This project will develop a precision crop-spraying “drone” system initially targeted at the UK market, securing both HSE and CAA compliance, but with global market reach and market opportunity. The crop-spraying “drone” will be based around VTOL Technologies VTOL Flying Wing patented “drone” platform whose unique Flying Wing feature will provide the “tank” for the chemical containment, delivering crop-spraying systems that are perfectly adapted to the different UK geographic constraints and UK agriculture. Such a system, would substantially reduce precision crop-spraying costs, improve crop-spray quality when compared against person crop sprayers and enabled improved point-location spraying when compared against current farm machinery methods or manned aerial crop-sprayers. Leading UK developed emerging sub-system technologies will be used to provide the advanced capabilities needed for this unique, potentially disruptive system. The eventual system will be a breakthrough in the industry and provide a platform for new high-technology jobs in the UK with great potential for substantial exports particulary in Europe and North America.

To develop an Autonomous control system for street cleansing functions to improve road and public safety whilst optimising efficiency.

Determining the correct date on which to harvest potatoes is one of the most critical decisions potato growers must make. If they lift their potatoes too early, they may be below the optimum size resulting in less than the maximum potential output being produced, if they lift them too late, they may be too large to meet buyer specifications significantly devaluing them. Either way the grower loses potential income. Recent research carried out at Harper Adams University (HAU) has shown that it is possible to use new technologies to non-invasively measure the total biomass of potato tubers in the soil. Other ongoing research at the university has also shown that it could well be possible to process images of potato plants to accurately determine the number of tubers each potato plant will produce. The aim of this project is to develop and test an innovative prototype system to measure and map average potato sizes and potato biomass throughout fields. This will enable early interventions and/or selective harvesting to take place, thereby optimising crop yield and resource use. It is anticipated that this technology could generate an estimated 5 - 10% increase in UK marketable potato production at little or no extra cost, whilst assisting with reducing waste throughout the supply chain.

Hands Free Farm is a collaborative industrial research project aiming to create the technologies required to operate a farm autonomously building on experience, criticism and learning from the Hands Free Hectare. This project will develop swarm robotic skills, smart machines and implements, providing a platform to evaluate technology development and economic studies to build the business case for robotic systems in agriculture. Developing practical solutions that are suitable for use on farm by farmers not software technicians. The project will utilise compact farm equipment to demonstrate the benefit of smaller more precise machines to agriculture and the wider world.

To develop a novel product that will reduce the impact of drought stress on wheat delivering enhanced yield and increase the ability to farm on marginal land.

"Ruminants worldwide are affected by Johne's Disease (JD), or paratuberculosis, a fatal and highly infectious disease. JD severely impacts cattle welfare due to inflammation of their intestines, resulting in a profuse diarrhoea and emaciation. JD causes large economic losses due to decreased milk production estimated at over 4000 kg less milk produced in a lifetime, increased wastage of adult animals, increased susceptibility to other diseases: five times as likely to become lame and twice as likely to get mastitis, increased infertility and cost of diagnosis, monitoring and control programmes. Calves are usually infected via ingestion of the causal bacterium, referred to as MAP, present in colostrum or faeces of infected animals. JD is very hard to diagnose due to the long incubation period during which time clinical signs are absent. Furthermore, MAP is not completely killed by pasteurisation and can be present in retail milk and with some evidence it may be associated with Crohn's disease in humans. IceRobotics (ICE), an Agri-Tech producing SME company will lead the project, with Harper Adams University (HAU) as its scientific partner, together with the Dairy Research Centre of Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and Moredun Research Institute (MRI) as sub-contractors. A study undertaken by HAU using ICE sensor technology already demonstrated that daily lying time is significantly reduced in JD positive cows compared to JD negative cows around peak lactation. ICE will lead the analysis to detect JD from changes in animal behaviour, supported by MRI's world-leading Johne's expertise. Historic high-quality data will be utilised from HAU and SRUC research herds, alongside further new data from the HAU herd. The behaviour of uninfected and infected animals will be characterised and compared using measurements obtained from existing precision livestock technologies providing second-by-second monitoring individual animal behaviour. The novel output from this project will be a new Johne's Detection module to the CowAlert system, enabling ICE to improve its business performance in the UK and internationally. Additionally it will satisfy a market need for more timely detection of a severe and costly disease, at an economic cost. As a result of this project, farmers will benefit from early detection of JD, consequently improved control of JD, higher production efficiency and profitability. Cows will benefit from improved animal health and welfare. Milk retailers and consumers will benefit from less MAP in milk, consequently better food safety and quality. The environment will benefit from less greenhouse gas emission."

