Precision Farming Equipment in the UK: What Each Piece Does, Costs and Pays Back
Four jobs, the kit that does each one, and the two figures a brochure never shows together — what government expected the item to cost, and what it pays per hectare for the work.
Precision Kit Does Four Jobs
Equipment lists are usually sorted by the company selling them. Sorted instead by what the machine changes about a field operation, precision kit falls into four jobs — and most farms already own something in the first one. The prices below are DEFRA's own expected costs from the 2026 equipment list, not dealer quotes and not ours.
| The job | What changes in the field | Expected cost range | Paid per hectare? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guidance & steering | You drive a straighter line, so passes stop overlapping. | £809 – £1,911 | No |
| Variable rate & application control | The rate changes across the field instead of holding one number. | £4,863 – £46,000 | Yes — PRF1, PRF2 |
| Sensing & data | You measure the field before deciding, rather than after. | £543 – £21,606 | No |
| Robotics & autonomy | The machine does the pass without a person on it. | £24,000 – £62,566 | Yes — PRF4 |
The fourth column is the one worth reading twice. No scheme pays you for owning a receiver or a soil probe — that kit earns its keep only through what it saves. Two of the jobs are different: when the rate varies across the field, or when a robot does the weeding, there is a published payment per hectare per year for doing the work, and it keeps coming long after the machine is paid for.
Guidance & steering
The cheapest way in, and the one with the clearest arithmetic: every metre of overlap is seed, fertiliser or chemical applied twice, plus the fuel burned doing it. A light bar shows you the line and you steer to it; an assisted-steer system holds the line for you. Neither needs a new tractor — both items on the government list are specified as retrofits to older machines.
| Item | Expected cost | Grant rate | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPS light bar | £809 | 40% | £323 |
| Assisted steer system (retro fitted for older tractors) | £1,911 | 40% | £764 |
Variable rate & application control
Here precision farming stops being about driving and starts being about the rate. A controller that changes the application as the machine moves turns a field average into a map, and boom height control keeps the spray pattern honest across uneven ground. This is also the one group where the kit and a per-hectare payment line up directly.
| Item | Expected cost | Grant rate | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retro-fitted Variable rate controller for older seed drills, sprayers and fertiliser spreaders | £4,863 | 40% | £1,945 |
| Camera guided variable rate control | £19,500 | 50% | £9,750 |
| Automatic spray boom height control | £10,495 | 40% | £4,198 |
| Camera guided inter row sprayer 3m | £8,729 | 50% | £4,364 |
| Camera guided inter row sprayer 6m | £12,510 | 50% | £6,255 |
| Camera guided spot sprayer 24m | £46,000 | 50% | £23,000 |
PRF1 — Variable rate application of nutrients (updated for SFI26)
£27 per hectare (ha) per year. That is paid for carrying out the operation on the hectares entered, every year of the agreement — not for buying the machine. A farm already doing the work can be paid for it; a farm that buys the kit and does not do the work cannot.
PRF2 — Camera or remote sensor guided herbicide spraying
£43 per hectare (ha) per year. That is paid for carrying out the operation on the hectares entered, every year of the agreement — not for buying the machine. A farm already doing the work can be paid for it; a farm that buys the kit and does not do the work cannot.
Sensing & data
Everything in this group answers a question before a decision instead of reporting on one after it: how wet the soil is at depth, what came off which part of the field, what the weather is doing on this farm rather than at an airport twenty miles away. None of it drives anything. Its value is entirely in what gets done differently once the number is visible.
| Item | Expected cost | Grant rate | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retro fitted yield monitoring for combines and crop harvesters | £3,068 | 40% | £1,227 |
| Soil health monitor package | £543 | 40% | £217 |
| Remote soil moisture sensing | £796 | 40% | £318 |
| Digital weather station | £1,804 | 40% | £721 |
| Irrigation sensor | £1,195 | 40% | £478 |
| Irrigation controller for rain guns | £3,013 | 40% | £1,205 |
| Remote substrate sensors with datalogger | £798 | 40% | £319 |
| Tractor mounted sensor for precision orchard management | £21,500 | 40% | £8,600 |
| Crop storage sensor system | £4,818 | 40% | £1,927 |
| Real time inline nutrient analysis of slurry | £21,606 | 50% | £10,803 |
| EID panel reader for sheep | £1,585 | 50% | £792 |
Robotics & autonomy
The largest figures on the list, and the only group that changes the shape of the job rather than improving it. A robotic drill or a guided hoe does a pass that would otherwise need someone on a seat, which counts for most where the work is repetitive, time-critical and hard to staff.
| Item | Expected cost | Grant rate | Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robotic drill and guided hoe | £62,566 | 50% | £25,000 |
| Robotic platforms and carts | £29,800 | 40% | £11,920 |
| Autonomous grain monitoring robot | £24,000 | 40% | £9,600 |
PRF4 — Mechanical robotic weeding
£150 per hectare (ha) per year. That is paid for carrying out the operation on the hectares entered, every year of the agreement — not for buying the machine. A farm already doing the work can be paid for it; a farm that buys the kit and does not do the work cannot.
What Is Actually Open
The grant column is closed
The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund round these figures come from closed on 12 May 2026, and DEFRA has said it was the last standalone one, with a consolidated offer planned from 2027. So the grant column is worth reading as the clearest published statement of what government considers fundable farm technology, and as a benchmark to hold a dealer quote against — not as money to apply for this week. The full item list, with every specification and requirement.
The per-hectare column is not
SFI26 pays for the operations rather than the machines, and Window 2 is expected to open from 22 September 2026. The actions above are the ones that reward precision work directly; none of them buys equipment. Every action and what it pays, and the wider funding picture on the grants page.
Two pages here carry the rest of the arithmetic: what precision farming costs, including what the measured yield response has actually been, and GPS for farming in the UK, which takes the first job above down to its three accuracy tiers and their running costs.
Where Every Figure Comes From
- GOV.UK — FETF 2026 productivity items and specifications, with the slurry and animal health and welfare lists alongside it. Expected costs, grant rates and grant amounts are read from those pages, last synced 14 September 2026.
- GOV.UK — SFI26 actions. The payments are quoted in the scheme's own wording, because the units differ between actions.
Both lists are re-read from the GOV.UK Content API rather than retyped, so when government changes a figure this page changes with it.