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Slurry Infrastructure Grant - Round 2 Now Available
Slurry Infrastructure Grant - Round 2 Now Available
Post date
October 2023
DEFRA have announced they are going to launch the next round of the Slurry Infrastructure Grant in November. For full guidance on the new round click here.
A webinar about the scheme will also be hosted by DEFRA on the 9th November 2023, to allow you to ask questions and discover more about round 2 of the grant. To attend this, please register here.
About Round 2
To help improve the use of organic nutrients on your farm and aid productivity and reduce pollution, DEFRA are offering grants between £25,000 and £250,000 to help improve your slurry storage.
Since the first round, five new improvements have been made to the grant to encourage additional improvements in flexibility and environmental outcomes. These are:
Changing how much storage you can apply for. In round 1, cattle farmers were able to receive funding to cover 6 months’ worth of slurry storage. This time, pig farmers will be allowed to apply for up to 8 months storage, which is intended to be beneficial for pig farmers with less land so they can safely store organic nutrients before exporting to other farmers or spreading it across land.
Ability to receive grant funding for a slurry separator – to be part of your project to increase storage capacity. Separators help make slurry easier to store and move, and will help farmers abide by their nutrient management plans. For more information on slurry separators, click here.
Providing fit - for – purpose impermeable covers for existing and new slurry stores. Designed to increase capacity by ensuring rainwater does not enter the store.
Additional option to build in-situ cast concrete stores, providing an alternative to panel and circular stores, lagoons ad bags. This is intended to improve flexibility in areas where it is harder to transport in pre-cast panels.
Introducing the option for landlords to underwrite grant funding agreements, allowing tenants more confidence to apply, as landlords can agree to take on the agreement if the tenant fails to complete the project.
For Round 1 applicants who wish to amend their application, DEFRA will be in contact to provide a time-limited opportunity to allow you to update your application.
*DEFRA are not planning to amend the items on offer for Round 3.
Whilst DEFRA intend to invite many more projects to make a full application in Round 2, they are aware of the potential there is to swamp suppliers, so depending on how many farms apply, the projects that require coordinated action to reduce water and air pollution from farming in particular areas, will be prioritised, to ensure targeted areas can receive the biggest improvement for environmental outcomes.
For round 2, these areas have been significantly expanded. To find out if you are within these priority areas, select ‘Slurry infrastructure Grant – Round 2 (England)’ under ‘Land Based Schemes’ on MAGIC map Magic Map Application (defra.gov.uk).
When applications open in November, you will be able to use the online checker and submit an ‘Expression of Interest’ form to start the application process.
The Online Checker will be used by DEFRA to understand the level of demand there is for the grant. After which DEFRA will then let all interested parties know whether they will be invited to submit a full application.
Applicants who are not shortlisted will have another opportunity to apply in 2024, in which DEFRA will look to further increase the target areas (as shown on MAGIC map).
If you are interested in applying, DEFRA advise that you prepare yourself for the application through calculating how much slurry storage you need to reach the scheme storage requirements. To do this, use AHDB’s latest version of slurry wizard.
If you would like some assistance with the above, feel free to contact us on 01380 724687 or email info@akcagric.co.uk and we will be more than happy to help.
