The ARA sprayer now supports over 20 crop algorithms, offering unmatched precision. (Image source: Ecorobotix)

Swiss Certified B Corporation and sustainable Agtech leader, Ecorobotix recently announced 10 new beta crop algorithms for its AI Plant-by-Plant software

These algorithms which are now available for testing by ARA users, help in enhancing the ARA ultra-high precision sprayer's capabilities, thereby broadening the range of supported crops and enabling more farmers to reduce plant protection products and advance sustainable practices. Ecorobotix's latest software update (5.01) can be used for a wide variety of crops including broccoli, cauliflower, cotton, soy, sweetcorn and dicot weeds in wheat among others. 

Clients with an ARA sprayer can access these crop algorithms free of charge for a limited time. While still under refinement, they allow users to contribute valuable feedback for improving agronomic performance. By using these beta features, farmers gain early access to innovative tools while supporting the evolution of our precision technology. These solutions have been optimised to deliver exceptional accuracy across diverse field conditions, reducing chemical use while maintaining effective crop care. The Carrot and Dock + Thistle (for Grasslands) algorithms, successfully beta-tested in 2024, are now available as paid features. 

The ARA sprayer now supports over 20 crop algorithms, offering unmatched precision for herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, fertilisers, and bio stimulants. With up to 95% reduction in chemical use, the technology empowers farmers to achieve sustainable practices without compromising productivity. Flexible alternatives like the All-Green or Row algorithms are available for crops not yet covered.

Ecorobotix’s innovations are now accessible in 15 European countries including Canada, South America, the US and New Zealand, expanding sustainable farming solutions globally.

These awards recognise the most innovative designs in engineering products or systems for the food and agriculture industries. (Image source: New Holland)

New Holland Agriculture recently announced that it has been honored with three prestigious AE50 Awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)

These awards recognise the most innovative designs in engineering products or systems for the food and agriculture industries. New Holland's IntelliSense Bale Automation, CropSpeed Monitoring System, and UltraFeed Pickup have each been acknowledged for their groundbreaking contributions to agricultural technology.

IntelliSense Bale Automation: Revolutionising Baling Efficiency 

The IntelliSense Bale Automation system has set a new standard in the large square baler industry. This cutting-edge technology for New Holland’s BigBaler range offers the potential for greater productivity, bale quality, fuel efficiency and operator comfort by automating key baler and tractor functions. It integrates SmartSteer swath guidance and IntelliCruise II speed control, utilising LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology to provide precise navigation and real-time adjustments. Farmers have underlined the system's ability to automate feedrate and swath guidance, which significantly reduces operator fatigue and increases efficiency.

CropSpeed Monitoring System: Enhancing Crop Management

The CropSpeed Monitoring System featured on the FR Forage Cruiser self-propelled forage harvesters is the first system of its kind in the industry, and it’s based around a spout-mounted radar sensor that monitors the crop flow leaving the machine, detecting any change in its rate in relation to the forage harvester’s forward speed. Operators using the system have the potential to reduce blockage likelihood and make dense blockage far less likely to occur in the machine, with the cleanout and work resumption being far faster. This system also helps less-experienced operators operate with more confidence to ensure they can maximize the output of the FR Forage Cruiser with minimum operator training before getting in the seat.

UltraFeed Pickup: Maximising Forage Harvester Productivity

The UltraFeed Pickup head is designed to enhance the performance of New Holland's FR Forage Cruiser self-propelled forage harvesters. Presented in 3.0 m, 3.5 m and 4.0 m working widths, the UltraFeed Pickup efficiently handles larger windrows and improves crop flow through the harvester. Its robust belt-driven driveline and innovative auger design ensure increased capacity, uptime, and service life. The UltraFeed Pickup also features a large roller windguard and optional auto greasing system, further optimising productivity and reducing maintenance. The AE50 Awards will be presented at the Agricultural Equipment Technology Conference (AETC), which is scheduled to take place from 9-12 February 2025, in Louisville. This event will celebrate the most innovative designs in agricultural engineering, including New Holland's award-winning technologies.

The platform enables more frequent datasets to be gained with no additional stress. (Image source: UK Agri-Tech Centre)

Following a partnership between David Ritchie (Implements) Ltd and the UK Agri-Tech Centre, a project, named ‘Lamb Monitor’, was created that aims to measure and monitor lamb performance, reduce farmers’ labour time and protect the welfare of lambs during the weighing process

The partners recognise that one of the most essential tasks involved in the production of lamb is the weighing of growing lambs in order to monitor their liveweight gain and suitability for sale. However, this is a time-consuming process and can be stressful to the lambs being gathered and weighed. Traditionally, weighing is carried out as often as once a fortnight, meaning the gap in daily live weight gain is not being monitored.

The platform enables more frequent datasets to be gained with no additional stress. Such data would allow lamb producers to monitor growth rates, enabling advanced and accurate predication of lamb sales as well as providing information with which to alter feeding, grazing and breeding management. In order to turn lamb weighing into a less stressful and time-intensive activity, this project aims to design, prototype and validate on-farm an automated, in-field lamb weighing solution.

