The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Devices drive off with awards for innovation
Tractors and grain dryers are the stars in the 2021 line-up of award winners for technical innovation announced by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.
Northumberland company Calibrate Inc Ltd was the only gold winner, for a Heatpump grain drying system which previously won a silver award. The 6mW system manages a revolutionary process which means a bespoke controller can operate the dryer via a cloud-based system, enabling Calibrate to monitor all aspects of the process and tariff generation online.
Graintek UK, from Huntly, won a silver award for its baby portable grain dryer which can run from a 13 amp plug. Managing director Kenny Addison said a model version of the dryer shown at the last Royal Highland Show had led to 35 inquiries from farmers. “It’s designed for the small farmer who maybe has just 200 tonnes, and because it’s portable it can be shared with neighbours,” he said.
A silver award went to Kubota UK for their M7003 Premium KVT tractor and BV Series TIM round baler. The company’s TIM (tractor implement management) means the implement is able to control certain tractor functions, which can offer advantages such as reducing driver fatigue and increasing comfort and efficiency.
Massey Ferguson also won silver for their MF 8S tractor which was built from a blank canvas following a “voice of the customer” survey. Feedback underlined the need for comfort, ease of use, value for money, reliability, intuitive and convenient controls, efficiency transmitting maximum power to the ground, 100% connectivity and the ability to work with the most demanding implements.
Other silver award winners included Safe Worksite for their safe forestry app which ensures all risk assessments and documentation such as training and maintenance of equipment is in one place and up to date. There are plans to roll this out to the farming industry.
The Small Robot Company won silver for their “end-to-end per plant farming” system which uses a robot to scan fields for weeds, devises a treatment plan then activates a second robot to go to the spot and kill the weed.
The final silver award went to Smart Farmer for their smart farmer app which records daily machinery safety checks, shares machinery issues between operators on farm, and logs usage hours and service notifications. A built-in lone working feature allows the system to track the GPS location of workers and, when it recognises no movement, an alert is sent to the farmer that a worker could be in danger.