In short
Farm tracks are priced per running metre and the biggest variable is how much stone has to be brought in. Farmers Weekly's guide puts a simple resurface of an existing track at £5 to £12 per metre, rising to around £18 where extra stone is needed and from £30 per metre for a new track. The Countryside Stewardship RP4 grant pays £44.63 per metre for a qualifying hardcore track.
This is a job for our Rural & Farm Access service.
The published figures
Track prices vary more than driveway prices because the ground, the length and the distance to the nearest quarry all change the sum. Two published sources give a useful frame.
| Type of work | Farmers Weekly guide figure |
|---|---|
| Resurface an existing track, reusing what is there | £5 to £12 per linear metre |
| Resurface with a significant amount of new stone | Up to £18 per linear metre |
| Cement stabilisation, as an optional upgrade | From £8 per square metre |
| New track from scratch | From £30 per linear metre |
Those are Farmers Weekly's figures, not ours, and they will not match every site. The government's RP4 grant for livestock and machinery hardcore tracks pays £44.63 per metre, which gives a fair idea of what a track built to that specification costs.
What decides the price on your farm
- Width and depth. RP4 asks for a track at least 2.4 metres wide with at least 150mm of compacted hardcore, 300mm on peat. A track for a milking herd or a combine needs to be wider and deeper than one for a quad and a Land Rover.
- Stone in or stone bought. If the track already has years of stone in it, we scarify, regrade and top it up. If it is a new line across a field, every tonne comes in on a lorry.
- Haulage. Stone is cheap and moving it is not. Distance from a quarry or a source of planings matters more than most people expect.
- Ground. Soft clay or peat needs a geotextile membrane and more depth. Chalk and firm gravel need less.
- Drainage. Ditching, grips and cross drains add to the price and are the reason the track is still there in five years.
- Surface. Traditional crushed stone to dust, road planings, or a recycled material, depending on the traffic and the budget.
The RP4 grant
RP4 is a Countryside Stewardship capital item. The catch is that it can only be used with Catchment Sensitive Farming support or alongside habitat options agreed with a Natural England adviser, it cannot be used to repair a track that already has a manufactured surface, and it is not available on sensitive or historic sites. If your track might qualify, it is worth a conversation with your adviser before we start, because the specification shapes how we build it.
How we quote a track
We walk the track with you, measure it, look at where the water goes and at what is already under the surface, and give a price per metre with the construction written down. On the farms and estates we work on from Alton to Shaftesbury, the cheapest track over ten years is nearly always the one with the drainage done properly, so that is where we start.