Farmers: how to apply for funding to improve animal health and welfare
Apply for funding for a vet to visit your farm to reduce endemic diseases and conditions, increase animal productivity and improve animal welfare.
Applies to England
This service forms part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. It will provide payments to livestock keepers to fund farm visits by vets.
You can get funding for a vet, or a team chosen by a vet, to visit your farm if you keep:
- beef cattle
- dairy cattle
- pigs
- sheep
There are 2 parts to the service:
- animal health and welfare review
- endemic disease follow-up
You can choose the vet you want to do these. The review and follow-up are not an inspection or audit.
All your reviews and follow-ups must be done on the same species.
What you could get
You’ll get funding for whichever species you choose, not for each animal.
| Species | Animal health and welfare review funding | Endemic disease follow-up funding |
|---|---|---|
| Pigs | £557 | £923 |
| Sheep | £436 | £639 |
| Beef cattle | £522 | £837 if review result is positive £215 if review result is negative |
| Dairy cattle | £372 | N/A |
The funding amount for each species is different because some tests cost more to do.
The funding will contribute to:
- the cost of testing
- your time and the vet’s time
You can have up to:
- 3 reviews over the course of your agreement
- 3 follow-ups on the same herd or flock
The service ends on 19 June 2027. All reviews and follow-ups must be done by this date.
Animal health and welfare review
During a review, the vet will:
- test for endemic disease (for beef cattle, dairy cattle and pigs)
- test the effectiveness of medicines to treat worms (for sheep)
- advise you on how to improve animal health and welfare
- advise you on how to increase animal productivity
After the vet has completed a review, you can choose to have an endemic disease follow-up.
Endemic disease follow-up
You can only do a follow-up after you have done a review.
During a follow-up, the vet will do further assessment of:
- diseases based on the results of your review (beef cattle and pigs)
- diseases and conditions based on your animal health and welfare priorities (sheep)
- animal health and welfare based on the results of your review
The vet will also advise you on further steps to improve:
- control and prevention of disease
- animal health and welfare
- animal productivity
Endemic disease follow-up is not available for dairy cattle yet. This part of the service will be available soon.
Who can get funding
You must have a minimum number of animals each time the vet visits your farm . You must have one of the following:
- 11 or more beef cattle
- 11 or more dairy cattle
- 51 or more pigs
- 21 or more sheep
You can still apply for funding if you got a lump sum payment to leave or retire from farming.
You must:
- claim only for livestock registered in England
- be responsible for the welfare of your livestock when the vet does a review or follow-up
- claim only for businesses with a single business identifier (SBI) linked to a county parish holding (CPH) number
The CPH number must be registered in England. The CPH number cannot be:
- an 8,000 number used for abattoirs, pet food manufacturers, racing pigeon establishments and showgrounds
- a 9,000 number used for poultry keepers
Timing of reviews and follow-ups
You can do up to 3 reviews and follow-ups. We recommend you follow this sequence:
At each step you choose to complete, you must follow the relevant timing rules to be eligible to claim.
1. Do a review
If you do a review, you must:
- always do the review before you do the resulting follow-up
- wait at least 10 months between your reviews
2. Claim for a review
3. Do a follow-up
If you do a follow-up, you must:
- do the follow-up no more than 10 months after the review
- wait at least 10 months between your follow-ups
4. Claim for a follow-up
Your review claim must be approved before you claim for the resulting follow-up.
5. Repeat this sequence for your second and third reviews and follow-ups
If you have completed a review in the old annual health and welfare review, you can go straight to your follow-up. You need to do the follow-up no more than 10 months after your review.
Start your application
Apply for funding to improve animal health and welfare.
Get help with your application
Contact the Rural Payments Agency if you:
- cannot apply online
- have a question about your application
You can scan and attach documents in an email and send them to us. Or you can post them to our address. You should:
- use ‘Get funding to improve animal health and welfare’ as the email subject heading
- put your SBI and agreement number on everything you send to us
Rural Payments Agency
PO Box 352
Worksop
S80 9FG
Email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk
Telephone: 03000 200 301
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm, except public holidays
Funding to improve animal health and welfare: guidance for farmers and vets