In this post, we’ll give you a summary of the grants to look out for this year.
The information published in this post is correct at the time of publication but please note that blog posts do go out of date. For the definitive, up-to-date list of all farming payments and guidance in England, bookmark Funding for Farmers and Land Managers on GOV.UK. The page contains both our grants and our ongoing payments. It also includes Countryside Stewardship grants and it is updated regularly.
SFI annual health and welfare review
Summary:
Farmers who keep cattle, sheep and pigs can get funding to pay for a vet to visit their farm and carry out a health and welfare review of their livestock. To be eligible to apply, you must have one of the following:
- 11 or more beef cattle
- 11 or more dairy cattle
- 21 or more sheep
- 51 or more pigs
How much you can apply for:
- £684 for a pig review
- £436 for a sheep review
- £522 for a beef cattle review
- £372 for a dairy cattle review
Dates to note:
You can apply now.
Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare
Summary:
The grant will fund laying hen and pullet farmers to refurbish or replace (with new) existing laying hen and pullet housing. This will include specific funding to retrofit verandas onto existing buildings. The grant aims to improve poultry health and welfare and support innovation, productivity and environmental sustainability. Funding will also be available for installing rooftop solar panels on funded housing.
How much you can apply for:
To be confirmed. We’ll publish a post as soon as the guidance for this grant is available.
Dates to note:
The online checker (the first step to apply) will open in spring-summer 2024.
Cattle Housing for Health and Welfare
Summary:
The grant will fund upgrades to housing for cattle aged 6 months+, to improve cattle health and welfare and support innovation, productivity and environmental sustainability.
How much you can apply for:
To be confirmed. We’ll blog as soon as we publish the guidance for the grant.
Dates to note:
The online checker (the first step to apply) will open in autumn 2024.
Grant to improve productivity
Summary:
This grant is offered through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2024. It provides smaller value grants towards the cost of a prescribed list of items. This supports the purchase of specific equipment, technology, and small infrastructure investments aimed at making an immediate difference to farm performance, including investments that will help farmers use less inputs, reduce emissions, and cut waste.
How much you can apply for:
You can apply for a grant between £1,000 and £50,000 towards productivity equipment.
Dates to note:
We are planning two more application windows in 2024. We will blog when it is time to apply again.
Grant to improve animal health and welfare
Summary:
This grant is offered through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2024. It provides smaller value grants towards the cost of a prescribed list of items. These grants will go towards the cost of items on a list which improve the health and welfare of livestock.
How much you can apply for:
You can apply for a grant between £1,000 and £25,000
Dates to note:
We are planning two more application windows in 2024. We will blog when it is time to apply again.
Grant to improve slurry management
Summary:
This grant is offered through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2024. It provides smaller value grants towards the cost of a prescribed list of items to help farmers manage their slurry better and reduce pollution of water and air.
How much you can apply for:
You can apply for a grant between £1,000 and £50,000.
Dates to note:
We are planning two more application windows in 2024. We will blog when it is time to apply again.
Improving Farm Productivity grant (round 2)
Summary:
This grant is for innovative farming equipment that increases productivity and improves the environment.
How much you can apply for:
£25,00-£500,000 robotic and automated equipment and systems (50% intervention rate)
£15,000-£100,000 solar equipment (25% intervention rate)
£500,000 is the maximum offer.
Dates to note:
The online checker for Round 2 (the first step to apply) closed on 21 March 2024. Those invited to make a full application have until 31 July 2025.
Slurry Infrastructure grant
Summary:
The Slurry Infrastructure grant is designed to help you improve or expand your slurry storage capacity.
How much you can apply for:
Between £25,000 and £250,000.
Dates to note:
The online checker for Round 2 (the first step to apply) closed on 17 January 2024. There will be another opportunity to apply later this year.
Water management grant
Summary:
This grant is for capital items which improve farm productivity through more efficient use of water for irrigation, and to secure water supplies for crops.
How much you can apply for:
Between £35,000 and £500,000.
Dates to note:
For Round 2, the online checker (the first step to apply) closed on 7 July 2023. Those invited to submit a full application will have until the end of October 2024 to submit their application. Round 3 is expected later this year.
Farming Innovation Programme - Large R&D Partnerships (Round 3)
Summary:
The grant provides funding for businesses to further develop a new farming product or service towards commercialization. Targeted toward growers and foresters in England to take forward ideas that improve productivity, sustainability, resilience and move the sector towards net zero.
How much you can apply for:
A share of £7.8 million.
Dates to note:
The window to submit an application opened on 15 January 2024 and closed on 13 March 2024.
Farming Innovation Programme - Farming Futures R&D - nutrient management
Summary:
These grants provide funding for businesses and researchers to work on longer-term innovation. This competition will focus on nutrient management.
How much you can apply for:
A share of up to £25 million will be delivered across two competition rounds.
Dates to note:
Spring 2024 and autumn 2024.
Farming Innovation Programme Fund: Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT)
Summary:
These grants are focused on providing groups of farmers, growers and foresters in England with support to conduct on-farm experiments and trials. This will allow farmers to drive practical research that is relevant to them as well as providing “pull-through” of new technologies and processes to the practical domain. The funding and support available through ADOPT funding will help de-risk farmers’ participation in research and innovation.
