Why trees mean good business for farmers

Spring is always a busy time on the farm—calving, lambing, sowing, waiting for the ground to dry up. 

But before the season completely takes over, here’s a quick reminder you might have missed: there’s now even more Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) funding available to support small‑scale woodland creation across Scotland.

The overall FGS budget for new woodland creation across Scotland has been increased by 15% to £36.7 million, giving farmers and crofters even more opportunities to integrate trees into their businesses. 

Within this there has also been a healthy hike in grant rates to help grow small woodlands up to the size of 20 hectares. This is great news for farmers and crofters.

This increase in grant rates for small woodlands has been made specifically to help with inflationary pressures that the farming and crofting communities have been facing over the past year.

Here’s what you can now benefit from:

• £750 extra per hectare for the first 20 hectares of new woodland across Scotland
• Double funding for deer fencing and stock fencing in the Northern and Western Isles option area

If you’ve considered planting trees before, the numbers are now looking even better!

Importantly, for smaller sized woodland creation schemes that would fit into a farm business, there has been around a 30% increase in grant support for projects within the Central Scotland Green Network area. 

You can now get up to an extra £1,750 per hectare funding support if you want to plant trees – that’s a hefty boost.

There are plenty of reasons to integrate trees into your farm or croft - whether it’s:

• shelter for livestock
• improving biodiversity
• diversifying your business
• making better use of under‑performing land

If you want a quick overview of the benefits, take a look at guidance:

Why Trees? The benefits for your business, your community and the environment

And if you prefer hearing from other farmers, the Integrating Trees Network offers real‑world practical experiences from farmers and crofters who have already taken the leap. This is their key advice:

• you have to work with what's on the ground, don't try and change it too much or work against it
• you can do the work yourself; you don’t need to rely on contractors. It can be a steep learning curve and there are challenges. It just takes time and planning, but there is support out there
• understand your reasons for wanting to plant trees on your land and your business priorities
• do your research: evaluate your land and monitor your farm to find out what areas are under performing for livestock but could still be suitable for planting trees
• ask whether having trees on the farm will help diversify the nature of the business to become more adaptable, and in the future will it provide much needed shelter