Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements coming to an end in 2024 may be offered a 4-year extension. The RPA has said that Natural England (NE) will assess expiring agreements to see if they meet the necessary criteria (i.e no breaches, options remain appropriate for the priority target features on the holding etc.) and, where appropriate, […]
Defra has announced it will be opening Round 2 of the Slurry Infrastructure Grants in November. It has also already published the full guidance to help farmers prepare in advance, this can be found at https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2023/10/12/slurry-infrastructure-grant-guidance-now-available-for-round-2/ . In summary, the grant provides funding of between £25,000 and £250,000 to improve on-farm slurry storage to go […]
Contrary to initial indications, farmers will not be registering their interest in SFI via Rural Payments. Instead the RPA will be contacting all eligible farmers and land managers directly, from 30th August, with a link to a short online form that can be completed to express an interest in applying for the scheme. This will […]
Defra has announced some changes to the SFI 2023 option rules and has also published some voluntary guidance on how to carry out the actions. The key changes include; NUM3 (legume fallow) is now rotational AHL1 (pollen and nectar flower mix) is now rotational SAM3 (herbal leys) can now be done on the same land […]
Defra has announced the ‘vast majority’ of English farmers should receive their advance BPS payment on 1st August. The remainder will be made in December. Advance payments should be 50% of the total annual Basic Payment due. Last year was the first time part-payments were made and these started in July, continuing through August, but […]
A number of capital grants in England have been flagged-up as opening in the next few months. Farmers, and their advisors, may wish to prepare for these – especially in terms of starting the process of applying for Planning and any other permits. Details are below. Calf Housing Grant This is a new scheme that […]
Defra has recently put out a Press Release announcing £110m worth of funding available to support rural businesses and community groups between 2023 and 2025. This is not actually ‘new’ money, as it was announced last autumn (see our article from September 2022 https://abcbooks.co.uk/rural-funding-boost/). But it is a timely reminder that there will be support […]
It is now possible to transfer land and entitlements online in England in readiness for this year’s BPS applications. Claimants have until 16th May (the 15th is a Sunday) to complete the transactions. It is also possible to ‘add land by email’ now; useful where land cannot be transferred online. The email should include: ‘Add […]
The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) will open in Scotland on Monday 24th January 2022. For most applications the closing date will be 29th April 2022, although there are few exceptions; collaborative applications will have until 31st May 2022 stand-alone slurry store applications have until Friday 24th June 2022 – these options could help farmers prepare […]
Defra received 938 applications for the SFI Pilot. Whilst this is down on the 2,000 farmers who expressed an interest, Defra is pleased with the overall numbers which apparently provide a good spread of farm types, sizes and locations. Applications will be contacted over the next few weeks once their agreements are ‘live’ on the […]