£9m funding for three projects to raise farm productivity

Three research projects relating to the automatic bedding of cattle, robotic harvesting of fruit and veg, and cultivation for potatoes, are to share in more than £9m of public funding as part of government efforts to raise farming’s productivity.

The money follows successful bids by various companies to Defra’s Large R&D Partnership competition, which is funded from the government’s £270m Farming Innovation Programme.

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It forms part of the reallocation of money already deducted from English farmers through Basic Farm Payment cuts, which have been applied for the past two years.

The project to automate cow cubicle bedding is run by Garnett Farm Engineering in collaboration with the University of Liverpool.

“Cow comfort is a key factor in reducing the chances of cows suffering from mastitis, with dry and clean bedding and careful management of cubicles being vital,” said a statement.

“Currently, this must be done manually by farmers, but this project will develop an intelligent robotic cubicle bedder to monitor and respond to key sensor data to optimise dispensing of bedding.”

The second project is Agri-Opencore, led by APS Produce, which is receiving a £3.8m investment to help create a so-called “open development platform for agri-robotic crop harvesting” in the horticulture sector.

This will enable multiple organisations to contribute, “allowing cross-sector collaboration and demonstration of technologies on English farms”.

Defra hopes the project will help to accelerate the adoption of robotic picking by two years.

The third project, benefiting from £2.83m, is Potato-Lite, which is looking to make potato cultivation more environment-friendly.

“The project focuses on reducing the depth, intensity and number of operations required, which will improve soil health and reduce the environmental impact of potato production, whilst also reducing costs,” said a statement.

Potato-Lite will see the development of new cultivation equipment and systems, delivered through a partnership between food manufacturers PepsiCo and McCain, machinery manufacturer Grimme, growers Strawson Ltd, JRO Griffiths, H Sutton & Son and JM Bubb & Son, and research organisations Cranfield University, Harper Adams University and Chap.