Prepare for your Slurry Investment Scheme Grant Application
The Slurry Investment Scheme is aimed at supporting farmers with the financial investment required to upgrade slurry storage to reduce risk of air and water pollution, and will open for applications later this year. The grant will offer funding towards new and expanded slurry stores for farmers already using slurry systems, ahead of expected legislation to move to a minimum 6 months minimum storage.
The grant is open to dairy, beef and pig producers, who can use the grant towards 50% of project costs to:
- Replace existing stores
- Build additional storage in addition to already compliant stores
- Expand compliant storage e.g. adding another ring to a stee tank.
All grant funded stores must meet regulatory build standards, so you need to be aware of the minimum specifications outlined in the Ciria guidance, with structures that meet British Standards. The stores will also be required to be fitted with an impermeable cover to prevent rainfall adding to stored volume, and to reduce ammonia emissions. If your current store is compliant, you will not be compelled to cover it. However, if you want to use the grant to expand that store, it will need to be covered.
The minimum grant is £25k and the upper cap is £250k, and applications are expected to be competitive so will be evaluated through a 2-step process, with stage one being an Expression of Interest.
Ahead of any grant applications, Defra have indicated that farmers must plan in detail their manure storage, handling and spreading management to demonstrate how investments will reduce pollution risk. New storage should be located carefully, and will ultimately be signed off by the Environment Agency so it would be as well to engage with the EA early in your planning process. Some stores may also need planning permission, so preparation time needs to be taken into account. The first step is to evaluate your current storage requirements and capacity, which you are advised to do using the newly updated AHDB Slurry Wizard tool.
If you would like help ahead of grant applications, one of our experienced FACTS qualified advisers can guide you through project planning for slurry infrastructure grants.