There are two strands of funding available:

The Farming Transformation Fund

• • Supports larger transformational projects.

    • • Intention to launch a water improvement grant in the Spring 2023.
    • • Support on-farm reservoirs.
    • • Support the best irrigation practices.
    • • Irrigation infrastructure

• • Plans to announce further rounds of slurry infrastructure and a new animal health and welfare infrastructure grant for cattle farmers.

• • Other grants to fund automation and robotics will be available later in 2023.

The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund

• • Productivity and slurry fund opened 21st February, closing on 4^th April, 91 items.

    • • Max £25k claim with £1k being the minimum claim per theme.
    • • Competitive scheme.
    • • No ex-demo, second hand, part exchange or ‘try before you buy’ items are eligible, but this may change in the future.

• • Animal Health and Welfare – Open March 2023, 112 items, serial numbers required for specific items.

Productivity and slurry and animal health and welfare will be two separate portals.

Animal Health and Welfare

• • Animal Health and Welfare Review

    • • Opened 7 Feb 2023
    • • Vet or Vet-led team visit farm and carry out a yearly review of annual health and welfare.
    • • Restricted to one visit per keeper.
    • • Option to Choose own Vet.

• • Animal Health and Welfare Grants (FETF)

    • • Capital investments in equipment technology and infrastructure that support health and welfare priorities.

• • Disease eradication and control programmes

    • • From 2023/24
    • • Diagnostic testing, vaccination, vet advice and farm management

• • Payment is by results, results-based finance of improvement in health and welfare is being trialed in 2023.

Pathway priorities

Pigs ·         Tackle PRRS. ·         Increase biosecurity. ·         Decrease sow confinement during farrowing. ·         Reduce stressors to keep tails intact.	Sheep ·         Tailored screening for priority endemic diseases. ·         Reduce lameness. ·         Improve Pain management. ·         Improve Ewe sustainability.
Cattle ·         bovine viral diarrhoea (BDV). ·         Reduce lameness and mastitis. ·         Upgrade housing. ·         Improve pain management. ·         Improve welfare at pasture.	Chickens ·         Adopt welfare – improving technology. ·         Better chicken commitment. ·         Transition out of cages. ·         Improve feather cover and heel bone health.

Application scoring

• • Applications to each portal are scored separately.

• • The scores for each item are added up and averaged.

• • If they are oversubscribed, funding will be awarded to the highest scoring applications.

• • Example:

1 X FETF 45 – 6m Seed Drill (item score: 64)

1 X FETF 27 – Slurry Separators (item score: 63)

1 X FETF 32 – Dribble Bar (item score: 58)

Application Scores 61.67 (64+63+58 = 185/3)

Expected average total costs of items

• • Manufacturers were visited in Autumn 2022, the lowest price given was indicated.

• • Invoices from round one also assisted with this figure.

Key notes

• • Every item has a letter:

    • • A – Animal Health and Welfare
    • • P – Productivity
    • • S – Slurry

• • Ensure that the same details on RPA are used when applying – business name, email address etc.

• • Refundable deposits can be asked from suppliers.

    • • They must not exceed 50% of the total cost of item.
    • • Discussions regarding deposits and/or orders must occur whilst window is open.

• • Claim form open for 6 months until October 2023.

• • Confirmation to be granted 4 weeks are after the applications close.

• • Potential for ongoing post checks for 5 years.

• • You do not have to be a BPS recipient in order to receive the funding, but you must have an SBI number.

• • An invoice from the supplier containing the full amount must be obtained.

For more information contact FETFenquiries@rpa.gov.uk