Business and Policy November 2025 – Policy Brief

Future Farming Investment Scheme 

The Scottish Government has announced an additional £7 million of funding for the new Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS), increasing the total grant funding available to £21.4 million, with priority support for new entrants, young farmers, small farms, and tenant farmers.  

FFIS was launched in July to offer flexible capital grants to support investments in efficiency, nature, and climate friendly farming.  A total of 7,584 applications were received by the scheme deadline on the 22nd of August. 

Successful applicants were notified by email on the 31st of October, with a link to log onto MAC (the Scottish Government’s Manage Applications and Claim Service).  This link allows you to view and accept the offer of grant.  You will have 14 days from receipt of the email to accept the terms of the award, with being payments made within 30 days.  If you have applied, please check your email junk box so that you do not miss an offer of a grant. 

AGRI-ENVIRONMENT CLIMATE SCHEME UPDATE (AECS) 

As it is viewed that AECS continues to deliver significant benefits for farmers, crofters, and our environment; the Scottish Government have decided to extend the scheme to at least 2030.  

AECS was launched in 2015 to promote land management practices which protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage, improve water quality, manage flood risk, and mitigate and adapt to climate change.   To date, 3,417 businesses have been awarded a total of £339 million to fund a range of activities that help to maintain and enhance Scotland’s rich and varied natural environment.  

The 2026 round of the scheme will open for applications in early 2026, with details on the offer of the round will be confirmed later this year.   

June Agricultural Census 2025 

Results from the June Agricultural Census 2025 show the continued long-term trend in declining cattle numbers in Scotland, down 2.6% over the five year average to 1.65 million cattle.  However, while the decrease was mainly due to fewer female beef cattle, the number of female dairy cows increased. 

Other livestock results show that there were 6.54 million sheep in 2025: 2.2% less than the five-year average, but 1.1% more than in 2024.  While the total number of poultry increased to 12.42 million; the number of pigs fell to 312,300, 7.3% less than the five-year average. 

In terms of cropping, while the area used to grow wheat increased by 5.4%, the area sown out with spring cereals decreased by 0.5% when compared with the five-year average,  and the area planted with potatoes reached its highest level since 2011, with a total of 30,400 hectares being grown.  

The agricultural census also found that the number of people working on agricultural holdings in Scotland in 2025 fell by 600 to 66,800. 

Update on Rodenticides 

From the 1st of January 2026, anyone using professional-use rodenticides must provide proof of certification at the point of purchase.  Please note that membership of a Farm Assurance Scheme will no longer be valid.  This new regulation applies to all farmers, crofters, growers, estate managers, and rural workers. 

If you rely on rodenticides to manage rats or mice in farm buildings and grain stores, from the 1st of January 2026, legally you will not be able to buy or use professional rodenticides unless you can present one of two things at point of purchase: 

• A copy of your CRRU UK-approved training certificate awarded within the last five years OR 

• A CRRU-approved certificate that is older than five years, plus proof of current membership of a CRRU UK-approved Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Scheme e.g. BASIS PROMPT or that you are BPCA Registered. 

If you don’t have a training certificate and want to get certified or if your training certificate is greater than five years old and you want to get re-certified, you can either: 

• Attend an ‘In-person’ training course which gives you the opportunity to ask questions before you sit the assessment OR  

• For more flexibility, you can opt to do a ‘Lantra E-Learning’ online course and sit the assessment at home. 

Both versions of the course include: 

• A one day training course 

• A final exam 

• A Certificate which will then be valid for five years. 

For further information, please click on this link to the Lantra Website: Lantra Awards Level 2 Award in Rodent Management - Lantra 

Muirburn Licence Update 

While we reported in the October 2025 edition of Business and Policy news that  The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill would not start until 1 January 2026; the Scottish Government has since announced that the implementation of this legislation will now not come into force until Autumn 2026.  The reasoning for which being linked to the aftermath of the wildfires which have affected many parts of the country this year and the resulting extensive damage to Scotland’s peatlands.  

For further information, please click on this link Written question and answer: S6W-41119 | Scottish Parliament Website 

Rural Support Update 

Under the draft The Rural Support (Improvement) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2025, with regards to Ecological Focus Areas and the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme, it is being legislated that for: 

Ecological Focus Areas 

• From 1 January 2027, the percentage of a holding that is to be maintained as an Ecological Focus Area will increase from 5% to 7%. 

• Four new options for ecological focus areas together with associated conversion and weighting factors will be introduced. 

• Regulation 2(3) sets out the conversion and weighting factors which apply to the new EFA options. 

• Additional crop species will be added to the lists of green cover and nitrogen-fixing crops. 

• Field margins will be increased from 1 metre to 3 metres. 

• Regulation 3(3)(d)(i) makes a minor change to the date by which green cover crops must be sown. 

• The exemption from the requirement to maintain ecological focus areas for holdings with more than 75% arable land used for the production of grasses, land lying fallow or the cultivation of leguminous crops or where more than 75% of the eligible agricultural area is permanent grassland, is used for the production of grasses, or for the cultivation of crops under water will be removed. 

• While the requirement to submit an EFA map will be removed; business must have available if requested (for inspection purposes) an EFA map which has been prepared not more than one year before the start of the claim year to which it relates.  

• The requirement to have a fertiliser and lime management plan will be removed. 

• The restriction on harvesting areas under catch crops prior to 31 December will be removed. 

• The restriction on harvesting areas under green cover prior to 31 December will be removed. 

Suckler Beef Support Scheme: 

• The application window for Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme payments will be extended up to, and including, the 14th of January following the end of the relevant calendar year. 

• There will be a derogation for applicants claiming ten or fewer calves in a Scheme year.  Where the derogation applies, the claimed calves are not required to be either the first born of their mother or born within 410 days of the mother’s previous qualifying calf.  All other eligibility criteria specified in paragraph 3 continue to apply. 

The 2025 Regulations will come into force on the 31 December 2025, apart from those provisions relating to the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme derogation from the eligibility calving interval conditionality requirement for applicants claiming ten or fewer calves in a Scheme year,  which will come into force on the 1st of January 2026 for the 2026 scheme year.  

Small Scale Woodlands 

An additional £1 million in forestry grants to help farmers, crofters, and communities create and manage small woodlands across Scotland has been announced.  The new package of enhanced Forestry Grant Scheme funding aims to encourage more small-scale woodland creation projects of up to 20 hectares.  

Support for these smaller woodland schemes is being raised by an average of 15% across Scotland and by 30% within the Central Scotland Green Network area.  The increase in funding will help cover some of the inflationary pressures that the farming and crofting communities have been facing when growing new woodlands.  Extra funding will also go towards helping communities plan and kickstart the management of their own woodlands.  

The new package of enhanced grants for small woodlands includes: 

• An extra £750 per hectare for the first 20 hectares of new woodland across Scotland 

• An increase of up to £1,750 per hectare in the Central Scotland Green Network area to encourage woodland creation near towns and cities 

• In the Northern and Western Isles, where deer management is a challenge, deer fencing grants and stock fencing will be doubled 

• Up to £10,000 will be offered to help community-led woodland management schemes to develop. 

 For further information, please click on this link: Small woodlands | Scottish Forestry. 

 

Relevant Scottish Government Publications 

Date	Publication
30 October 25	Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census 2025
11 December 25	Cereal & Oil Seed Rape Harvest: Final Estimates

 

Key dates  

Date	Action
1 November 25	Greening cover establishment deadline
30 November 25	Scottish Upland Support Scheme Application Window closes

 

christine.beaton@sac.co.uk