This project's objective is to develop and demonstrate a fully automatic blueberry harvesting machine, one of the UK's most important soft fruit crops. The proposed machine is developed from prior IUK feasibility study (IUK78084). The project will construct and demonstrate to TRL 7 a full-scale working machine, including full CAD models and designs for onward manufacturing. It will be fully automatic and include novel berry removal and bush gripper systems to optimise crop quality and productivity at harvest. The machine is designed to remove berries from the bush by the use of innovative shaking systems. It can also fit inside the small greenhouses and polythene tunnels used by all UK and many EU blueberry producers. Following this project we will have a fully designed machine, which can then be manufactured at scale for widescale deployment by UK growers in the 2025\. This application creates new opportunities in farm automation for businesses anchored in the Launchpad region (Lincolnshire) but also underpins the economic and environmental sustainability of the soft fruit sector. The industrial scale is significant; blueberries are now the second largest soft fruit sold in the UK (£337m p.a.). The UK industry has been expanding to meet demand but even so we only have a 7% share of this market. Blueberries are well adapted to the UK summer climate and there is considerable opportunity to grow the UK share. However, the crop requires large amounts of typically migrant labour to pick the fruit, which represents c.40% of production costs. Driving labour productivity in the sector is crucial as it underpins longer term productivity. A more productive UK production base secures environmental sustainability, reducing carbon dioxide impacts, simply because there will be a reduced requirement to import fruit from overseas producers. The project will be delivered by an established consortium led by Eyre Trailers, who are a specialist agricultural engineering company that design and manufacture complex machines. In addition, they collaborate with the University of Lincoln, one of the UK's leading agri- tech focussed HEI's. The machine will be tested and co-created with two of the UK's leading blueberry producers; Mee's and Lutton Farms.

Project High-Speed Header (HSH) is a disruptive tractor mounted combine harvesting system avoiding the need for conventional high mass /power self-propelled machines. Project HSH cuts, threshes and will sieve grain within a tractor mounted header. It utilises existing on-farm tractor power for propulsion. It is an ambitious, transformational and game-changing idea with reduced financial cost and environmental impact - reduced end-to-end carbon emissions linked to the United Kingdom's carbon net-zero ambitions. Large machines cause soil compaction, and their cost is a barrier to entry to new farmers. They require very large fields, with known, consequential, and serious loss of biodiversity and carbon reservoirs from boundary hedges and ditches. Transforming agriculture to a sustainable model that regenerates biodiversity, increases the health of soils, and creates viable carbon stores requires a paradigm shift across the farming system. Delivering this vision will require new fleets of farm vehicles that are highly productive whilst light weight, low cost and flexible. Project HSH develops a novel (patented) tractor mounted combine harvesting implement, where grain is threshed and sieved inside the header _per se_ rather than an internal drum. This simple innovation significantly reduces harvester mass enabling a flexible tractor mounted system with 9m width headers. HSH is delivered by Eyre Trailers, agricultural engineers and HSH inventors, in collaboration with the Lincoln Institute of Agri Food Technology.