole farms to be entered into Higher Tier and are encouraging small field parcels and areas eligible under Higher Tier to be added.
Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier
The application window is currently closed. Once Mid Tier has merged with SFI, the application window will be on a rolling basis with rolling agreement start dates. Alongside the existing CS revenue options, there will be 21 premium actions to be introduced in Summer 2024 focusing on high priority actions such as agroforestry and water quality. Further details on CS Mid Tier Grants.
Transferring Schemes
There is currently limited guidance on transferring from existing Higher Level and Entry Level Environmental Stewardship schemes and Mid Tier over to SFI agreements but we understand that guidance will be released in the very near future. If you have areas not included in your existing agreement, you could add these areas to a new SFI agreement. Additionally, you can stack some SFI actions on top of existing HLS, ELS or CS options. You can also apply now for CS capital grants if you would like to start your capital works without having to wait for the latest scheme updates.
As new announcements are made by Defra, we will endeavour to keep you updated with the latest news and schemes. Please do not hesitate to contact one of our professionals if you have any queries in relation to the above schemes.
Offices in Battle, Haywards Heath, Pulborough and Tunbridge Wells.
