Installing a farm weighbridge: site, groundworks and timing
Where to put a farm weighbridge, why the concrete approaches matter more than the deck, pit versus surface, and a realistic timeline from order to first load.
· 7 min
The bridge itself is the quick bit of an installation — a lorry arrives, a crane lifts the deck onto its foundations, and by evening it looks like a weighbridge. Whether it works as one for the next twenty years was decided months earlier: where it sits, what it sits on, and whether the concrete had cured before the first loaded trailer rolled over it. Order in winter, build in spring, and it's weighing wheat by harvest. Order in June and you're weighing next year's.
Siting: plan for harvest traffic, not a quiet Tuesday
Put the bridge where loaded vehicles naturally pass in the farm's busiest fortnight. The test is simple: a trailer should come in from the field, cross the bridge, carry on to the store and tip, then head back out — no reversing, no three-point turns, no crossing the path of the next trailer coming in. Artics on collection days need the same courtesy: on forwards, off forwards, room to wait without blocking the yard.
At full chat a combine can send a trailer to the yard every ten or twelve minutes. Any awkwardness in the layout — a tight gateway, a pinch point shared with the shed doors — gets paid for on every single load. Walk the route with last harvest in mind before anyone pours concrete.
Two more siting points that repay thought:
- Near enough to supervise. If the office or the store can see the bridge, casual mistakes get caught. A bridge round the back of the far shed runs on trust.
- Hard standing beyond both ends. Vehicles queue and muck accumulates wherever they wait; better on concrete than in a hole of its own making.
The approaches matter more than the deck
A weighbridge is only as good as the concrete either side of it. The vehicle needs to sit level and settled while it's weighed, which means flat approaches in the same plane as the deck — as a rough guide, at least the length of your longest vehicle at each end, and follow the manufacturer's spec rather than guessing. Sloped, broken or heaved approaches do two things: they introduce weighing errors as the vehicle sits twisted, and they shed mud and stone onto the deck and eventually under it, which is where reading trouble begins.
Get the falls right so water runs away from the bridge, not into it. A bridge at the low point of the yard becomes a pond with a load cell problem.
Pit or surface?
| Surface-mounted | Pit-mounted | |
|---|---|---|
| Installed cost (50t) | £25,000–£45,000 | £35,000–£60,000 |
| Footprint | Ramps add several metres each end | Flush with the yard |
| Cleaning | Sweep underneath from the side | Pit collects grain, water and rats |
| Drainage | Straightforward | Needs a drained or pumped pit |
| Moving it later | Realistic | Not really |
For most farms, surface-mounted wins: cheaper, easier to keep clean underneath, and easier to sell or relocate if plans change. Pit-mounted earns its extra cost in tight yards where ramp length won't fit, or where other vehicles need to cross the bridge on the level. More on the money side in how much a farm weighbridge costs.
Services: the quiet half of the job
- Power to the indicator — and think about where the indicator actually lives. A kiosk at the bridge is traditional; readings that also land in the office or on a phone are more use.
- Comms. A cable or wireless link from the indicator to wherever records are made. Decide this before the trenches are backfilled, not after.
- Lighting. Plenty of loads cross a farm bridge at 11pm in a catchy harvest. If the operator can't read the trailer number, the records suffer.
- Drainage. Water is the main enemy of the cells and junction boxes underneath — the wet failure modes are covered in weighbridge accuracy and calibration.
Planning permission
Usually manageable — a weighbridge on an established farmyard for agricultural use often falls within permitted development — but check with your council before groundworks start rather than after. Sites near boundaries or dwellings, in protected landscapes, or beside listed buildings need more care. A phone call and possibly a prior notification form is cheap; a retrospective application is not. Treat this paragraph as a prompt, not advice: the council's answer is the one that counts.
A realistic timeline
| Stage | Typical duration |
|---|---|
| Quotes, site survey, groundworks design | 2–6 weeks |
| Planning check / notification | Runs alongside — allow weeks, not days |
| Groundworks and concrete | 1–3 weeks on site |
| Concrete cure before loading | Around 4 weeks — don't rush this |
| Delivery and installation | 1–2 days |
| Calibration and commissioning | A day, plus your own test loads |
Order to first weighed load is realistically two to four months, longer if the ground surprises anyone (it often does). Which is the whole argument for timing: start the process in winter, build in spring, and shake the system down on a few grain movements before wheat starts. The farms that regret their installation are mostly the ones that tried to compress all this into July. If you're still weighing up the kit itself, what is a weighbridge covers the basics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need planning permission for a farm weighbridge?
Often not, as agricultural development on an established yard, but check with your local council before starting groundworks — permitted development has conditions, and sensitive locations change the answer. A short conversation up front is far cheaper than a retrospective application.
How long does weighbridge installation take?
The install itself takes a day or two. The whole job — survey, groundworks, roughly four weeks of concrete curing, delivery and calibration — realistically runs two to four months from order to first weighed load.
Should I choose a pit or surface-mounted weighbridge?
Surface-mounted for most farms: it's around £10,000 cheaper, easier to clean under, and can be relocated. Choose pit-mounted where yard space can't take the ramps or where vehicles need to cross the bridge on the flat.
Why do the approaches matter so much?
Because the vehicle must sit level and settled to weigh true, and because sloped or broken approaches drag mud and stone onto and under the deck — a leading cause of drifting readings. Level concrete at least a vehicle-length each end, in the same plane as the deck, is the standard to aim for.
Track harvest without the spreadsheet chaos
Harvestt keeps weighbridge loads, shed fill, and field yields in one place.
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