Shropshire farmers urged to act as grant scheme deadline approaches

Farmers have just a few weeks to apply for a new grant scheme designed to help with buying smaller machinery and equipment.

And Alasdair Barne, of Much Wenlock-based Madeleys Chartered Surveyors, is urging farmers across Shropshire and its borders to apply as soon as they can.

The £60 million Countryside Productivity Small Grants Scheme was launched earlier this month but the deadline for applications is March 14.

Mr Barne said: “The scheme is available to farmers in England and aims to help businesses buy new equipment. The grants available are between £3,000 and £12,000 – up to 40 per cent of the total cost.

“Farmers should take action on this immediately and apply as soon as they can as demand will be extremely high.

“We would urge farmers unsure of how to apply to contact us as soon as they can so that we can explore the possibilities for them.”

The application is split into item categories – cattle equipment, sheep equipment, pig equipment, general livestock equipment, precision farming equipment, resource management equipment and other general equipment.

Items that are eligible for funding include a range of livestock handling systems, crushes, calving detectors, weighing equipment, calf feeders, EID devices, pasture plate meters and electric scraper systems.

Arable farmers are able to apply funds to help them buy GPS units, yield mapping devices, variable rate controllers and direct or strip till drills.

Applications will be scored, according to a set criteria, and applications that score high enough will be awarded a grant.

When requests for funding are approved, a Grant Funding Agreement will be issued and items can then be bought straight away.

“The grant is all about more efficient farming and giving farmers what they need – as agents we feel this is a great opportunity,” added Mr Barne.

“We know that farmers are always looking for ways to work more efficiently and manage their land in more sustainable ways so funding for equipment that will help them do this is invaluable.”