Even if you spend thousands of pounds installing gates across all the remote entrances to your farm, it still relies on staff leaving their air-conditioned cab to shut them afterwards.

Solar Gate Systems reckons it has the answer with an automatic gate opener/shutter driven by a 24V DC system.

The solar panels make-do with daylight rather than direct sunlight, meaning even on cloudy days the motors still operate and there is no need to bury expensive cable in the ground.

See also: Norfolk farmer brings gates into the 21st century

The bracket-mounted PV cells are set at 23deg, which the company claims maximises the winter daylight hours.

These keep standard batteries fully charged during the day and should store enough power for more than 1,000 gate cycles before further charging.

Each installation is tailored to the customer with battery size and solar panels to suit the job. The gate can be opened by hand held fobs, keypads and now by mobile phones with up to 200 users on the guest list.

Included in the £1,998 price are the brushless motors with gate mounting brackets, a lockable control cabinet, two solar panels, two deep-cycle batteries and a couple of handheld remotes.

However, there is no gate included in the price and installation costs a further £385.