How much you can apply for:
There will be a total of £43 million grant funding available up until 2028/29.
Dates to note:
Coming in summer 2024.
Farming Innovation Programme - Small R&D Partnerships (Round 4)
Summary:
This grant is designed to help businesses to develop a new farming product or service and take it towards commercialisation. This can be used to develop a solution once it works in practice.
How much you can apply for:
A share of £7.8 million.
Dates to note:
Coming in autumn 2024.
Farming Innovation Programme - Feasibility Studies (Round 4)
Summary:
This grant provides funding to test the feasibility of early-stage solutions and to inform decisions on subsequent larger scale R&D projects.
How much you can apply for:
A share of up to £4.8 million.
Dates to note:
Coming in autumn 2024.
Farming Innovation Programme - Farming Futures R&D – Net Zero Farming
Summary:
These grants provide funding for businesses and researchers to work on longer-term innovation. This particular competition will focus on ‘net zero farming’.
How much you can apply for:
A share of up to £12.5 million.
Dates to note:
Coming in autumn 2024.
37 comments
Comment by Rosemary Collingborn posted on
We were waiting for the grant on mattresses in the FEPF - can't believe that Defra have just abolished it.
Could you consider adding it to animal welfare. We are feeling extremely disappointed.
The grants favour very large enterprises.
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Rosemary,
Thanks for getting in touch. We need to ensure that each item specification works within the confines of the scheme to reliably deliver the intended health and welfare benefits, while excluding inferior products.
We took the decision to remove cow mattresses ahead of FETF 2024 because we have not been able to determine a single specification that would do this, due to the extensive and growing variety of mattress products and materials now available.
We will continue to consider how the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway can best support farmers to upgrade cattle housing to improve comfort and reduce lameness, and whether similar items could be grant funded in the future.
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Joe posted on
Hi, Different subject, I'm enquiring will there ever be farm house or out house grants in the near future?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Joe,
Unfortunately not, though if that ever changes, we'll blog about it. It might be worth visiting Homes England https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Caroline posted on
Can you apply for an Improving Farm Productivity Grant if you have already applied for an Adding Value grant?
Thank you.
Comment by Craig Smith posted on
I'm worried and disappointed to see no mention of the flood recovery grants promised in January,
Have these been scrapped? Farmers like me are waiting for this help after the EA was largely unable to contain its water and allowed hundreds of not thousands of hectares of crops to be damaged or destroyed by storm Babet and Henk.
These grants were to alleviate the loss of income and from damaged crops and to soil health and are very much needed?
Comment by Charles Parry posted on
Hello I have lost 10,000 of vegetables and lots more can I get any compensation. Cost me £20,000.and no income and to wet to plant anything.
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Charles,
Funding is available for those affected by Storm Henk. This post sets out who could be eligible: https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/09/storm-henk-grants-available-for-affected-farmers/
Other areas in England are being explored for inclusion as part of the Flood Recovery Framework.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Rob posted on
Hi Sarah hope your well,
Is there any grants towards honey bee farmers at the moment?
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Rob,
Thanks for getting in touch. Unfortunately there aren't any grants on offer for bee farmers specifically, though we do support pollinators through the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Landscape Recovery. The schemes offer a choice of support for more regenerative approaches to farming, and creation or restoration of habitats in appropriate areas.
The following is a link to GOV.UK's grant finder. If you sign up, you'll be notified when new grants are available https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/login-notice/newsletter
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Mathews malivasi posted on
Let me start with congratulating this page,so much more and very interesting. Ive been writing and looking for grant ,but that wasn't be the case and unlucky.im writing from malawi,can you please help me who can help me to acquire a grant in farming.ive a land where I grow crops and animals but very small scale .my land is 168 acres I only use 10 acre but am looking to grow big as much as 100 acres which will be 40 ha.please fo you have such grant?
Rgds mathews
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Mathews,
The grants (and all the payments and policies we talk about on this site) apply to those who farm in England only.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Steve Jones posted on
Hi.
Would love to apply for;
FETF47 - Assisted steer system (retro fitted for older tractors), but could somebody point me in the direction of any supplier who could do this for the specified £1,911. Unfortunately it seems that, while the grant percentage is good, many of the "expected average costs" fall majorly short for the specification detailed
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Steve,
Thanks for getting in touch. I’m afraid we cannot recommend suppliers – but we do review the expected average cost for items in between rounds using invoices provided for the actual cost of the equipment purchased during the previous round.
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Robert Craig posted on
I was intending making an application to the farm productivity grant (round 2) scheme for roof-top solar.
Unfortunatly our local electricity network ENW were slow in responding to our request for network information and guidance allowing us to plan our proposal so we missed the dealine by a couple of days. Will there be a further round of funding and when might this be? Thank you
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Robert,
Thanks for getting in touch. We are in the process of planning our future grant offers. We will post any news of new schemes under the Farming Investment Fund via the blog.
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Marianne McHugh posted on
Thank you for this post: very helpful.
