Bishop Burton College appointed Lindum to build two new college buildings for the teaching of precision farming.

The centres are located at its campuses in Beverley and Riseholme.

The £1.7 million Yorkshire and Humber Institute of Technology now provides students with the skills to utilise technology and big data to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture.

The IoT has a specific focus on arable farming. Facilities include a new GPS-equipped tractor with specialist application capabilities, including for the distribution of seed, fertiliser, and chemical sprays. This means application rates can be changed in real time, increasing efficiency of distribution to lessen CO2 emissions. These techniques are crucial to the college’s aim of becoming an industry leader in the delivery of green farming education.

Meanwhile, the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology at Riseholme College focuses on precision agriculture and agri-food. Its programmes will provide students, and the agricultural industry, with the skills needed to use technology to its full potential. The Riseholme College Showground campus comprises of flexible teaching spaces, a modern learning resource centre and three
engineering workshops.

The new buildings were designed to be all-electric and with an emphasis on energy efficiency to help reduce the carbon footprint. Through a “fabric-first” approach and a thermal bridge-free design, the new buildings have achieved annual operating energy that greatly exceeds the RIBA 2030 Challenge target.

This reduces the need for technologies to keep the building at a comfortable temperature, since heat losses through its fabric are considerably eliminated. Furthermore, both designs were carried out under BREEAM standards to achieve “Very Good” ratings, which meet RIBA’s Sustainable Outcomes.

We worked closely with Bishop Burton College at both campuses to ensure their day-to-day activities were not impacted and construction noise was kept to a minimum level as to not disturb the animals that are based on site.

A number of site visits were held throughout the project with the Bishop Burton College Building course where by they had an opportunity to display their bricklaying skills on some of the brickwork onsite.