Updates on our work, precision agriculture developments, and opportunities for the UK farming community.
Window 2 is for everyone, not just small farms, and Defra has put another £50 million behind it. The official statistics for Window 1 are out too: 7,000 applications, 3,100 agreements live, and an average worth £9,700 a year. Here is what the numbers say before you sit down to apply.
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Defra has updated its annual stocktake of British farming. Fertiliser spend rose 5.5% to £1.8 billion, ammonium nitrate averaged £385 a tonne, and the price index climbed 10.8%. Here are the figures — and, more usefully, the sum that turns a price per tonne into a cost per hectare on your ground.
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The scheme with no closing date closed on 1 September: £225 million allocated across about 17,000 applications. If yours went in, the RPA still needs your supporting evidence within 10 days of submitting, offers will keep going out for the rest of the year, and there is no date yet for 2027. Here is what the DEFRA post says, and what it does not.
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The £2,500 that pays someone to help write your ADOPT application closes on 30 September. The ADOPT application itself closes on 7 October. Get those the wrong way round and the help arrives after the thing it was meant to help with. Here is September, with the times.
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Let us get the awkward part out of the way first: this is not money that lands in your farm account. The Farmer Welfare Grant funds the charities and organisations that run mental health and resilience support for farming communities in England — £1.5 million over three years, applications closing at midday on 9 September 2026. It is still worth two minutes of your time, and we will explain why.
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DEFRA has closed SFI26 Window 1. The Rural Payments Agency issued around 3,615 agreement offers, and an offer is withdrawn if it is not accepted within 30 calendar days. Updated 16 September with the official statistics: 7,000 applications, 3,100 agreements live, an average worth £9,700 a year. Window 2 is expected on 22 September, and it is bigger than the £180 million we wrote about last week.
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If your land is in an NVZ, the autumn closed periods begin on 1 September — for manufactured nitrogen on tillage land, and for high-nitrogen manures on sandy or shallow grassland. The dates differ by soil type, by land use and by what you are spreading. Here they are exactly as the regulations set them out, plus the 30 m³ rule that bites the moment the closed period ends.
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Window 1 closes no later than 11:59pm on 28 August. If you have not applied, the honest answer is that the next chance is only weeks away and three times the size: £180 million, opening in September, plus whatever Window 1 leaves behind. There is also a new rule worth knowing if your existing agreement expires before March 2027.
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Round 9 of the ADOPT Fund opened in August with a doubled ceiling: projects of £50,000 to £200,000, led by the farm business itself, to test an idea in real field conditions. Applications close 11am on 7 October 2026. There is also a £2,500 grant towards paying someone to help you apply — with one timing catch we spell out below.
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Our biggest tool yet is live: enter your crop, soil and rotation, and get nitrogen, phosphate, potash, magnesium, sulphur and lime recommendations calculated by AHDB's own RB209 engine — the same methodology as the Nutrient Management Guide, without paging through the manual. Free, no signup, and it works even without a soil analysis.
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DEFRA announced a £65 million drought package on 15 August: £50 million more for SFI26 Window 2, up to £15 million for on-farm reservoirs in the autumn, and — the bit you can use right now — temporary freedom to cut and graze land in your ELM agreement for fodder, in every county in England. There is one form to fill in first. Here is the lot, in plain English.
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There's a new £30 million pot from DEFRA, and we'll be honest with you straight away: farmers can't apply for this one directly. Before you close the tab, though — there are a couple of ways it can still end up working for your farm. Here's the whole thing in plain English, and what's worth doing between now and November.
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The first bluetongue case of the new season was confirmed on 10 July, and cases in the South West have followed quickly. A plain-English summary of the 2026–27 picture: case numbers, the England–Wales position, and the rules for moving stock to Scotland.
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Type in the pH from your soil analysis, pick your soil type and cropping system, and get tonnes of lime per hectare — using the liming factors and target pH values from the AHDB Nutrient Management Guide (RB209). Adjusts for the neutralising value of your material. Free, no signup.
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The 2026 offer opened on 30 July with £225 million — 50% more than last year — and DEFRA confirmed 75% allocated by 1 August. There is no closing date: the window shuts when the money is gone. Here are the caps, the 10-working-day evidence trap, and what to check before you submit.
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DEFRA has fixed the latest Window 1 can stay open: 11:59pm on 28 August 2026 — and it still closes earlier if the £60 million is fully allocated first. With 1,188 agreements already offered, here is what to do this month if you are eligible now, and one new option if your existing agreement ends soon.
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The Farming Futures automation and robotics competition reopened on 3 August with £20 million. It is not a grant for buying a robot: projects must cost £500,000 to £2.5 million and be collaborative R&D. Here is what it really funds, and the realistic way a working farm gets involved.
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The first SFI26 application window opened on 30 June with £60 million of the scheme's £240 million budget. By 1 July, DEFRA reported around 25% already allocated. Here is who can apply now, what to check before you do, and what happens if the money runs out.
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Early wheat is coming in at 6.5–8.5t/ha on lighter land in Kent while Somerset growers report 9t/ha averages and oilseed rape well above typical yields. A round-up of the first reported results — and why in-field variation is the story of this harvest.
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FETF in its current form ended with the 2026 round. DEFRA has promised a simplified, combined grant offer from 2027 — but no name, budget or opening date yet. Here is the verified position as of late July 2026, and what you can apply for in the meantime.
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The Environment Agency's latest report shows 1,327 hands-off flow restrictions on abstraction licences — up from 729 a week earlier — with irrigation reservoirs at 30–50% where farms rely on storage. Here is where the pressure sits, and where targeting water matters most.
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The 2026 Farming Equipment and Technology Fund has closed its application window. Here is how the £50 million was split, the kit it covered, and why this is the last standalone FETF round before the 2027 grant shake-up.
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The Sustainable Farming Incentive returns on 30 June 2026 with 71 actions, a £100,000 cap and a two-window rollout. Here is who is eligible for Window 1, the key dates, and what changed from SFI24 — sourced to DEFRA and gov.uk.
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343 cases across Great Britain this season, the whole of England now a restricted zone, and new seasonal controls on moving animals to Scotland from 1 June. A plain-English summary of the current rules, with the official sources.
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AHDB figures show winter wheat rated good or excellent has fallen from 75% to 64%, with 30°C heat causing visible leaf rolling. Here is what the data says — and where targeting water and inputs matters most.
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The reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive, combined with FETF 2026 and upcoming Capital Grants worth £225 million, is creating one of the most significant policy pushes for precision agriculture adoption in UK farming history.
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A peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports demonstrates that AgroVisionNet, a hybrid CNN-Transformer system combining drone imagery with IoT sensor data, can detect crop diseases with 94.2% accuracy — a significant advance in early intervention for arable farmers.
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Innovate UK is investing up to £13 million through the AgriScale programme to help agri-tech companies scale precision agriculture hardware from prototype to commercial manufacturing. Applications close 3 June 2026.
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Defra's Farming Equipment and Technology Fund 2026 offers UK farmers grants of up to £25,000 for precision agriculture tools including GPS guidance, drones, soil sensors, robotic platforms, and variable-rate sprayers — with up to £75,000 available across all three funding themes. Applications close midday 28 April 2026.
Read moreGrant windows close fast — Capital Grants 2026 was 75% allocated within three days of opening. Get an email the day a window opens or a deadline moves, plus new free tools as we launch them.