News | UK Precision Agriculture Initiative

5 November 2026

Higher Tier now opens to traditional orchards and wet grassland for wintering waders

Since 3 November you can express an interest in two more Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier single-focus agreements, without waiting to be invited: traditional orchards (£264 per hectare a year to manage, £471 to create) and wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl (£547 per hectare a year). What each pays, which land qualifies, who should not send an expression of interest yet, and what happens after the form.

30 October 2026

Farm income by region in England: what Defra's 2025 figures show

Defra's regional fact sheets, updated on 29 October: farming in England earned £5.4 billion in 2025, up in five regions and down in three. The South West and North West gained most as livestock output rose, while crop output fell in seven of the eight regions on lower cereal prices. Average Farm Business Income for 2024/25 was £71,200 a farm, from £52,500 in the South East to £94,400 in the North West.

29 October 2026

Getting paid by businesses for nature work: what Defra's new plan means for farmers

Defra's Growing Places paper of 26 October sets out how it wants housebuilders, water companies and food businesses to pay for nature recovery, much of it on farmland. It is not a grant and there is nothing to apply for. What touches farms directly: proposed rules for being paid by more than one buyer for the same land, a private finance taskforce and the Soilshot soil pilots, and a clear statement that nutrient trading is not planned for now.

21 October 2026

The Organic Action Plan for England: a 10% target, no new money, and what SFI already pays for conversion

Defra published a 10-year Organic Action Plan for England on 14 October, aiming to take organic farming from about 3.4% of farmland towards 10% by 2036. It brings no new payment: the money is still the SFI26 organic actions, from £96 to £1,920 a hectare for conversion. What the plan adds is information, one-to-one guidance and market work, and what it promises in its first year.

19 October 2026

Severe drought declared in six counties: what it changes for farms, and what it does not

On 15 October the government declared severe drought in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex. England has had 26% of its normal October rain so far, reservoirs are at 54%, and the Environment Agency says farmers may not be able to refill storage reservoirs this winter. Here is what the declaration does, what it means for abstraction and mains water, and the dates that still matter.

16 October 2026

SFI26: 2,500 Window 2 offers so far, and a wider exception for applications hit by a fault

Defra's update of 15 October: Window 1 is nearly through the queue, while Window 2 has had around 2,500 offers from 12,200 applications. Ministers have widened the exception for applications affected by a technical issue, but only for issues reported by 29 September. And Defra is looking at alternatives to first come, first served for SFI in 2027.

4 October 2026

Six dry months and counting: farm reservoirs can start filling a month early, but only until 31 October

September brought England 65% of its normal rain, the sixth dry month this year, and the country's reservoirs are at 55% when they should be near three-quarters. The useful bit for a farm with an irrigation reservoir: from 1 October the Environment Agency lets you start filling it a month ahead of a winter licence. There are conditions, there is an email to send first, and two groups of catchments are left out.

28 September 2026

The fertiliser calculator is back, and this time it's here to stay

A few days after we launched it in August, our RB209 fertiliser calculator went quiet while the paperwork with AHDB caught up. That's now done: the tool runs under a full AHDB licence, it's live again, and it's still free.

28 September 2026

SFI26 Window 2 in numbers: 12,200 applications in one afternoon, and who sent them

Defra has published the figures for the window that closed in under six hours. Nearly twice as many applications as Window 1, most of them from farms whose old agreement runs out by February, and far fewer from small farms. Here is what the numbers say.

24 September 2026

Dynamik Agri: your NVZ records on your own PC, free to download

A Windows program that keeps the whole NVZ record the guidance asks you to hold for five years: field records, manure movements, the four-step plan, storage and the annual summary. The program is free; the NVZ register is free for its first year.

22 September 2026

SFI26 Window 2 opened and closed on the same day — here is what happened

Window 2 opened on Tuesday morning with £233 million and closed at 15:48 the same afternoon, once enough applications were in to use all of it. If you started an application and did not submit it, it will not go through. Here is the day, and what comes next.

16 September 2026

SFI26 Window 2 opens on 22 September — and the Window 1 figures show who actually got in

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.

5 September 2026

Fertiliser cost UK farms £1.8 billion last year — and what that works out at on your own hectares

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.

3 September 2026

Capital Grants 2026 has closed — and if you applied, the clock is still running

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.

1 September 2026

Three farm funding deadlines in eight days — and one closes before the grant it helps you win

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.

1 September 2026

The £1.5m Farmer Welfare Grant closes on 9 September — and you are not the applicant

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.

30 August 2026

Window 1 is closed and the offers are landing — you get 30 days to accept yours

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.

29 August 2026

The spreading window starts shutting on 1 September: the NVZ closed-period dates, in one place

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.

27 August 2026

SFI26 Window 1 shuts tomorrow night — and Window 2 opens in September with £180 million

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.

23 August 2026

ADOPT is open again: £50,000–£200,000 for a trial you lead on your own farm

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.

19 August 2026

New free tool: fertiliser recommendations for your field — calculated by the official RB209 engine

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.

16 August 2026

Drought help has landed: an extra £50m for SFI, a reservoir grant on the way — and rule changes you can use today

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.

14 August 2026

The new £30m Farmer Collaboration Fund: you can't apply for it yourself — but don't write it off yet

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.

11 August 2026

Bluetongue 2026–27: the new season's first cases, and the movement rules that apply now

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.

6 August 2026

New free tool: work out your lime requirement from a soil pH result

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.

6 August 2026

Capital Grants 2026: three quarters of £225m went in three days

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.

6 August 2026

SFI26 Window 1 closes by 28 August — sooner if the £60m runs out

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.

6 August 2026

£20m for farm robotics is open — but read this before you plan a purchase

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.

4 August 2026

SFI26 Window 1 is open — and a quarter of the £60m was allocated within a day

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.

28 July 2026

Harvest 2026 first cuts: light land struggles, oilseed rape delivers

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.

27 July 2026

FETF 2027: what DEFRA has said so far — and what is still unknown

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.

21 July 2026

England's dry summer: abstraction restrictions nearly double in a week as reservoirs fall below average

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.

30 June 2026

FETF 2026 has closed: what £50m funded, and what changes for grants in 2027

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.

23 June 2026

SFI26 opens on 30 June: who can apply first, and what has changed

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.

16 June 2026

Bluetongue 2026: England is one restricted zone and Scotland movement controls are back

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.

9 June 2026

Dry spring leaves UK winter wheat under stress: what the June 2026 AHDB data shows

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.

21 April 2026

SFI26 and the New Incentive Landscape: Why 2026 Is the Year for Precision Agriculture in the UK

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.

16 April 2026

AgroVisionNet: Hybrid AI System Achieves 94.2% Accuracy in Crop Disease Detection

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.

15 April 2026

AgriScale 2026: £13 Million Innovate UK Fund for Agri-Tech Manufacturing — Applications Open

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.

14 April 2026

FETF 2026: Up to £25,000 in Grants for Precision Agriculture Equipment — Applications Close 28 April

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.

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