Stink Bugs and Showcasing Agritech Start-Ups

This vlog is for you if:You’ve been affected by the Microsoft outage this weekYou want to make better use of your on-farm data or have a solution to help farmers achieve thatYou are looking for ways to increase your water resilience You have a technology to help deliver against the grand challenge around environmental intelligence and emissionsYou like chickensWe’ll be exploring the role of environmental sensors and data modelling in farm management, alongside potential system vulnerabilities and cyber risks associated with increasingly connected agricultural technologies on 26th November (NB Different venue to the one I said in the video – doh!!). Our Demo Day at Salle Farms (8th Dec) welcomes farmers, tech developers and researchers to discover new solutions for data management and use of AI on farm. And you can buy your Christmas tree as well!OFWAT’s Agri-Water Cross-Sector fund is seeking proposals from £200k-£2M as part of their decade-long £600m Innovation Fund – could you access some of it?The UK Space Agency is calling for £400k proposals from those using satellite data environmental intelligence for climate, nature and natural capital OR environmental emissions monitoring and verification. And a warm welcome to new members: Zyme – delivering PR and marketing support for agri-life sciences AgriCPS – with 150m farmers as customers, they are your one stop shop for field and crop monitoring, supply chain visibility and precision insights. And 1 minute in….a bit of chicken action…….Have a great weekend!News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you have your ticket? Have you planned your day?How will you ensure you strike gold with the connections you'll make and the insights you'll gain? (No Shields needed). In other news…💭 Reflecting on the Autumn Budget and what it means for agri-tech innovation and farmers and growers. 📆 Save the date of Nov 26th to explore digital transformation to manage the threats to agriculture from digital and climate risks. Big thinking around digital resilience, and protecting agriculture from soil to cloud. 💷 And the new call from Defra for health soils and water for environmental sustainability will open on the 19th November. Projects of £1 – 1.5m, closing date 11th January. Now, how to fold up that robot……News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the 13th AgriTechWeek draws to a close, we look back over the Week – and its entire history going back to 2014! Plus, it’s never too early to think about Christmas lunch, and finally clarity is in sight around the UK-EU position around use of agri-chemicals and precision breeding technologies. 🗓️ Agri-Tech Week has seen over 110 farm walks, seminars, tours, workshops and mini-sympiosia delivered from across the Agri-TechE membership, both online and in-person, with over 300 BASIS Reg Ltd points allocated to farmers wanting to log their attendance as part of their Continuous Professional Development (over 500 points if you include those crazy days when our REAP conference was part of the Week). 🙏 A huge thank you to everyone who hosted an Agri-Tech Week 2026 event.......and we already have a commitment from one of our members to host an event for – (whisper it) – Agri-Tech Week 2027! 🪳 Plus a catch-up this week with Tim Lacey of Hutchinsons revealed the true extent of this year’s #insect pest problem on certain fruit and veg crops. 📣 Linked to the ag-chem challenge, clarity is in sight as the new date is revealed for the Summit between the EU and the UK (postponed from July). 😀 Finally, after years of working together, I got an in-person audience with the Marvellous Marlene Huntley, Executive Director at Horticulture Nova Scotia – plotting and planning for future closer working between our members!News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vlogging from G's Group after a Growers' Forum meeting organised by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and chaired by Mayor Paul Bristow. What could Andy Burnham's plan for devolution innovation and #agritech in particular across the UK? And what were the pressing issues facing some of the big farming and agri-food businesses in the room? (Spoiler alert: 🚰 🚜 🔬👩‍🏫). 🌱 How breeders can unlock value capture across the entire agri-food value chain – check out the interview on the Agri-TechE website with David Coop, MD of Elsoms Seeds, ahead of the session at #REAP2026 where he’ll be speaking. REAP will also see people podcasting, and you be putting yourself in the shoes of a retailer.....how will YOU choose what produce to stock?📣 Matching supply and demand when it comes to robotics adoption in agri-food, through a national hub - with over £7m of investment. "HARVEST" is a Hub for Agri-Food Robotics, Validation, Engineering and Skills Translation and Agri-TechE is excited to be working with Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology on the knowledge exchange activities of the programme, alongside Dyson Farming, B-hive Innovations, Dynium and more (inc Dogtooth Technologies, Cranswick Farming, British Berry Growers, SAGA ROBOTICS // THORVALD, JABAS.ai, Barclays Eagle Labs and Bishop Burton College.