Help
How to use Farm Funding Finder
Everything the site can do, and how to get the most from it. New here? The quickest start is the two-minute tour.
Finding your farm
- Search: type your farm’s name and postcode (or just the postcode) and press Find what I can claim. A map opens with a pin.
- Check the pin: if it’s on your land press Yes, that’s my farm. If not, tap your fields or drag the pin. Zoom in on the aerial photo to be sure.
- On the farm: Use my location drops the pin where you’re standing.
- Your pin stays put: once you’ve put the pin down yourself, a search only names the farm. It won’t move the pin unless the place you type is miles away.
- Pin first, address after: drop the pin, leave the box empty and press Find what I can claim. You get the addresses in the pin’s postcode to pick from, with links to the postcodes next door. The list comes from Land Registry sales records and OpenStreetMap, so a farm that hasn’t been sold since 1995 may be missing: just type it.
- After the pin, a short pop-up asks for your details. It’s all optional; whatever you add fills in the forms for you.
Reading your results
- We check the official maps at your pin (National Parks, National Landscapes, uplands, woodland and water areas, and more) and list what fits.
- The buttons at the top (open to apply, coming soon, free help, credit buyers, closed for now) jump straight to that section.
- Each section is grouped into dropdowns by topic. “Fits your land” means the official maps put your pin in the right area; a ? line tells you what to check yourself.
- The gold box near the top is a rough total of what the open schemes that fit could pay, counting only those with one clear published maximum.
- Tick boxes under Tell us about your farm (livestock, woodland, tenant and so on) narrow the list down.
Prices, units and “Not official”
- The figure on the right of each item is what one farm could get, taken from the scheme’s own “How much”. Open the item for the full detail.
- Not official (in gold) means the figure isn’t the payer’s own published rate: an estimate, an average of reported sales, a third party’s figure or a typical price for buyers who don’t publish theirs. Always get a quote.
- A hectare a year: under carbon and biodiversity prices we show roughly what the price comes to for each hectare each year, from the typical units a hectare below and how many years they’re paid for (50 years for woodland carbon, 30 for biodiversity units). It’s our own rough sum, not an official figure.
- What’s a unit? Carbon and nature buyers pay per unit, credit or certificate:
- Woodland carbon: 1 unit = 1 tonne of carbon dioxide your new trees take in (Woodland Carbon Code). In area: 1 hectare of new native woodland takes in about 300 to 400 tonnes by year 50, and up to about 500 by year 100. 20% of units go into the Code’s buffer and can’t be sold.
- Peatland carbon: 1 unit = 1 tonne of carbon dioxide kept in the ground by restoring peat (Peatland Code). In area: restoring 1 hectare of actively eroding bog saves about 14 tonnes a year; rewetting 1 hectare of drained bog about 2 to 3 tonnes a year, over at least 30 years (before the Code’s buffer and deductions).
- Soil carbon: 1 certificate = 1 tonne of carbon dioxide stored in your soil. In area: it varies a lot; Soil Capital’s own farm examples range from about 0.6 to 2.4 certificates a hectare a year.
- Biodiversity units: a score for nature on a piece of land, from its size, habitat type and condition (Natural England’s metric). Developers buy them to make up for nature lost to building. In area: 1 hectare of cereal land scores about 2 units; turned into neutral grassland in moderate condition it scores about 6.7, a gain of about 4 to 5 units a hectare. New woodland gains less at first because the metric discounts habitats that take years to grow.
- Nutrient credits: 1 credit = 1 kg a year of nitrogen or phosphorus kept out of rivers. Housebuilders in affected catchments must buy them. In area: taking 1 hectare of cereals out of production (for example into woodland) typically saves about 26 to 28 kg of nitrogen and 0.15 kg of phosphorus a year. It depends on the catchment, rainfall and soil.
- The area figures are typical ones, and yours will differ. Sources: Defra and the Forestry Commission (woodland); the Peatland Code field protocol; Soil Capital (its own examples, not official); the statutory biodiversity metric; Natural England’s nutrient neutrality figures as used by Forestry England.
Applying
- Official page / Apply online takes you to the scheme’s own page. Always read it before you apply: schemes change.
- Download my application pack gives you a Word document filled in with your details and what we found at your pin, ready to copy into the application.
- Filled-in forms: where an official form is a PDF we can fill, there’s a button to download it with your details already in.
- Copy buttons next to your SBI, CRN, address and so on copy each one, ready to paste into online forms.
The Form Filler for Chrome
A free add-on for Chrome (and Edge) that types your saved details into online application forms for you.
- Add the Form Filler from the Chrome Web Store and press Add to Chrome.
- Open Farm Funding Finder once in the same browser. The Form Filler picks up the details you saved here (your name, address, SBI, CRN, CPH and so on). Change them on My details and they update next time you visit.
- Go to the online form you want to fill in, click the jigsaw piece at the top of Chrome and choose Farm Form Filler (pin it to keep it handy).
- Press Fill this form. The boxes it fills are outlined in gold.
- Check every box, then send the form yourself.
It never presses submit, never ticks boxes, never touches passwords and only fills empty boxes. It doesn’t send or collect anything: your details stay on your computer. See About and privacy.
Your fields from Auto Field Maps
Mapped your farm on our free Auto Field Maps? Press Share there, copy the link and paste it into the box on your report (or the calculator). We then use your real field sizes, so the amounts are worked out for your actual land.
More than one farm
- Use Add another farm under the search box. Each farm keeps its own results, paperwork, dates and numbers. Switch between them with the Farm dropdown.
- Share this report copies a link that opens the same results for your agent, landlord or family. Your name and numbers aren’t in it.
- Print or save as PDF keeps a copy of the report.
- What would I earn? adds up the official payment rates for your land.
Paperwork, dates and your details
- Paperwork: pick where your farm is, tick what you have, and press Show my paperwork.
- My list: every record, licence, return and check that applies, with what to do and the official link. Tick them off as you go.
- Dates: every deadline in order. Add them all to my calendar puts them on your phone or computer, and new dates appear on their own.
- My details: your SBI, CRN, CPH, herd and flock marks, VAT and tax numbers in one place, with Copy buttons and a printable sheet.
- Every form: every form and rule we cover, for any kind of farm.
Keeping it on your phone
Use Install the app on the front page, or Add to Home Screen in your browser’s menu (on an iPhone: the Share button in Safari, then Add to Home Screen). It opens like an app and works with a poor signal.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Drop your pin anywhere in the UK and we show that nation’s own schemes and paperwork, plus the UK-wide buyers and charities that work there. Wales schemes also have pages in Welsh.
What we keep
Nothing. Your answers, details and ticks are saved in your browser on this device only and never sent to us. Clearing your browser’s data for this site removes them. More in About and privacy.
Something not working, or a scheme we’ve missed? Email [email protected].