Stock health and welfare grant window opens
© Adobe Stock Livestock farmers have until 1 May to bid for machinery grants of up to £50,000 to improve farm output and animal health and welfare.
Applications periods for all three strands of the government’s Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) are now live, following the opening of the animal health and welfare options on 20 March.
The FETF can be used to fund items to:
There are 130 items on the FETF approved list, of which 29 are new additions, including cattle crushes, poultry perches and enclosed piglet creeps.
See also: Defra suspends approval of several major farm disinfectants
Farmers are reminded funding is competitive, meaning applications may not receive any or all of the funding requested.
Successful applicants will receive:
- £1,000-£50,000 for productivity items
- £1,000-£50,000 for slurry items
- £1,000-£25,000 for animal health and welfare items.
Applications for animal health and welfare items are scored on their contribution towards the animal health and welfare priorities. This year, farmers can increase their application score by 20% if they can provide evidence they have discussed their application with a vet.
Eligibility
Only farms with beef and dairy cattle, sheep, pigs and laying and broiler chickens are available for funding. Turkeys, gamebirds and other livestock such as goats are not eligible.
More details
A full breakdown of how the systems works is available on the RPA website.