Poultry meat birds are bred for high muscle gain but require very careful husbandry. Current poultry monitoring technologies operate at flock level and do not provide high resolution data collection and analytics required by modern efficient poultry producers to make significant performance gains. RoboChick proposes a multi-functional robotic system capable of collecting data autonomously within a poultry shed to target point-of-need/point-of-care management. This feasibility project is multi- disciplinary, bringing together the animal welfare and ethology expertise of the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), the livestock-oriented engineering expertise of Harper Adams University (HAU), the innovative robotic engineering skills of Ross Robotics (RRL), and commercial poultry management skills of Applied Poultry Ltd (APL). The project will integrate these skills to investigate the feasibility and specify a highly functional robotic system for poultry production monitoring and management.

The aim of this project is to further develop innovative technologies for connected autonomous vehicles to accelerate adoption of driverless vehicles and allied technologies in the UK. This project will introduce innovative technologies to operate connected autonomous cars in a platoon formation from Stockport directly to the arrivals terminal at Manchester Airport. Concurrently, a platoon of three pods will transit passengers to and from a car park in the airport to the passenger terminals. Project Synergy will facilitate inclusive accessible transport for the aged and the visually impaired. Innovations include: rapid battery charging using graphene supercapacitors enabling power sharing between vehicles. An Artificial Intelligence system will provide natural conversation concierge service to users. Development of control strategies and sensor technologies to facilitate platooning. Design of secure connectivity solutions for real-time communications of the platoon convoy within urban infrastructure. Deployment of resource sharing such as audio and video between the vehicles during platooning operation. This project will lead to the formation of new business models to improve mobility and the environment whilst providing economic growth through new job and business creation.

To utilise new and emerging agronomic technologies to improve efficiency and reduce waste in salad crop production and develop new markets through the design and demonstration of next generation production systems for leafy salad crops.

The Hands Free Hectare aims to produce the first crop in the world to be grown completely autonomously - from establishment to harvest, no humans will enter the field. The project will modify existing farm machinery models to utilise control systems developed from open-source data, providing a low-cost route to on-farm machine control.

There is widespread concern about levels of salt consumption amongst UK consumers. Reducing salt (NaCl) content is often achieved by adding potassium salt (KCl), but this is inherently bitter, cannot be added in large quantities and has it's own health risks. The Quorn manufacturing process generates a water based effluent (Centrate) containing compounds called 5' Nucleotides & Glutamates (NAGs) and some rare sugars. These have been evaluated for use as a component of natural flavouring systems and have been found to be effective as a salt replacer and taste enhancer in savoury vegetarian foods, potato crisps and soups. Other applications have not yet been tested due to unavailability of NAGs in sufficiently large (kg) quantities. The proposed project is designed to evaluate a cost effective way of concentrating the effluent and using enzymes to maximise the NAGs to deliver a highly potent flavouring system. The NAGs can then be used as part of a flavouring system or to reduce added salt in a number of foods. This project is innovative in that, if successful, it will be the UK's first major source of NAGs that are not from a yeast based origin.

Whereas most work in optimising energy systems has taken place in urban areas, FARMERS looks at the rural and agricultural environment which is often characterised by fragile electricity distribution networks, no gas grid and a reliance on oil based fuels for energy and heat but it is also ideal for medium scale renewable generation some of which is highly intermittent. To date no research has been done on the many varied and cyclic loads, generation and energy security at the intersection of agriculture and renewable energy, the relative energy cost disadvantage communities rural areas suffer and how this could be minimised. FARMERS will examine the feasibility of optimising models for management of all kinds of renewable generation, energy storage and the asymetric loads that farming processes or electric vehicles may place on fragile rural distribution networks and examine how the use of heating oil and liquefied gas by farms and rural communities may be displaced. Farmers will examine and review the feasibilty of sustainable models for rural energy integration replicable in rural communities to benefit rural consumers and farm businesses across the UK.

