Surrey farmers secure grants of up to £35,000

“Virtual fencing” cow collars, milk and meat vending machines, and GPS guidance systems are among the farm items funded by grants of up to £35,000 being handed out by Surrey County Council as part of its Farming Innovation Accelerator project.

Over the summer months, more than 50 farmers and organisations submitted proposals for a share of the £500,000 on offer, funded via the government’s Shared Prosperity Funding.

See also: Grant-funded GPS trackers save Welsh cows from cliff falls

The programme is aimed at encouraging on-farm innovation, with grants of between £10,000 and £35,000 available to help modernise operations, improve productivity and  support diversification.

Among the 17 successful recipients is Wintershall Valley Farm, based near Guildford, which is using its award to purchase cow-collar virtual fencing and a digital livestock management for its suckler beef.

This will help improve grazing efficiency, extend the grazing season and strengthen medicine tracking.

Various vending machine projects will also benefit, including Nutfield Dairy which will invest in three facilities for dairy products, ice cream and coffee, and Roehurst Farm in Walton which will use the kit to expand direct sales of lamb, pork and eggs.

Well-known farmer and Farmers Weekly Podcast presenter Hugh Broom is also benefiting, having been awarded funding for a GPS tractor guidance system at his 130ha Sondes Place Farm, near Dorking.

Mr Broom described the equipment as “a real step change for us”.

“By putting proper real-time kinematic guidance on the tractor, we can finally match the precision of our genetics and feeding with the same level of precision in the field,” he said.

“It means less overlap, less waste and less diesel, but, more importantly, it means we’ll be growing better forage with a lower environmental footprint.”

Another recipient is Browners Bees in Reigate, which will use digital hive monitoring and mechanised extraction equipment to make honey harvesting more efficient.

Surrey County Council cabinet member Matt Furniss praised the spreading of funding across a diverse range of rural businesses.

“Surrey’s rural economy is far larger and more varied than many people realise, and these projects show the energy and ambition out there to embrace new technology,” he said.

According to a recent University of Surrey report, there are about 500 farms in the county, contributing around £502m/year to the local economy and 14% of national farming income.