Can you please clarify regarding Animal Health and Welfare items under the FETF - I believe this is open now for applications until 1 May.
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Marianne,
Yes, you're correct. The deadline to apply for an FETF Animal Health and welfare grant is midday 1 May 2024.
The window to apply for the FETF productivity and FETF slurry management grant closed today at noon.
We’re planning 2 more opportunities to apply for productivity, slurry and animal health and welfare grants later this year.
.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Al Foster posted on
We are new farmers and we are looking for to start our own farm. We currently have 10 ha of farmland which we are struggling to fence. We will be keeping cheap in livestock and also woodland. Any more information on different grants if there is any
Your sincerely
Allan foster
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Alan,
Good to hear your plans. We have a Funding for farmers, growers and land managers page which should help you find out what grants are on offer: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/funding-for-farmers
This funding page allows you to filter by the type of funding you need. For livestock and woodland funding you can use the below links:
- protect animal health and welfare https://www.gov.uk/guidance/funding-for-farmers#protect-animal-health-and-welfare
- create or improve woodland protect tree health https://www.gov.uk/guidance/funding-for-farmers#create-or-improve-woodland-and-protect-tree-health
Hope that helps,
The Team
Comment by Hermina Ely posted on
Interested to see the upcoming innovation and smaller R&D grants coming in autumn. Will DEFRA be offering support to those wanting to apply - to help articulate and develop their propositions? (eg. webinars, pre-app discussions or mentoring?) Conscious of the huge effort it takes and that smaller farms may not have the resource/expertise in this making this type of "innovation" application - yet be sitting on some great ideas.
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Ely,
Innovate UK Business Connect will be running a series of virtual briefing webinars and virtual consortia networking events in support of Feasibility Studies and Small R&D Partnership competitions together with support for finding project partners. More details on these events will be announced later in the year.
In addition, the third fund within the Farming Innovation Programme (ADOPT - Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies), will operate with an independent Support Hub in place specifically for this reason - to give farmers the support they need before, during and after their application. Again, more details on this will follow in due course. The tender for the Support Hub opened for applications on Friday 10th May and can be found here:https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/014431-2024?
Hope that helps,
The Team
Comment by Dean Lee posted on
Hi,
I'm interested in the upcoming Cattle Housing for Health and Welfare grant (Autumn 24). Will this be along similar lines to the recent youngstock housing grants?
Will it cover new sheds or just improvements to existing sheds?
Our dairy cow cubicle shed is very old and dilapidated, the cubicles and passages are too small for modern cows.
We would like to replace it with a completely new shed but would not be able to afford this without a grant!
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Dean,
Thanks for getting in touch, and sharing your plans! We are still conducting co-design for this new grant, which means exactly what it will cover is still being decided. We will feedback your points to the team and we will share further information when it is available here on the blog, so please subscribe to stay up to date.
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Dean Lee posted on
Do you have any information on when more details for the Cattle Housing for Health and Welfare grant will be available?
Comment by Debbie Rosa posted on
It would be really helpful to have a bit more insight into the planned ADOPT fund in relation to how this might work alongside existing farmer led trial initiatives e.g. AHDB strategic farms, LEAF demonstration farms, innovative farmer groups etc. Would it be possible to have a chat please?
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Debbie,
If you give me your consent, I can pass your email address (the one you supplied when you left the comment) onto the Farming Innovation Programme team.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by CJ Marshall posted on
Are there grants for renewing guttering on farm buildings?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hello,
Under Countryside Stewardship, you'll find RP16:
https://www.gov.uk/countryside-stewardship-grants/rainwater-goods-rp16
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Daniel posted on
Good morning,
Do you have any application dates with regard to when the next round of slurry storage grants will come out? Many thanks, Daniel.
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Daniel,
Not yet, I'm afraid. If you visit the Funding for farmers, growers and land managers on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/funding-for-farmers) there's a little bell in a box that says 'get emails about this page' in the top left corner. Whenever that page is updated, you'll get a notification (we'll blog about funding opportunities here too).
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Amy Cooper posted on
Hi guys,
Just had quite a few enquiries regarding grants for solar panels/batteries - do we know if this will be available under another round so that they can have an idea of whether to wait on the grant or proceed ahead?
Thanks!
Comment by The Team posted on
Hello Amy,
Thanks for getting in touch. Our view is that they should go ahead and apply in the current round.
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Richard Bunning posted on
Will there be another round of the productivity grants?
We now need a new cattle handling system and cannot afro d it without a grant.
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your patience - we'll share more in due course. Subscribe to the blog for email alerts whenever we publish a post: https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Jo Bridges posted on
Is there any funding for small farms? We do t have enough hens for the hen housing grant, we are also in need of other equipment, no fence collars for a small herd of dairy goats needing to rotate pasture and manage woodland more effectively and other sheep handling equipment. We need to improve farm buildings etc. we’ve only been on the farm for 2 years and we are building infrastructure from scratch but no fu ding because we are small?
Comment by Remy posted on
Are there any grants/low cost loans for purchase of land by people wanting to start farming? I found a ton of grants for people leaving farming, but none to help to start.