Early stage detection of infectious agents in livestock destined for the human food supply chain includes tuberculosis, campylobacter, E coli, avian influenza and micro-organisms that cause mastitis. The agents cause diseases that cost UK and global agriculture billions of pounds every year. This TSB project will manufacture a new diagnostic platform, comprising an 'in-situ' air sampler and a hand-held detector for early stage monitoring of infections in crop and livestock situations, which has been termed the ‘Farm Monitor’. To focus the project Campylobacter has been chosen as the demonstration target organism. Previously funded TSB work showed the feasibility of developing this method as an early stage monitor for Campylobacter. Currently this bacteria causes over 460,000 cases, with 22,000 hospitalisations and over 100 deaths per year, costing the UK government over £900m/year. An early stage detection and monitoring system will give a cost benefit of up to £20m/year for UK chicken producers and also the public health risk from Campylobacter will be significantly reduced, resulting in economic savings to the NHS & UK plc up to £450m/year if government guidelines are met

Galantamine is a pharmaceutical product that had been an approved Alzheimer’s Disease treatment since 1998. Galantamine can be synthesised chemically but it is a difficult and expensive process. Producing galantamine from galanthamine extracted from plants is more cost effective, but supplies are limited. Daffodils are an economically feasible plant source for cultivation in the UK, and growing daffodils in upland areas triggers a 50% higher yield of galanthamine. This proposal will deliver a new approach for producing galanthamine based on integrating daffodil growing into existing upland pasture. This will increase the economic sustainability of hill farming by providing farmers with a high value crop while maintaining traditional farming systems in the upland areas. The project will develop the required machinery, quantify the yield of galanthamine achievable, and assess the impact on sheep performance of incorporating daffodil production into grazed pastures.

To increase market for current micro-AD system by incorporating and testing: i. Dewatering equipment to reduce digestate storage volume/cost. ii. Trickling filters for the recovery of water from liquid digestate for reuse in the micro-AD system.

AUTOPIC is a multi disciplinary project aimed at mechanising the harvesting of soft fruit through the use of autonomous vehicles and robotics. Partners include Harper Adams University, the Shadow Robot Company, Interface Devices Limited, BerryWorld and the National Physical Laboratory. The project is timely since the source of migrant seasonal fruit pickers is no longer supported by the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme and in general migration is being discouraged by government policy. This has had the net effect of creating a crisis of there not being sufficient workers to pick the soft fruit we take for granted in our supermarkets and potential increased reliance on imports. Further, labour issues are not confined to the UK so that if the project is successful there will be a significant export market for the project output. There are likely to be many benefits from the use of the AUTOPIC autonomous vehicle and its robotics and we believe that the new technology will be transformative for a new UK industry.

Weed control is becoming increasingly difficult due to herbicide resistant weeds and restriction of herbicides due to higher regulatory demands. In cereals, herbicide resistant blackgrass is a severe problem with no good solution and weed control in minor crops, such as vegetables, is now extremely problematic as older herbicides have been de-registered. There is an urgent need to examine alternative forms of weed control to allow growers to grow crops profitably. A consortium consisting of Syngenta, Harper Adams University, the University of Manchester and G's Fresh has been assembled to undertake a project that will deliver a system which will address these issues. The planned system integrates sensors for real-time crop and weed detection, with targeted micro-droplet application of non-selective herbicides or use of low-power lasers, to create a new and sustainable weed eradication technique. The technology platform will be applicable to all weeds in all crop types and will provide a step change in weed control for UK growers and a large export opportunity.

This project is a collaboration between Harper Adams University and three progressive British enterprises: sensor manufacturer IceRobotics, dairy consultancy Kingshay, and dairy company Dairy Crest. It will develop a comprehensive sensor-based engineering solution that enables dairy farmers to improve the health and welfare of their cows through timely and reliable alerting of health issues concerning individual animals, enabling them to take swift action to address animal health problems before they become more serious. The system will be designed to integrate as far as possible with existing farm systems and equipment, and will be fully accessible via mobile devices and over the internet. As well as system development, the project will involve field testing on research farms, economic validation on commercial herds, and various communication forums and events for the dairy farming community.

