UK Farming Grants: What Is Open Right Now
Every farm funding scheme in England as it stands today — what is open, what it pays, when it shuts, and what has already gone. Sourced to gov.uk, with no deadline stated harder than its source states it. Last updated 3 November 2026.
The Whole Picture, One Table
| Scheme | Status | Money | Deadline | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADOPT Fund Round 10 | Open | £50k–£200k per project, up to 80% for a farm business | 11am, 2 December 2026 | A farm business in England leading a trial with at least one other farm business |
| ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant R12 | Open | £2,500 | 11am, 11 November 2026 | Farms writing a Full ADOPT application with a registered facilitator |
| Healthy Soils and Water | Opens 19 November 2026 | Share of £28m; projects £1m–£5m | 11am, 28 January 2027 | UK businesses in a research consortium, not individual farms |
| SFI26 | Closed | £233m in Window 2, allocated in one day | Window 2 closed 15:48, 22 September 2026; next chance the 2027 offer | All eligible farmers and land managers |
| Farmer Collaboration Fund | Closed (round 1) | £30m | Closed 11:59pm, 30 September 2026 | Organisations running farm groups, not individual farms |
| Capital Grants 2026 | Closed | £225m, ~17,000 applications | Closed 1 September 2026 — budget allocated | Farmers, England |
| FETF 2026 | Closed | £50m, ~7,000 agreements | Closed midday, 12 May 2026; claims due 11.59pm, 20 January 2027 | Farmers, growers, foresters, contractors |
What changed since our last update: ADOPT opened Round 10 on 8 October, and round 1 of the Farmer Collaboration Fund closed on 30 September. Everything a farm business can apply for today is money to run a trial, not to buy equipment — no equipment grant for an individual farm is open in England. Checked 3 November 2026 against GOV.UK's funding list and Innovate UK's competition search.
What You Can Actually Apply For
ADOPT Fund, Round 10 — closes 2 December
Projects of £50,000–£200,000, closes 11am on 2 December 2026. On-farm trials and demonstrations, from a pot of up to £5 million. A farming, growing or forestry business in England leads, and it must work with at least one other farming business; no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the project's costs. A farm business can get up to 80% of its eligible costs. Projects run 6 to 24 months and must start by 1 April 2027. The competition page, and how ADOPT works from the last round.
ADOPT facilitator grant — closes 11 November
£2,500, closes 11am on 11 November 2026. It pays an external project facilitator, registered with Innovate UK Business Connect, to help write a Full ADOPT application, and is paid once that application has gone for assessment. It closes three weeks before the grant it supports: ask for the help after 11 November and there is nothing left to ask for. The competition page.
Healthy Soils and Water — opens 19 November
A share of £28 million, open 19 November 2026 to 11am on 28 January 2027. Farming Futures R&D money for soil, water and environmental management. Projects must cost £1 million to £5 million, be led by a UK registered business working with at least one other organisation, and show how the result benefits farmers, growers or foresters in England — a research consortium, not a farm buying kit. The competition page.
Open all year, no round to miss
From GOV.UK's funding list: Farming in Protected Landscapes, for farms in a national park or area of outstanding natural beauty (projects must end by March 2029); the vet-led animal health and welfare review for cattle, sheep and pigs (£258–£1,844 per review or follow-up); poultry biosecurity reviews (£430 each); woodland creation grants; and expressions of interest in Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier for woodland improvement, agroforestry and single-focus agreements — species-rich grassland and scheduled monuments, and since 3 November traditional orchards and wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl. The full list.
Closed, and what is left of them: SFI26 shut at 15:48 on 22 September once Window 2's £233 million was allocated; DEFRA says the next chance to apply is the 2027 offer — the day, hour by hour, and all 71 actions and what each pays. Capital Grants 2026 shut on 1 September with about 17,000 applications in, which are being assessed in the order received — if you applied, read this. FETF 2026 holders must claim by 11.59pm on 20 January 2027 — what the claim needs.
Which Of These Pays For Technology
Two different things get funded, and confusing them wastes an application.
The kit — FETF, closed
FETF paid a fixed share of a fixed expected cost for named equipment: GPS light bars at a £323 grant, retrofit variable-rate controllers at £1,945, camera-guided spot sprayers at £23,000, robotic drills at £25,000. Its 2026 round closed on 12 May, and DEFRA has said it was the last standalone one. The full item list, all 287 of them, is worth knowing anyway — it is the clearest published statement of what government considers fundable farm technology, and the 2027 offer is being built from these schemes.
