What we do for farms
Working farms need contractors who turn up, get the job done between weather windows, and don't churn the yard up in the process. We've been doing groundworks and external works for farms across North Yorkshire for years, and as the steel side of our business has grown we're increasingly putting whole sheds up too.
A typical agricultural project for us covers:
- New farm sheds — site preparation, foundations, slab and steel frame
- Concrete yards, feed passages and loading areas
- Slurry stores, lagoons and effluent management
- Silage clamps, including precast panel walls
- Grain stores and crop storage buildings
- Cattle and livestock housing — bases and external works
- Farm access tracks and hardstandings
- Field drainage and SuDS
- Retaining walls and yard remodelling
- Concrete repairs and yard renewals
Whether it's a single concrete pour for a new feed barrier or a complete new shed from a green field, we'll cost it properly and tell you straight what's involved.
Concrete that stands up to farm life
Agricultural concrete takes a beating. Slurry, silage effluent, scraping, heavy machinery and the British weather all attack a yard at the same time, so the spec matters. We use ready-mix designed for the job — typically a high-strength, abrasion-resistant mix complying with BS standards for liquid retaining structures and DEFRA guidelines on slurry and effluent containment.
For a yard renewal we'd normally lay a minimum 150mm reinforced base on 150mm of compacted hardcore, in bays with effluent-resistant sealed joints, properly cured before being put back into service. For slurry stores and silage clamps we work with precast panels from established UK suppliers, set into properly engineered foundations.
Done right, agricultural concrete will give you 20+ years of service. Done badly, it'll start failing within five. We'd rather quote a proper job than win a price war and walk away from a yard that won't last.
RP15, SFI and capital grants
If you're applying for an RP15 Concrete Yard Renewal grant — currently paying £33.64 per square metre under Capital Grants — we can deliver work that meets the technical specification and provide the construction-stage photographs and invoices the RPA needs to release payment. Same goes for slurry storage upgrades and other grant-funded infrastructure. If you've got a Catchment Sensitive Farming adviser involved, we're happy to coordinate with them directly so the spec is right first time.
We're not advisers — we're contractors — but we've done enough grant-funded jobs to know what the paperwork side looks like and where farms get caught out.
Why work with us
Most agricultural contractors are either tiny one-man bands, or they're big civil firms who treat farm jobs as filler between commercial work. We're somewhere in between — 10 strong, with our own plant fleet, but local enough that we'll come and look at a single yard repair without making it sound like the Hoover Dam.
A few things that matter on farm jobs specifically:
- We won't make a mess of your yard. Plant goes where it should, muck off the road at the end of the day, gates left as we found them
- We work around livestock and farm rhythms. Calving, lambing, harvest, silage — tell us what's coming and we'll plan around it
- We turn up. If we say we're there Monday, we're there Monday — not next Thursday after the weather brightens up
- We're local. Knaresborough-based, covering the whole of North Yorkshire and the Dales
Where we work
We work across North Yorkshire from our Knaresborough base — Harrogate, Ripon, Thirsk, Northallerton, Skipton, Pateley Bridge, Masham, Bedale, Easingwold, Helmsley, the Dales and the Moors. If you're farming somewhere we've not been before, ask — we probably cover it.
Get in touch
Send a few photos, a rough idea of what you're after, and your postcode. We'll either give you a price over the phone or come out for a look. No pushy sales — we know what's involved in getting jobs signed off, and we know farmers don't appreciate being chased every five minutes.
