Farming Grants & Funding

There are many grants and funding opportunities for farmers in England and Wales. Here we will try and summarise each opportunity as it arises and how it could benefit you from an animal health and welfare point of view.

Please note, that we will endeavour to keep this page up to date however funding is quite fluid!

Updated March 2026.

The latest Farming Equipment and Technology Fund opened on 18th March 2026.

There are a range of animal health and welfare items available in the fund, which you can view below.

Applications are awarded on a point per pound system, allowing Defra to rank all applications based on their £ value, relative to the “points” that those items are worth. Items which attract more points tend to target Defra’s focus on welfare and endemic diseases such as lameness.

An example of how applications would be scored:

Example:

1 × FETF60: Hydraulic or pneumatic operated squeeze crush (item score 980, maximum grant amount £6,590)

2 × FETF233A: Static cow brush (item score: 670, maximum grant amount £46)

Application score:

Total item score (total A): (1 × 980) + (2 × 670) = 2,320

Total maximum grant amount (total B): (1 × £6,590) + (2 × £46) = £6,682

Application score: 2,320 ÷ 6,682 = 0.35

So, to boost an application’s chance of success, you may want to include high-scoring items with a relatively low cost, even if that’s on top of the lower-scoring items that you really want. We’ve produced a spreadsheet of all the items available under the grants, which you can find here:

Farming Equipment & Technology Fund 2026 – Spreadsheet of Items

Here are a couple of the higher-scoring / lower-cost items:

  • Water heaters
  • Water troughs for rotational grazing
  • Heat lamps
  • Enrichment toys
  • Boot disinfection systems
  • Calf jackets
  • Temp/humidity sensors
  • Vaccine fridges with external monitors

But there is a massive range – and the focus should always be on getting equipment which will truly improve your own livestock system!

If you want advice on any items before applying, please speak to your vet. Please also note that this is a competitive grant, once it’s gone, it’s gone!

Link to the Farming Equipment & Technology Fund application page

In a nutshell, the Animal Health and Welfare Review is a pot of funding for farmers to access vet advice and testing on their farms. It was previously launched as funding for one species, per farm. That’s now changed. As well as being able to apply for the Animal Health and Welfare Review for more than one species, rates for the review and follow-up visits are increasing as of the 22nd January 2026.

Additionally, if it’s been over a year since your first review, you can apply for your second. There are up to 3 reviews and 3 follow-ups per species available for the duration of the scheme (June 2027).

New funding rates:

  • £648 for a pig review (to include PRRS testing)
  • £574 for a sheep review (to include worm egg count reduction test)
  • £647 for a beef cattle review (to include five BVD blood samples)
  • £447 for a dairy cattle review (to include BVD bulk milk PCR)

In addition to this, for the optional follow-up:

  • £258 for cattle with no BVD
  • £954 for beef cattle where BVD is present in the herd
  • £1844 for dairy cattle where BVD is present in the herd
  • £658 for sheep
  • £1087 for pigs

For those of you who are already doing BVD testing and reduction tests, this is a really easy pot of money to access to get some additional veterinary advice on a health issue specific to your farm.

E.g. Dairy farmers – up to £1410 available where there’s no BVD found on farm.

You can apply within minutes here – Application link

Speak to your vet first to identify the best timing for your visit.

Contact the practice now:

Whitchurch – 01948 663000

Lancashire – 01772 866014

Derbyshire – 01629 691692