Animal Health and Welfare grants now available – Farming

Now you can apply for an Animal Well being and Welfare grant by the Farming Tools and Know-how Fund (FETF) 2024. 

Final month, I blogged concerning the FETF and enhancements we have made to it. I additionally included a hyperlink to the official FETF 2024 steerage, which explains that there are 3 kinds of grants on supply that can assist you purchase tools or expertise to:

enhance productiveness
handle slurry
enhance animal well being and welfare.

You’ll be able to apply for a grant from every of the three themes. We just lately up to date the steerage. GOV.UK will all the time be the place to search out the very newest steerage for all our schemes.

On this publish, I’ll give a fast recap of the Animal Well being and Welfare grant and let you know the way to use. 

Overview 

A part of the Animal Well being and Welfare Pathway, which affords a spread of help to farmers, this explicit FETF grant goes in the direction of the price of gadgets on an inventory that assist to enhance animal well being and welfare. We developed this record with farmers, vets and different specialists. 

There are over 130 gadgets on the record and 29 are new additions. You may see a spread of things: from cellular cattle dealing with methods to enclosed piglet creeps to poultry perches. So, should you’re a cattle, sheep, pig or poultry farmer, it’s price trying on the gadgets. When you’re a contractor to those sectors, you’ll be able to apply too.  

You’ll be able to apply for no less than £1,000 and a most of £25,000. We’ll pay a proportion of the associated fee relying on the merchandise. The chances are within the steerage.

For a lot of gadgets, this proportion is a rise on final 12 months. This funding will go in the direction of both:

the typical price of the merchandise – if an merchandise prices you an identical or greater than the anticipated common price within the merchandise record 
the precise price you pay for the merchandise – if an merchandise prices you lower than the anticipated common price within the merchandise record. 

 The deadline to use is noon 1 Could 2024. 

Bettering your software rating 

The fund is aggressive. When you resolve to use, you’ll be able to improve your software rating by offering proof that you just’ve mentioned your software with a vet.   

You will get vet recommendation by phone, e mail, or as a part of a vet go to. Chances are you’ll be eligible to use for a fully-funded vet go to as a part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) annual well being and welfare evaluate.    

You have to obtain recommendation in your software after 1 January 2024 and earlier than 1 January 2025 for it to be eligible for the rise.    

You’ll want to offer your vet’s particulars, the date of the dialogue and permission for us to contact your vet whenever you apply. 

Steps to use 

Learn the FETF 2024 steerage.
Examine the specification of the gadgets you wish to apply for within the 2024 gadgets and specs lists. We try out a brand new format for specs this 12 months, which is completely different from earlier lists. 
Examine the provision of the gadgets you wish to apply for together with your provider.     
Don’t order or purchase something at this stage, until you might be paying with a refundable deposit. The Rural Funds Company (RPA) will reject your declare if you don’t meet these circumstances.  
Register with the Rural Funds service.  
Examine your small business and speak to particulars within the Rural Funds service are right. Your private report on Rural Funds should have a permission degree of both ‘make authorized adjustments’ or ‘full permissions’ for the enterprise you might be making use of for.  
Learn the FETF 2024 phrases and circumstances.     
Register after which go online to the Farming Funding Fund service to submit your software. Please be aware that the Farming Funding Fund service is separate to the Rural Funds service and requires you to finish a brand new registration. If you wish to apply for multiple grant, you’ll have to submit separate functions. The service is a web-based system the place you’ll have to reply questions on you and your small business. Your particulars should match these within the Rural Funds service.
Make it possible for your software is full earlier than you submit it. You can save and make adjustments to your software earlier than you submit it, however you will not be capable of amend your software after it has been submitted.

Your software ought to take round 20 minutes to finish. You’ll obtain an acknowledgement e mail inside 24 hours of making use of – it’s possible you’ll have to test your junk folder for emails about your software.    

The RPA will allocate funding as soon as all of the functions have been acquired and scored. Chances are you’ll not obtain any, or all, of the funding you apply for.  

In case your software is profitable, the RPA will ship you a Grant Funding Settlement (GFA). GFAs for every grant might be despatched individually. In case your software is unsuccessful, the RPA will write to you to let you know why. 

Use the Farming Funding Fund service to simply accept your GFA by the deadline which might be within the e mail. You’ll want to pick out every grant to simply accept every GFA.   

We have set out the steps you’ll have to comply with to declare your FETF 2024 grant fee on GOV.UK.   

Future software home windows 

We’re planning 2 extra alternatives to use for productiveness, slurry and animal well being and welfare grants later this 12 months. 

The merchandise specs and their prices would be the similar in every software window. The price range for every grant is cut up evenly throughout the applying home windows. 

In case your software falls under the scoring threshold and is unsuccessful, the RPA will reject it. It is possible for you to to use once more. 

When you’ve accepted a grant funding settlement (GFA) to purchase gadgets from a grant, you can’t apply once more for a similar grant in 2024. 

Lastly, don’t overlook the window to use for productiveness and slurry administration grants will shut noon 17 April. 

Study extra 

Final week, our group hosted a webinar overlaying the FETF grants.

Watch the recording.

We’ll weblog once more quickly with solutions to the questions that have been submitted on the webinar.