The winner of the intermediate category of the 2023 Farmers Weekly Inventions Competition is James Townley with his stone fork.

To prevent big stones jamming in his 4m Kuhn combination drill or rattling through the combine, Mr Townley from County Down devised a folding collecting fork to mount off the frame of his front seed hopper.

See also: Stonebine rock picker is 2020 inventions winner

There were no other such devices out there, so he took to his computer and thrashed out the design in CAD.

This helped him work out the geometry and make sure that the finished fork was wide enough to cover the drill’s full working width, while being able to fold narrower than the tractor for travelling on the road.

Cleverly, the fork connects to the Kuhn hopper’s wafer weight mounting points, so there was no need to weld on brackets, or drill any holes.

© James Andrews

When planting, it hovers just above the ground with the tips of the tines raised in the air to stop them digging in.

If a stone is encountered at either side of the hopper, it’s possible to pick it up on the move but, to collect those in the middle of a run, Mr Townley stops to manoeuvre into the right position.

Both the right and left fork are operated using their own hydraulic ram, but they’re plumbed into the same circuit.

This has an equaliser valve in it to make sure they drop at the same time, avoiding the risk of one lowering too quickly and digging into the ground.

Total build cost was about £10,000, including outsourcing some cutting and welding of the larger steel sections.