Muddy Machines won Agri-Tech Innovator of the year at the BFAs!

Last night the British Farming Awards was hosted by Patrick Kielty and joined by over 800 farmers and industry specialists, the night was an incredible testament to the determination and resilience of the industry. Muddy Machines won the gold award for Agri-Tech Innovator of the year. Huge congratulations to the company and to Cobrey Farms for supporting them in achieving this award.

With labour shortages and increased pressure on farmers to produce food sustainability, Muddy Machines has developed field robots to harvest vegetables, such as asparagus. During the pandemic, Muddy Machines teamed up with large-scale vegetable business Cobrey Farms, Herefordshire, to build small, lightweight electronically powered harvest robots called Sprouts.

The company, which was founded in 2020, by Florian Richter and Christopher Chavasse, completed field tests with the product in October 2021 and is believed to be the first in the world to have proven the commercial viability of green asparagus harvesting. Farms like Cobrey require a high volume of seasonal workers for a number of tasks, primarily for weeding and harvesting. Asparagus is one of the most labour-intensive crops as harvesting occurs daily throughout the 12-week season. Extreme labour shortages during the last three years have left hundreds of tonnes of produce rotting in the fields, especially for vegetables with specific growing patterns such as asparagus, broccoli and courgettes.

On winning, Florian Richter and Christopher Chavasse said:

“It feels incredible. We have been working hard over two and a half years and we believe the future is robotic in agriculture. It’s great to see it come to fruition and see it recognised.”