Three different designs will be evaluated, with a walk-over weigher, creep feed attractant and climb on platform designed to utilise a lamb’s play instinct, with a data-handling app being developed alongside which will work with all three designs. The project will also develop a metered feed creep system, which prevents the dominant animals getting more than their share of feed and provides a restriction on intake of feeds which could cause ill-health if over-fed.

Using one of Ritchie’s trial farms and three of the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s satellite farms, Ritchie will construct initial prototypes for each design of weigher and commission them on-farm for validation. Farmers will continue to weigh their lambs as they currently do, with data gathered from this and the auto-weighers being compared to gain insights into the reliability and value of the data gathered from the auto-weigher, versus conventional weighing practice by the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s data and automation team.

Lamb weight data will also be carried through to Ritchie’s existing auto-drafting equipment to allow for lambs with sufficient weight data to be drafted automatically, reducing lamb stress and operator time at drafting. Lifecycle assessment will be used to examine the differences in carbon intensity between lamb systems with and without auto-weigher solutions to quantify the difference high-resolutions Daily Live Weight Gain monitoring may bring.

Charlie Brown, product development manager at Ritchie, said, “We hope to bring some level of automation and improved efficiency to the sheep industry with this product. The first prototype was created after farmer-led interactions resulted in us making efficiencies within the industry. Following field trials and farmer feedback we are refining the product for our Mk2 trial of the prototype.”

Hayley Gerry, project manager at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said, “This project has enabled the UK Agri-Tech Centre to bridge a gap that the industry has identified where efficiencies could be made. Using our farmer network, we are able to test and validate the prototypes in a commercial set up to allow for feedback from the farmers. This will allow Ritchie to commercialise a product that will make farming more efficient.”

Research conducted by CIEL in 2020 showed how using measures such as data capture and use can have significant impact on Green House Gases (GHG) intensity of lamb production.

By finishing lambs at a younger age and reducing age at first lambing, amongst other factors, two hill farms had a 68% and 49% reduction in GHG emissions (kgCO2e/kgLW), and a lowland farm showed a reduction of 37% using these measures. In addition, Morgan-Davis et al (2018) estimated that precision livestock farming (PLF) tech can save farmers between 19% and 36% labour depending on the farm.

This study did not include an auto-weigher, rather just performance recording using electronic identification and software packages. The ability to use a lamb-monitor to expand on this will only add to the savings PLF tech can afford. With regard to welfare, the sheep weigher will significantly reduce the time requirement for farmers by not having to gather and weigh regularly, allowing them to better use their time either on other needs in the enterprise or to help improve the work life balance of farms and farm workers.

Improved animal welfare is achieved through less gathering and handling of sheep, ensuring a higher welfare food product is produced at the end as well as reducing the inherent risk in livestock handling to the farmers.

The stainless stell lift provides an efficient and safe way to move raw materials and products within a hygienic production environment. (Image source: Dinnissen)

This innovative stainless steel lift saves space, accelerates work processes, and minimises safety risks through automated, safe vertical movement of raw materials and goods

Designed to meet strict hygienic standards and made entirely of stainless steel, the lift guarantees full reliability. The idea for the stainless steel lift emerged during a project in the United States. Dinnissen built two mixing lines there for a major multinational in dietary supplements (collagen powder). During this project, Dinnissen specialists Frans Bakker and Melvin van Hilst noticed that the design was not sufficiently safe. Pallets with raw materials had to be placed on a platform at a height of 8 meters, which involved significant risks. Back in the Netherlands, they decided to develop a safer solution together: a lift to safely elevate the pallets with raw materials.

The idea was immediately well received by the client. They searched for a supplier capable of delivering fully stainless steel lifts without hydraulics, due to stringent hygienic requirements. However, the search brought no outcome. When it became clear that no suitable supplier could be found, Dinnissen decided to design and build the lifts themselves, fully tailored to the client’s needs.

The stainless steel lift for pallets, IBCs, and FIBCs provides an efficient and safe way to move raw materials and products within a hygienic production environment. This innovative system meets the strict hygiene standards of the food industry, saves space, ensures safety, and accelerates work processes.

The lift’s design is fully aligned with the highest safety and hygiene standards, with stainless steel as the primary material. Stainless steel is not only corrosion-resistant but also easy to clean, minimizing the risk of contamination. Moreover, the stainless steel lift is highly versatile: it can easily handle various product types, including pallets, drums, big bags, and sack goods.

Dinnissen has further enhanced the lift’s safety by opting for a mechanical belt drive instead of hydraulics. This not only improves hygiene but also makes the system more reliable and durable. Additionally, the lifts comply with safety standards, such as CE certification, thanks to collaboration with the Liftinstituut in The Netherlands. This partnership ensures compliance and safe operation in industrial environments. The fully stainless steel lift features its own control system, including LOTO provisions and fall protection, to ensure maximum safety. Everything is fully compliant with the EN 81-30:2010 regulations.

Dinnissen designs the stainless steel lift entirely according to the specific requirements of the customer. This includes considerations such as height, capacity, or the specific configuration of input and output routes. Dinnissen ensures that the lift seamlessly integrates into the production process. The lifts can be built in various heights and have a lifting capacity ranging from 500 to 2000 kg.

Dinnissen has already built several stainless steel lifts and is currently producing multiple units for various customers.