Areas covered — drone services across Yorkshire

The ASPN pilot network covers most of Yorkshire between four operating bases. If you farm anywhere from the Vale of York across to the Wolds and Holderness, or up into the North Yorkshire arable fringes, there's a certified pilot within reach. This page is a quick guide to the sub-regions we cover and the kind of farming each does.

If you're just outside Yorkshire — Lincolnshire, County Durham, the southern Lake District — get in touch anyway. We can usually match you to a pilot who covers your area.

Vale of York

The Vale of York is Yorkshire's breadbasket. Rich alluvial soils, big arable acreages, intensive cereals, OSR and field veg. This is the sub-region with the highest demand for cover crop seeding, OSR pod sealant and crop monitoring work. Drone services are particularly relevant here in wet seasons when the heavier ground won't carry a sprayer.

Towns and areas: Selby, Tadcaster, York, Easingwold, Boroughbridge, Wetherby.

Yorkshire Wolds

Chalk and limestone soils, Grade 2 and 3 land, around three quarters of farmed area in arable use. Strong cereal and OSR rotations, large pig units, and the kind of broken topography where a drone earns its place handling steep, awkward or fragmented blocks.

Towns and areas: Driffield, Pocklington, Market Weighton, Stamford Bridge, Malton.

Holderness and East Riding

Lowland mixed arable — wheat, barley, OSR, vegetables, with some beef and dairy. Light soils close to processors. Field veg growers in the Holderness fens are good candidates for crop monitoring and precision work, and the OSR area justifies pod sealant flying every June.

Towns and areas: Beverley, Hornsea, Withernsea, Hedon, Patrington.

North Yorkshire (arable fringes)

The vales between the moors and the Dales — Vale of Pickering, Vale of Mowbray, the country around Thirsk and Ripon. Mixed arable and livestock, smaller field sizes than the Vale of York, plenty of awkward parcels where drones come into their own.

Towns and areas: Thirsk, Ripon, Bedale, Northallerton, Pickering, Helmsley.

North York Moors and Dales fringes

Predominantly upland sheep and beef country. Drone seeding, wildflower establishment for SFI agreements, peatland restoration work and bracken / weed control on hill ground are the relevant services here. The terrain is exactly where ground machinery struggles most.

Towns and areas: Kirkbymoorside, Whitby, Danby, Pateley Bridge, Hawes, Reeth.

West and South Yorkshire

Less arable acreage than the east of the county — more grassland, more livestock, more mixed farming. Drone work here tends to be smaller blocks of cover crop seeding, wildflower establishment and crop monitoring on the arable enclaves around the Pennine fringes.

Towns and areas: Harrogate, Skipton, Wakefield, Doncaster, Barnsley.

Just outside Yorkshire

We get regular enquiries from neighbouring counties. The ASPN network reaches:

• Lincolnshire — particularly North Lincolnshire and the area around Brigg, Gainsborough and Scunthorpe.
• County Durham — Tees Valley arable, the area around Darlington and Bishop Auckland.
• East Cheshire and Greater Manchester fringes — through cross-Pennine pilot operations.

If your farm is in one of these areas, or anywhere else within reach of Yorkshire, get in touch and we'll see what we can do.