According to a new research, farmers are more aware than they’ve ever been when it comes to searching what’s under the ground before digging
The number of searches by farmers checking for underground pipes and cables before they dig has grown for the third year in a row, with a 63% increase, according to Digging up Britain 2021.
2020 was a big year for excavation work within the agriculture sector, likely as a result of the environmental stewardship grants currently available to farmers for tree planting and hedging, as well as for other projects such as buildings and resurfacing gateways and tracks.
The report by LSBUD, which provides a free to use online asset search facility, shows that there were 3,446 searches made through its portal last year for projects on agricultural land.
Richard Broome, managing director at LSBUD, commented, “With so much additional activity taking place on agricultural land, it’s great to see that farmers are increasingly on board with the message to search before they dig. Even if they ‘know their fields like the back of their hands’, they are still favouring checking the location of pipes and cables crossing their land.”
According to Digging up Britain 2021, a search for deep agricultural groundwork’s increased by 166%. And searches for ditch work and field drainage increased by 55%. Other activities such as fencing and hedge planting and sub soiling, which is critical for land management, flood risk and food production, also prompted searches.
LSBUD’s data identifies a further 4,199 searches related to woodland – 676 for tree planting (a 67% increase), 1,170 for tree removal and 319 for lopping and topping.
Other projects including agricultural sites included 2,414 searches for mast sites (a substantial 351% increase). And solar farm projects increased for a third year, to 1,011 searches – a 206% increase on the year before.
LSBUD collated the data by analysing the record 3,078,670 search enquiries that passed through its portal in 2020. The overall number of searches going through the portal was a nine percent increase on the previous year and accounted for 77% of all the digging which takes place in Britain.
“Given that over three quarters of all digging work that takes place in the UK is preceded by a thorough search on our portal – that’s over three million projects every year – it’s safe to say that our data provides a clear picture of what’s going on in the digging world. 2020 was a year to write off for many but we’re pleased to see that farmers are continuing to get behind our safe digging message, protecting themselves and their communities from harm, flooding, cutting off broadband, and a myriad of other consequences that can come with hitting an underground pipe or cable. Let’s continue to build on this momentum in 2021 and beyond,” Broome concluded.