The proposed project is seeking funding to aid with 'the industrial research for a bale handling and logistical management tool that will work in line with a Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) system’. It will be designed around the Big Bale Transtacker and will apply automation, Global Positioning System (GPS) tagging and location technologies, as well as route planning algorithms to the development of an automated machinery system for collecting and transporting straw bales within CTF managed arable fields. At present there is no machinery available that can economically remove cereal straw from CTF managed fields. This is one of the biggest barriers preventing significant numbers of farmers from adopting CTF as they stand to lose £57.25/ha rather than make £73.52/ha profit if they can not sell their straw. Research suggests that if a solution to this problem were found, arable farmers could adopt CTF and see their cereal yields increase by 10 – 15% and their cultivation costs reduce by 60 – 70%. The project is to research and develop an innovative technological solution to address this problem thereby creating new markets in both the UK and abroad.

To design, optimise and produce a cost-effective, reliable, and efficient micro-scale anaerobic digester for local organic waste processing and energy production at farm food business scale.

The summary of overall project findings is as follows. • The concentrations of ammonia, urea, organic nitrogen and free available nitrogen in farm slurries and industrial fertilisers vary depending on the nature of the material in terms of its source, application and chemical composition. Pig slurry has different composition and characteristics to Cattle slurry. Pig slurries contain predominantly Ammonium Nitrogen, typically 70% and 30% Organic Nitrogen. Whereas Cattle slurry typically contains 60% Organic Nitrogen and 40% Ammonium Nitrogen. The age of the cattle slurry also has an impact on the nitrogen type available in the slurry with ageing resulting in a conversion of organic nitrogen to ammoniacal nitrogen. Total nitrogen contents in samples analysed during the laboratory and demonstrator trials on Harper Adams farm ranged from 650mg/l and up to 7000mg/l. However, once a solids settlement period was incorporated during sample trials the total nitrogen levels stabilised to within 2000 and 3000mg/l. Ammoniacal nitrogen levels varied as a proportion of the total nitrogen content of the slurry samples ranging from 8% and up to 75% of the nitrogen content. • The restrictions on ammonia pollution in agriculture vary from region to region, but all are becoming more stringent. In the UK nitrogen fertiliser regulations typically discriminates according to nitrogen availability, materials with high levels of available nitrogen such as poultry manure, pig slurry, cattle slurry and broiler manure are in some cases subject to application timing restrictions and additionally to rules which dictate application methods. The imposition of regulations such as IPPC and Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) in the UK have in recent years improved the utilisation efficiency of organic fertilisers; this has resulted in the reduced use of inorganic nitrogen sources, i.e. mineral fertilisers. In Denmark where similar regulation was imposed nitrogen fertiliser use has declined by 50% since 1990. The UN/ECE Gothenburg Protocol and the EU National Emissions Ceiling Directive have been implemented to control ammonia emissions (amongst other pollutants) at the national level. Both the Protocol and the Directive have national emission ceilings for 2010, and both are currently undergoing revision to include revised more stringent ceilings for 2020. • Laboratory and demonstrator trials successfully proved the feasibility of utilising enzymatic treatment to enhance the conversion of organic nitrogen to ammoniacal nitrogen as a precursor to controlled volatilisation and absorption. Ammoniacal nitrogen contents within the slurry matrix were improved by up to 50%. Thus offering higher potential yields in subsequent stages of the process the air assisted volatilisation, absorption and neutralisation of ammonia into a liquid ammonium form. • The DGC physical stripping and ammonia absorption method was proven to convert upto 85% of the ammonia in the slurry matrix into a liquid ammonium solution during early trials. • Further efficiency improvements and increased yields may be possible. High solids in the slurry and foaming was a real issue during laboratory and demonstrator trials which impacted greatly on the process performance. Better control of solids content and redesigning vessels and piping design for foaming control would improve fluid flows and increase aeration rates essential to the stripping/volatilisation process performance. • The CO¬2(eq) emissions associated with using (i) dairy slurry topped up with mineral fertiliser, (ii) mineral fertiliser