🫣 And next week really is Agri-Tech Week - starting 19th October…….! #ATW2026News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you Claire Donkin and team for having us at your brilliant Peat Free Pathway event at Fountain Plants Ltd. The learnings from the discussions have been shared by Kate Brunswick and Laura Bouvet with the Agri-TechE team – clearly the transition to peat-free is neither rapid nor straightforward but your event got the industry talking together. 🚜 From fixed fee to future rights, discounted access to royalties, we had a talk by polymath plant scientist/ farmer / patent agent Andrew Tindall of HGF, who helped us navigate how farmers can be rewarded and incentivised for their input into collaborative projects and trial work such as through the ADOPT programme. 📣 Calling all innovators and farmers! Our next on-farm Demo Day will be on December 8th on the SALLE FARMS estate, focusing on AI and data interrogation. Come and bring your tech to tackle the challenges, as outlined by our host farmer Andrew Peal. Exhibition, pitching and sponsorship opportunities available. 🌱 🔬 🛜 Land use change, AI on-farm, food safety from field to fork, a farm walk, post-harvest innovations and more! Many of next week's #AgriTechWeek2026 events are sold out, but some still have availability – from Newcastle to Norwich, we have curated a suite of online and in-person agritech events for you, designed and hosted by a range of our members, including AMFRESH Group, YAGRO, University of Essex, Norwich Research Park, ADAS, University of Lincoln, British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN), Newcastle University, Rothamsted Enterprises. 🚩 Have you booked your REAP ticket yet? Prices go up slightly after next week, so to get the cheaper rate, grab yours ASAP – and bursaries are available for students and farmers. Finally, some exciting news for UK agritech – featuring a ministerial visit to Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology this week… and Agri-TechE is part of it too!News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Stakeholder Group is so important to us to help shape our thinking and our future activities. Thanks to Richardson Milling UK for hosting our latest meeting, which saw really helpful input from farming, academia, agri-tech entrepreneurship and commercial innovation. The latest in our “micro-learning” series about intellectual property in agri-tech rolled off the press, courtesy of Carsten Reinhard from J A Kemp. Who knew edible fungi are also subject to Plant Variety Rights? (ICYMI catch-up via the recording in your Member Stash). Farmer-focused knowledge exchange – our Farmer First Innovation Group this month talked about crop disease management and diagnostics, featuring talks from Niab, Vivent Biosignals and Outbreak Labs. Data-driven Life Cycle Analysis – you’ve gotta measure it to manage – and report it…..also available on your Member Stash to hear from Gavin Milligan, and case studies from Ponda and Recycled Crop Nutrients A warm welcome to Soleni Systems Ltd – helping with project management of complex agri-tech innovations Also joining us this week is the STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council – bringing physics, space, computational science into agri-tech (for example tracking the movements of nutrients and water through soil and even living plants). And some STOP PRESS news about funding available to help Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Food Standards Agency use engineering biology more effective – from vet vaccines to eDNA and water quality - £200k contracts up for grabs. What a week – we need a weekend now to recover from all that!News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🪟 🫣 The Sustainable Farming Incentive window opened – and shut – on Tuesday….it felt a bit of a manic panic way to allocate funding to land-owners to deliver environmental land management, but let’s hope for some major impact on the ground. 🎠 The World Agri-Tech Summit was interspersed with an evening Reception we hosted with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The Agri-Tech Carousel format enabled companies to showcase their tech, ranging from biostimulants (SugaROx), to herd improvement (AgriSense, crop disease diagnostics (Optigene), restoring disease resistance to plant varieties (Resurrect Bio) and measuring microscale movement for fertility and particles in agrifood and labs (Dyneval). 💸 Bramble Partners had some exciting news for our industry with a retailer partnership to bring fresh, supply-chain-focused investment into the sector. The Tesco Agri-tech Challenge final saw a line-up of awesome early and later stage businesses all aiming to positively impact the supply chain. Check out the winner of the early stage category at #REAP2026. 