GovWire

The annual health and welfare review is part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer.

If youre a livestock farmer, you can get funding for a vet or team chosen by a vet to visit your farm and carry out a health and welfare review of eligible livestock.

The review is designed to be primarily for you and will not be used for inspections or compliance.

Itll help you:

• reduce endemic diseases such as bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) in cattle, porcine reproductive and respiratory disease (PRRS) in pigs and the effectiveness of worming treatments in sheep
• improve the welfare of your animals
• increase productivity
• make sure your use of veterinary medicines and vaccines is appropriate

Who can apply

To be eligible to apply, you must have one of the following:

• 11 or more beef cattle
• 11 or more dairy cattle
• 21 or more sheep
• 51 or more pigs

The livestock must be registered in England and you need to be responsible for their welfare.

Your business must have:

• a single business identifier (SBI) linked to a county parish holding (CPH) number registered in England
• a CPH number thats permanent or temporary

You can only apply for a review on a CPH registered in England. You cannot apply for a review on CPHs registered in Wales or Scotland.

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

The funding is initially available to farmers who are either eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) or anticipate being eligible for a delinked payment in 2024. The service will open more widely as soon as possible.

To be eligible for BPS, the SBI must have had at least 5 hectares of BPS eligible land and 5 or more BPS entitlements on 15 May 2023.

Youll only be able to have a review of one eligible type of livestock at first. If you have more than one eligible type, youll need to choose which one to have reviewed.

If you have more than one species of eligible livestock, or if theyre kept at different geographical locations, you may be eligible for more than one annual review in the future. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will publish more information on GOV.UK when its available.

How much funding you can apply for

Theres a payment for each species. It is not a payment for each animal.

The funding will cover the endemic disease or condition testing costs. Itll also contribute towards the costs for both your time and the vets time.

The payment for each species is different. This is because the required testing for some species may take longer to do and some results cost more to analyse.

Youll be paid:

• 684 for a pig review
• 436 for a sheep review
• 522 for a beef cattle review
• 372 for a dairy cattle review

What the review will include

The review is flexible. You and the vet can decide what the health and welfare priorities are for the farm and focus on these.

Theres no set amount of time for a review but its likely to take between 2 to 3 hours of your time and the vets time.

The review will need to include the required testing of livestock and the vet will discuss the test results with you. Theyll recommend actions you can take to improve health and welfare based on testing and their time on the farm.

The review requires:

• testing for the endemic disease or condition of the livestock type youre having reviewed to recommended standards - BVD in dairy and beef cattle, effectiveness of worming treatments in sheep, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) in pigs
• the vet advising on the health and welfare of the livestock - including issues such as lameness, body conditioning or mobility scoring
• a written report and summary prepared by the vet with agreed recommendations and actions to improve the livestocks health and welfare
• you sharing some information with Defra and RPA

Optional areas may include:

• a check of your biosecurity measures and advice on improving them
• recommendations about medicines used on your farm including antibiotics and vaccinations

What happens after the review

Once the vet has completed the review, theyll provide you with a report that includes:

• endemic disease or condition test results from the laboratory
• advice or suggested species-specific health and welfare actions
• other review findings - for example, biosecurity recommendations and medicine usage
• the agreed priority recommendations and actions for you to improve the health and welfare of your livestock

Defra will not ask to see the report. It will also not be used for site visits or other compliance checks.

When you claim your funding, you may be required to provide the RPA with the review summary as evidence that the review has taken place. Youll only need to supply the review summary if the RPA asks for it.

Farmers: how to apply for a review

If youre interested in getting a health and welfare review of your livestock, youll need to register your interest.

Vets: how to carry out a review

If youre a vet and want to learn more about carrying out a review, read the guidance on how to carry out an annual health and welfare review of livestock.

Background to the review

The funding will be available for 3 years, after which Defra and the RPA will reassess the details of the review.

Defra and RPA began testing the first annual health and welfare reviews in September 2022. Were steadily increasing the number of reviews by invitation and opened the review to all eligible farmers in February 2023. Well continue to make improvements and iterations over time, using feedback from farmers and industry experts.