Last October, Defra announced the scheme would open in “early 2019”, but there is still no news about when it will open and we are hearing some reports that the scheme may be further delayed until later this Spring.  A lot of farmers are delaying purchasing equipment in the hope this scheme will open soon, but rumours are that it could be delayed yet again.

Fake News!

We are getting calls from farmers who saw a post on Farmers’ Guardian Facebook site about farm productivity grants for robotic milking systems.   Please note this grant is only available in a small area of Wiltshire covered by the “Plain Leader” Programme.  Our Cumbria and Yorkshire Dales Leader programmes are closed to new applications as they have run out of funds and they have not offered farm productivity grants since Defra opened its Countryside Productivity Schemes last year.  The calls we are getting from farmers reflects increasing frustration about grant schemes – they are never available when you want them