Farming Equipment & Technology Fund

Defra has announced the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) will open for applications on the 29th May for just 6 weeks; closing on 10th July. All three themes; Productivity, Slurry Management and Animal Health & Welfare will be open at the same time this year. The FETF offers grants towards the cost of specific pieces of equipment and technology that have been identified by Defra to improve productivity, sustainability and animal health and welfare.

The minimum grant funding per application is £1,000, up to a maximum of £25,000 per theme. The scheme is not ‘first-come, first-served’ but it is competitive. Once the application window is closed, all applications will be scored (see below). Applicants may not receive some or any funding depending on how high their application scores. In total there is £30m to support the Productivity and Slurry Management themes and a further £16.7m of funding for the Animal Health and Welfare theme.

Scheme guidance is available now to help applicants prepare in advance and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-equipment-and-technology-fund-2025 But note, applicants must not buy any items in their application before they receive a Grant Funding Agreement; it may be possible to give a supplier a refundable deposit – see scheme guidance. There is a set ‘list’ of equipment available and Defra has calculated an expected average cost for each item.

Successful applicants will receive a grant amount of 40% or 50% towards either:

the average cost of the item – if an item costs you the same or more than the expected average cost in the item lists, or
the actual cost you pay for the item – if an item costs you less than the expected average cost in the item lists

An item’s expected average cost and grant amount is available in the specification lists, the links to these are provided below;

The list also includes a score for each item; it is possible to increase an application’s score. For an Animal Health and Welfare grant, a score can be increased by 20% if the applicant can provide evidence that they have discussed their FETF 2025 application with a vet. When applying for a Productivity or Slurry grant if the SBI has received less than £10,000 of Productivity and Slurry funding from any previous FETF rounds, this can increase the application score by 25%.

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