📣 Finally, a shout-out to the amazing things I sadly had to miss this week – the Precision Breeding Conference at the John Innes Centre, the Poster Showcase hosted by the Norwich Research Park and a huge congrats 🥂 to Harper Adams University on your 125th birthday. Genuinely gutted not to have been able to be at all of the above...News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week:👏 A big thanks to everyone who focused on finance with us - whether you were an investor, an early stage venture, or just came to listen and network. With fabulous keynotes which stretched our brains about the investable future of the food system, we discovered big opportunities for the new “biological intelligence” layer…. Plus 10 early stage ventures in agrifood, showcasing their solutions from frost protection to improved nutrition in peas, innovation to control cabbage stem flea beetle and water retaining soil additions. 📣 A warm welcome to new member Concept to Commercial who officially launched yesterday at the event - helping agri-food innovation businesses win funding and build commercial engines🙌 Also to new member Cytotrait, taking a new approach to precision-breeding. Plants and animals don’t just have one #genome, they have loads more DNA in tiny compartments in cells (chloroplasts and mitochondria if you’re interested). So huge potential to apply new genomic techniques in these other genomes. 🪳 🍎 Thinking all things stinking – namely the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, an invasive crop pest – hitching a ride into the UK via an unexpected source. Niab is leading the UK’s effort in locating and mapping their spread through its work at East Malling. Plus we headed out into the orchards to hear collaboration with tech companies – not least FOTENIX, OptiGene, SOIL MOISTURE SENSE LTD and Delta-T Devices.🚜 A sense of the mood music around technology and investment among farmers with the McKinsey & Company's biennial Global Farmer Outlook report - a new blog about this landed this week on the Agri-TechE website. 🔔 And REAP registrations are ramping up.....have you bought your ticket yet?News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

👉 We’re growing the Agri-TechE team…..are you – or someone you know – our next new recruit? https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/opportunity/team-support-administrator/📣 Final call to “Focus on Finance” with us next week to learn more about different financing options to start and scale your #agritech company and hear from the latest batch of entrepreneurs. Plus SyndetAI will be helping all our start-ups identify the hot (and not-so-hot) spots in their businesses using their proprietary platform. 🔔 Prepping for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive window opening……at some point…..after Sept 22nd……? Discussing this with the land agents, ecologists and ag business consultants from Brown&Co LLP at their drinks reception at Queens College. 🤝 Claim your member discount to attend the World Agri-Tech Summit in London.🙌 New members featured this week are all about herd and plant health:🐄 💻 farmdrive's livestock management platform helps manage the beef supply chain, logging performance, health treatments, compliance records and profit margins🌱 CEON is all about plant nutrition and soil improvement with their range of fertilisers, soil care products, and biostimulants. A warm welcome to you both….and more new members to welcome next week!News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More money, making the most of membership and maize…. Agri-TechE’s weekly vlog is recorded alongside (an ever-dwindling) hay store.This week:🤝 Meet the right people, increase your visibility, and grow your network and impact – we walk through how to max out your Agri-TechE membership on Tuesday 8th September at noon. Prospective members also very welcome….come and be part of the community!💷 Two new grant funds landed – the Farmer Collaboration Fund and the Small R&D Partnership competition. Together they total £43m….sitting alongside the #ADOPT grant programme as well, there is a lot of money around for innovation and collaboration.New members welcome to the ecosystem:💡 📉 If you’re a farmer looking to pay less for your energy, the digital platform developed by Multitude Advisors Ltd is worth a look.📈 And for all those wanting to advance the commercial maturity of their agri-tech innovation, check out Juster AgriConsult.Our latest episode of the #Agri-Chat podcast landed – I talked to Peter Palmer of Prodata Weather Systems about #evapotranspiration and weather sensors. Big congrats to the #BrashAg podcast on reaching your milestone, and thanks for inviting me as a guest on your 100th ep.🌦️ 🌽 And finally, deploying AI to reveal the “golden window” during the summer which causes up to half a tonne of crop to be lost for every 10mm shortfall of water.  News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE. We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions. https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.