The practice — SFI26, closed until 2027
SFI26 does not buy you equipment; it pays per hectare per year for doing the thing. It is closed to new applications until the 2027 offer. Its Precision farming, equipment and technology category holds three actions: PRF1 variable rate application of nutrients, £27/ha/year; PRF2 camera or remote sensor guided herbicide spraying, £43/ha/year; PRF4 mechanical robotic weeding, £150/ha/year. Neighbouring categories pay for the data underneath — soil health and nutrient management actions from £73 to £532 per hectare per year.
The honest reading: £27/ha/year for variable rate nutrients is worth having and is not a reason to buy a variable-rate controller. It pays for a practice a contractor's kit can already deliver. What the equipment costs is on our costs page, and the mapping and the recommendation cost nothing at all through our field NDVI viewer and RB209 nutrient calculator.
Two Pots That Are Not Farm Applications
Both get written about as farming money. Neither is something a farm business applies for, and knowing that now saves an afternoon.
Farmer Collaboration Fund — £30 million, round 1 closed
Applied for by the organisations that run collaborative groups, not by individual farms; round 1 closed at 11:59pm on 30 September 2026. The way it reaches your holding is by being in a group that wins funding, which makes “who around here is putting a bid together” the useful question rather than “how do I apply”. What it does and does not do.
AgriScale — £13 million, closed
Innovate UK money for agri-tech companies scaling precision agriculture hardware from prototype to manufacturing — not for farms buying it. Applications closed 3 June 2026. It matters to a farmer only in that it shapes what reaches the market in a few years. What it funds.
Windows Close Faster Than Decisions Get Made
The pattern across every scheme on this page is the same. FETF drew roughly 7,000 successful applications from £50 million and had its window extended once. Capital Grants allocated 75% in days and closed in five weeks. SFI26 Window 2 went further: opened and closed on the same day.
None of that is a reason to rush an application. It is a reason to have the answer ready before the window opens: a costed wishlist tied to a specific problem on your holding, with quotes, specifications and the field data that justifies the purchase.
We publish a sourced summary whenever a scheme opens, moves or closes, and email it to anyone who has asked for grant alerts — with the gov.uk link, never a scrape, and nothing else in the message.
Get the grant alerts. Or read what we have written so far in news.
Every Figure on This Page
- DEFRA Farming Blog — SFI26 update: Window 1 now closed (29 August 2026) (Window 1 closing, “we expect Window 2 to open from 22 September”, the extra £50 million, the unspent budget rolling forward, the £290 million scheme total).
- DEFRA Farming Blog — SFI26: Window 2 now open (22 September 2026) (the £233 million and what it is made of) and SFI26: Window 2 now closed (15:48, the exception groups, the 2027 offer).
- GOV.UK — FETF 2026 and DEFRA — FETF agreements being issued (closing date, £50 million, ~7,000 agreements, item grant amounts).
- DEFRA Farming Blog — Capital Grants 2026 guidance (£225 million, the six groups, the £25,000 and £35,000 caps, one application per SBI, 75% allocated).
- DEFRA Farming Blog — Capital Grants 2026 now closed (1 September 2026) (closed with the budget allocated, ~17,000 applications, ~9,500 first-time, one-third under 50 hectares, offers through the rest of the year, no 2027 date).
- GOV.UK — SFI26 actions (every action and payment rate, including the PRF, soil health and nutrient management figures).
- GOV.UK — Funding for farmers, growers and land managers (which schemes are open, open all year or closed, the Farmer Collaboration Fund closing, checked 3 November 2026) and Innovate UK's competition pages for Full ADOPT Grant Round 10, the ADOPT Facilitator Support Grant Round 12 and Healthy Soils and Water for a Sustainable Environment (dates, project sizes, funding rates, collaboration rules).
- Our sourced write-ups: Capital Grants, ADOPT Round 9, Farmer Collaboration Fund, AgriScale and FETF 2027.
Educational, not financial advice. Scheme terms, budgets and dates change — check gov.uk before acting on any figure here. Where a source says “expected”, so does this page.