Addington’s roots go back to livestock farms being unable to trade their livestock due to notifiable animal diseases such as Swine Vesicular Disease and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).
In the 2001 outbreak of FMD, we handled over 22,000 applications from farms whose businesses were affected by the movement restrictions placed upon them, and we distributed over £10.3m in grants. As devastating as it was for farmers who had to have their animals culled because of contracting FMD, we concentrated our help towards those farmers who managed to keep their stock, but couldn’t sell any of them because of imposed movement restrictions. Grants towards the cost of additional animal feed provided a life line to heavily overstocked farms at that time.
Since then we have supported working viable farm businesses with short term financial aid as and when a regional or national emergency has arisen, which has caused unanticipated additional expenditure, and where hardship prevails. Examples are the flooding in Gloucestershire in 2007, the extreme weather in Wales and Cumbria in 2013, the flooding on the Somerset Levels in 2014, and in northern England in 2015/16 where farmers had to buy in extra feed and fodder.
You may wish to read our questions and answers page which covers some examples. We regret we cannot help with long term business debts or problems associated with low prices for farm produce.