alone, and (iii) ammonium nitrate recovered from dairy slurry as fertiliser on a crop of Winter Wheat grown on a medium soil with a soil nitrogen index (SNS) of 1 are presented in Section 2. The final emissions of the recovered Ammonium Nitrate from the AMM2FERT process are 3.26 tonnes CO2(eq)/ hectare which are lower than the emissions produced by using the standard farming practise of using slurry and topped up with mineral ammonium nitrate, but higher than those of mineral ammonium nitrate fertilisers alone. However, as described previously 98 % of the embodied emissions associated with recovered ammonium nitrate from AMM2FERT are due to the use of electricity in the system. Thus, a small reduction of the energy used in the process could reduce the total emissions dramatically. Further process optimisation work and incorporation of renewable energy supplies can potentially reduce the AMM2FERT process carbon footprint significantly. • Several new applications have been identified for the AMM2FERT process including i) direct conversion of ammonia from pig and cattle slurry to concentrated liquid ammonium-N fertiliser; ii) post-anaerobic digestion conversion of readily available ammonium-N to liquid ammonium-N fertiliser and iii) the enhanced growth of Urease enzyme producing microorganisms for nutrient growth and stabilisation. These applications present real market potential for future exploitation of the AMM2FERT process.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) disease caused by Fusarium and Microdochium spp. can result in significant reductions of yield and quality of cereals. The incidence of FHB disease is on an upwards trend and the strains implicated in the infection are diversifying. Such trends are predicted to continue as the effects of global warming become apparent. Mycotoxin levels in UK malting barley have been reported to be below the EU legislative safety limits, but the effect of sub-acute Fusarium infection on the viability and functional quality of UK malting barley has remained relatively unclear. Currently there is insufficient information and knowledge of the links between key agronomic variables (e.g. selection of barley variety/ agronomic and weather conditions) and the resultant severity of FHB in malting barley. Furthermore, the impact of infection with Fusarium species on the malting and brewing quality of the barley crop remains to be elucidated. The SAFEMalt project (Strategies Against Fusarium Effective in MALTing barley) is a 3-year multi-partner research initiative spanning the malting barley supply chain from barley breeder through barley grower and merchant to brewer. SAFEMalt will aim to determine the links throughout the supply chain from evaluating the impact of a series of agronomic variables on the incidence of FHB, through identification of the causal pathogens of FHB implicated to the subsequent impact on the functional properties of barley for malting and brewing. The role and contribution of varietal resistance in UK barley and timing of fungicide application against FHB will be determined. This project is a collaboration between partners with expertise in key sectors such as crop breeding, crop protection, agrochemical industry, farm management, malting and brewing in order to ensure that future agricultural production meets the needs of UK industry. The final output will provide new knowledge and practice incroporated into a growers toolkit with which to protect yield, quality and safety of malting barley in the production chain.

There is a close link between the rotational intensity of OSR, reduced yield and the presence of novel pathogens. Results clearly demonstrate Koch’s postulates for both Olpidium brassicae and Pyrenochaeta sp, and the impact of Pyrenochaeta sp on growth of oilseed rape. This project brings together novel molecular pathogen detection methodology with industry led variety screening, agronomic research and knowledge transfer capability. Specific activities in the technical approach include a combination of sampling of commercial and, field trials (both variety and fungicide/biological control agent) with appropriate sampling, assessment and data collection, and lab based qPCR analysis of samples. This project builds on existing primary research but covers areas not previously investigated. Innovative aspects will include the assessment of varietal tolerance to novel soil pathogens to unlock yield improvements of OSR. The control work will provide detail of techniques to alleviate the problem.Recent development of qPCR detection methods will facilitate this project enabling direct comparisons of pathogen levels in roots. The project builds on existing expertise to develop novel plant breeding and agronomy based solutions (opening up new markets) to address the emerging issue. These routes are suitable for developing a new robust IPM based strategy for dealing with these novel pathogens and increasing oilseed rape yields.