Barry farm wins building award at Royal Welsh Show

Gileston Farm won the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society’s Farm Buildings and Works Competition.

The award sought traditional or modern farm buildings that had been adapted to support the sustainability goals of their business.

Gilston Farm, run by John Thomas and family, took the award after building an incredible new grain handling and storage facility which also incorporates a sprayer and spray storage bay.

The building is 36 metres long and 18 metres wide and consists of six bays, all with roller shutter doors to protect the contents from the sea winds.

One bay contains the wet grain pit and dryer, and the others are used for storing dry grain.

The whole building had been set into the bank by digging out several thousand tons of rock, so enabling all operations around the farmyard to be carried out on the same level.

The steel work is galvanised to protect it from corrosion from the sea air, and the walls were all made of either mass concrete for internal walls to give a smooth working finish or precast concrete panels on the rear external walls.

Award winning Gilstone Farm, run by Mr John Thomas and family (Image: Supplied)

The farm grows around 500 acres of cereals and lupins (for protein) and over the years the family have introduced milling and mixing on the farm and selling animal feed either directly to other farmers or to local retail outlets.

The end bay of the new facility has been built into a dedicated secure store to house their self-propelled sprayer and also a storage area for the agrochemicals.

It incorporated a drained floor feeding into a silt trap to catch any spills or washdown waste and this in turn will be pumped into a Bio Box filtration unit which was being installed outside.

All the roof water was collected, filtered and stored in two 20,000 litre tanks and used for filling the sprayer.

The RWAS Farm Buildings and Works competition brings forward the best of ideas and designs in a particular county and this year was no exception.

The competition took the judges from sea level near Barry up to the tops of the valleys at Ynysybwl, quite contrasting scenery.