Time to get prepared for grants
The Countryside Stewardship window reopens this month, inviting applications for Mid Tier and Water Capital Grants.
There has never been a more important year for early engagement to ensure you are in with a chance of receiving an agreement for grant funding.
Standalone capital grants previously capped at £10,000 have been increased to £20,000 which can be used entirely on the farmyard and do not require any land to be tied into options. Those looking for more grant funding should consider a Mid Tier which consists of a five-year agreement with options on the land, but does also allow potentially unlimited capital works.
Those in a red priority area for water quality could be eligible for an array of capital items. You can check the priority area of your farm on Magic Map.
Funding rates are: concreting, £27.14 a square metre; roofing (feeding and handling areas, slurry, muck and silage stores), £62 a square metre; guttering , £11.40 a metre; hardcore tracks, £33 a metre.
A visit by a Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer is required to give approval to the requested works. We have been advised these visits need to be requested as soon as possible to ensure they can take place within the restrictions and before the deadline.
Ellie Watkins, AgriAdvisor
