The Rural Payments Agency has introduced its Small Grant Scheme under the Countryside Productivity programme and the application window is now open. The grant is part of the Rural Development Programme for England and gives grant funding towards for specific pieces of agricultural equipment which are targeted at improving efficiency, welfare and resource management.
The amount of money available is for a minimum of £3,000 of grant up to a maximum of £12,000. The grant will cover 40% of the “standard cost” cost of the item. Several smaller items can be selected to create an application totalling £3,000 – £12,000 of grant.
The application deadline for application submissions is 14th March 2018. It is not possible to claim on any equipment purchased before a claim has been submitted and approved.
To receive funding you must be a farmer (agricultural contractors not included) and the item must be new and meet the minimum requirements of the list. The list covers cattle, sheep, pig, precision farming, resource management and general equipment.
Below are a list of the items that we have already received requests for:
Top 10 grant funded items:
| Item | Specification | Standard Cost |
| Mobile Cattle Handling Systems | Consisting of a race, crush and penning for a maximum of 50 cattle on an integrated road legal trailer. The crush must have a ratchet rump bar with automatic head yoke and auto reset facility. | £10,200 |
| Cattle Crush (Automatic)
|
With an internal width of 720mm, the crush will have a fully automatic head yoke with auto reset facility, complete access to both sides, rotating rump bar. The crush will be fully galvanised. | £4,050 |
| Cluster Flush
|
System to back flush milking cluster to sanitise unit between cows. Cost is per cluster unit | £1,013 |
| Hand-held Automatic Teat Washing System
|
Hand-held automatic teat washing brush which can wash, disinfect, stimulate and dries all in one visit to the cow. Maximum two per parlour. | £5,950 |
| Mobile Sheep Handling Systems
|
Suitable for a minimum of 250 sheep with the aim to allow farmers to handle sheep on blocks of ground away from the main holding. Must include a gathering pen, forcing pen, drafting race, dosing race, side pens, the ability to fit plastic footbath and an integrated road legal trailer. | £7,487 |
| Sheep Handler
|
Crate or clamp style sheep handler for efficiency dagging, dosing and sorting sheep. | £3,273 |
| EID Hand-held Devices
|
Hand-held reader with RFID technology for individual reader with RFID technology for individual reading and recording of animal that must be capable of exporting data to a computer based software package for the active monitoring of livestock. | £1,222 |
| GPS for Precision Farming and Yield Mapping
|
GPS must be a standalone GPS unit with automatic field boundary measurement and field recognition. It must have a minimum capability of straight and curved guidance modes with the ability to print maps. Yield mapping must be an electronic device to connect to a combine of forage harvester to monitor crop yield during harvest. It will provide information on harvesting rate, with total and partial area (field) yield of crop. | £1,366 – £4,730 |
| Slurry Application Equipment
|
A range of equipment including a trailing show slurry system including macerators, Dribble Bar and Shallow Injection systems | £10,000- £22,169 |
| Robotic Silage Pusher | Robotic system with intelligent software and programmable for the intended feed passage. The equipment must have the capacity to detect the distance from the feed barrier along with the amount of feed in the passage. | £12,000 |
For more information about what equipment is available and how to apply please call Aislyn Firth or Alyssia Thomas on 01684 853400.
For other grants that may be of interest to you please check out grants page.