Pushing the boundaries of innovation in UK agriculture | The Scottish Farmer

Nov 03, 2024

There are constant developments in the industry to make agriculture ever more efficient and profitable and the Product Innovation Award at AgriScot is an excellent showcase of some of the latest advances on the market. The shortlist this year is testament to the fresh ideas being generated across sectors, with new solutions for animal health to baling, spray efficiency and pain relief for sheep castration and tail docking.

It’s exciting to see how the industry is adapting to maximise opportunities, says Andrew Moir, who coordinates the judging process:

“It’s fascinating to see the work going to develop new technologies and systems that are pushing the boundaries of agricultural efficiency, sustainability and productivity. Picking a winner will be difficult with such a strong shortlist but each entry highlights the different thinking behind these products which make an important difference on the ground for farming businesses and which is shaping the future of agriculture.”

Last year’s winner was ADF Milking, for its intelligent vent technology, InVent, which makes milking calmer, faster and higher yielding.

The SmartBale app from Krone is aimed at farmers, contractors and hauliers for use during the bale collection process within their forage and cereal harvest operations. This has been developed as experience of recent years has demonstrated the need to make even more efficient use of small harvest and crop processing windows due to changing weather conditions.

To simplify the work processes for baling hay and straw, the SmartBale app was developed to not only make it easier to locate bales when collecting them from the field, but also to make it possible to sort bales by their moisture level to prevent storage of crops that are too moist, which can result in spoilage of bales above and around the moist bale in the stack.

DairyVue360 is a cutting-edge dairy management system designed for herringbone parlours. This latest software from Dairymaster aims to optimise efficiency and productivity with comprehensive real-time data on various aspects of dairy operations, such as milk production data, health and fertility metrics, and milk recording. It is an all-encompassing farm management platform that records, analyses, and displays data for both equipment and cows to give dairy farmers a 360-degree view of their farm operations and allowing them to make informed decisions quickly, enhancing overall farm performance.

www.dairymaster.com

SlurryBugs® contains a unique blend of bacteria and fungus which work together to break down the fibrous content of slurry, tackling crusts and allowing fertiliser nutrient recovery to increase. The results from rigorous scientific trials over two years showed that the combination of bacteria and fungus was able to reduce the accumulated crust weight by 29% over three months. SlurryBugs® products are intended to treat the entire volume of slurry for the duration of its storage. The bacteria are dosed at the start of storage, allowing them to rapidly colonise the store.

www.envirosystems.co.uk

The Kverneland 55100MT Curve Pilot feature is a standard function on the largest ISObus triple mower that automatically controls the side shift of the rear mowing units. This minimises stripes between the front and rear cutting units when following curves and allows the operator to use the full working width of the mower to maximise output and efficiency. It uses a gyroscope fixed on the headstock to sense the steering angle which then side shifts the rear cutting units up to a maximum of 400mm. This reduces operator input whilst achieving higher working rates.

www.uk.kverneland.com

The F5 Fixed Chamber Baler Range is the latest offering from McHale which features a number of new additions to enhance throughput of the machines as well as operator comfort when it comes to usability and maintenance.

This includes the Profi-Flo Pick-Up, Dual Feed netting system, In-Cab Density Adjustment, ISOBUS/ISO-Play Compatibility, Quick Attach Wheels, larger oil tank and spring chain tensioners. There are four models in the range: the F5-540 non-chopper model, the F5-550 15 knife, semi-automatic baler, the F5-560 25 knife, fully automatic baler and the F5-560 Plus 25 knife, fully auto film binding baler.

www.mchale.net

Fresh Boost from Provita Animal Health is an oral paste for fresh and transition cows supplying beneficial bacteria, vitamins, dextrose and egg powder. Numerous stresses around transition mean that immunity, ruminal function, and fermentation are adversely affected, and Fresh Boost helps to counteract the stress-induced low immunity and ruminal malfunctioning before calving. It also enhances the beneficial rumen and gut microbiome activity, promotes appetite, increases energy, and fluid intake. As a direct consequence there is a significant reduction in the incidence of metabolic disorders and other post-partem problems such as ruminal atony, retained foetal membranes, metritis, and mastitis.

www.provita.co.uk

Manage tomorrow's health today with smaXtec’s AI-driven health management. Using unique bolus technology, smaXtec gathers precise data from inside the cow's reticulum. With the revolutionary Digital Assistant, farmers are two steps ahead: Acting as a virtual employee, it generates automated management lists and reports, simplifying tasks via smartphone or PC.

It allows farmers to act early by using disease indication notifications from the smaXtec AI TruAdvice™ to implement optimised action plans. Particularly useful for large farms, it streamlines workflows and saves time, helping farmers to better organise their staff. The Digital Assistant offers pre-configured templates, customisable to each farm's needs.

www.smaxtec.com/en

Soil Essentials’ SKAi spot spraying system detects, and sprays, only where needed. It features automatic, AI powered weed recognition using boom mounted smart cameras and is currently being used for dock weeds in grassland, volunteer potato weeds in onions and in broccoli. A ground-breaking advancement in agricultural technology, users are seeing significant tangible benefits. It can reduce chemical use by up to 95% compared to traditional blanket spraying, reduce crop damage, protect clover and have a lesser environmental impact. The system is available as a bespoke 12m-15m TEAM sprayer or a retrofit system fitted to a range of sprayer brands and sizes.

www.soilessentials.com

Numnuts is a 2-in-1 tool designed to provide fast-acting, targeted pain relief for tail docking and castration of sheep using a rubber ring from Senesino. The Numnuts device is easy to use and allows you to administer local anesthetic and a rubber ring with just a few simple movements in a matter of seconds. The local anaesthetic starts working immediately and provides relief throughout the acute pain phase. Numnuts aims to give lambs the best start in life, offering welfare-focused sheep farmers a fast, effective, easy-to-use, and safe approach to lamb marking. Its effectiveness has been validated in multiple published research trials by Moredun, SRUC, and CSIRO (Australian Research Organization).

www.numnuts.co.uk

The Racewell Automated Sheep handler is the latest automated technology from livestock equipment specialists, Te Pari, to make it easier and safer to handle sheep for regular tasks, especially single handedly, as well as improving efficiency and productivity to save costs. The Racewell, for example, optimises drenching for significant financial savings on farm, improving animal health and welfare, and reduces the physical demands of handling the sheep for humans doing the job. With the safe automated catch, it also improves systems when dosing, crutching, weighing, tagging, drafting and health checks including feet.

www.tepari.com/uk

The Thorburn Group’s Cattle Feed Saver Trailer, manufactured by Premier, was designed to solve a problem that so many farmers face: wasted feed. Designed with angled bars to encourage the cattle to drop the feed inside the trailer, rather than on the floor like with standard feed trailers, results from customers show savings of one in every 7-10 bales. The trailer includes fully galvanised feed barriers, a timber slatted floor and stockboarding, all included to weatherproof, prevent rusting and ensure the trailer lasts for years. It also features sides which are bolted on to make it easier to clean.

www.thorburngroup.co.uk

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