Agricultural research, development and manufacturing facility, Spalding
Horizon Agriculture delivers ‘regeneration through innovation’ by developing machines and components for regenerative farming. Helping to tackle critical environmental issues, the company’s approach focuses on promoting soil regeneration while helping farmers to improve efficiency and boost productivity.
Our approach
In 2022, following a period of significant investment and expansion, the company was facing capacity limitations at its current site in Sutton St James. Unable to expand, they required a new location to support continued growth, production, and research.
Although the company had secured planning permission for an agricultural research and training facility at Langary Gate Road on the family farm, the site proved unsuitable for long-term development due to space and access constraints.
RDC was appointed to secure consents for the company’s new site at Holbeach Drove - creating room for Horizon Agriculture’s long-term expansion and, importantly, enabling the consolidation of its R&D, assembly, crop trials, and machinery testing facilities to a single location.
The site at Holbeach Drove - sitting adjacent to the company’s existing farmland - will house an 80m by 40m assembly building, designed to construct and test agricultural machinery. It will also include a new Research and Development (R&D) building, where equipment will be trialled, and a greenhouse to demonstrate improvements in soil health, drainage, and yield.
Alongside the assembly and R&D buildings, the site will feature crop trial areas, machinery testing grounds, and a solar array in the southwestern corner, with plans for wind turbines and storage batteries in the future. With the goal of reducing its carbon footprint - an example of the company’s commitment to sustainable practices - the site will be designed to run mostly off-grid using self-generated renewable energy.
The Holbeach Drove site will provide Horizon Agriculture with the space needed to continue innovating and growing, while maintaining the essential connection between machinery design, research, and real-world agricultural applications.
