Your Gloucestershire county NFU update

FIPL: Can we help you fund your project?

The Cotswolds National Landscape’s Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme still has plenty of funds left to allocate this financial year. If you have a project in the Cotswolds which can be delivered before the end of March 2027, we are particularly keen to hear from you. You could be awarded up to £250,000 of funding to deliver your project! 

FiPL is very flexible in what projects we can support from fencing for mob grazing or habitat restoration, food processing equipment and improvements to public access to spring capture, horticulture and farm diversification. For inspiration have a look at the list of projects supported so far and the five minute FiPL film.

For more information on the FiPL Programme and what it can support, please take a look at our webpage or get in touch with the team; [email protected].

Hartpury University and Hartpury College have a range of upcoming events that can be found in the Digital Innovation Farm Event Brochure. They have a great programme of events coming up over the next few months, and it would be fantastic if you could share these with your NFU members.

The brochure can be found here: Autumn/Winter Events Brochure 2026 | PDF to Flipbook

STEPS (Severn Trent's Environmental Protection Scheme) is part of Severn Trent Water's Farming for Water catchment management programme. STEPS provides practical funding and expert advice to help farmers make improvements that work for their farms and support local water quality. STEPS is designed to help farmers identify the right action for the right farm. Like STEPS 2025, STEPS 2026 is based around 6 core objectives, all of which are designed to support the farm and benefit water quality. 

The deadline for applications is 11 December 2026.

You can find out more here.

The Environment Agency has released a video for farmers and contractors on slurry store construction and SSAFO regulations. It explains slurry and silage storage management, the benefits of getting it right, and how to stay compliant. Please click below to watch the video.

For more information: 

Farming Rules for Water: Guidance on Farming Rules for Water – NFUonline

SSAFO Regulations: Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil storage – what you need to know – NFUonline

As you are hopefully now aware, the rules for using rodenticides are changing and unless you have taken the Rodent Management Course and have the certificate from an approved provider, you will no longer be able to purchase rodenticides from 1 January 2026.

NFU has worked with Lantra so that we can provide this exam to our members at a discounted price of £95 + VAT.

If you would like to take this exam with NFU, please register your interest and we will look to run another session soon.

The CPRE are currently in the process of looking for land for hedgerow laying and planting and individuals who would be happy to host their sessions.

For planting, they would be looking for land that is clear and accessible (mowed or unplanted) that they can plant a new hedge into, or gaps within existing hedges that they can fill. They generally aim to do approximately 100m in a planting day, but this is  dependent of the number of volunteers present. If you have more than 100m, then CPRE could organise multiple days throughout the season to continue the work.

For laying, the land criteria has a few more requirements. In specific, it requires an existing hedge that has at least 2 plant species present and, is less than 14ft tall with stems that are not too thick, so that they can be easily moved by the volunteers.

If you have any questions or would like to get in touch about participating in the project, please contact Eve from CPRE at [email protected].