Brash Ag

What are the biggest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing agri-tech in the USA? Is the US ahead of the rest of the world and what could the UK agri-tech sector learn from the USA?

This week Kit says farewell (for now at least) to the United States of America and Mississippi State University and the Agricultural Autonomy Institute that has been his home for the last 6 months. To try and capture his thoughts and insights while they are fresh in his mind Ray guides Kit through a SWOT analysis to dive deeper into what makes the US ag-tech sector tick and what the future could hold for American farmers and innovators. What is the US really good at, what could be improved and what looming challenges face the country and its farmers?

As ever the co-hosts provide some thought provoking statements with some humour and plenty of real world experience…

O and some final breaking news!

Who will win in the Bobcat vs Caterpillar patent showdown? Is this the end for Monarch tractors? Is Tafe at the top of its game? Has AI ruined Linkedin content?

This week Ray and Kit catch up to talk about the sad demise of the struggling pioneering tractor brand Monarch. With nearly a quarter of a billion dollars invested, how did the firm run out of runway before taking off?

Can Caterpillar and Bobcat bury the hatchet in their legal dispute over skid steer tech? Or is the US farm market reliance on these little workhorses too big a market to give up without a fight?

Tafe posts record tractor sales with a whopping 214,000 units sold in the year to date. While The West struggles, can the East steal a march in the tractor market?

What’s grinding Kits gears this week? With AI taking over as the go to for content creation, has Linkedin lost its shine? Are influencers on the platform too reliant on the likes of Chat GPT from Open AI and does this mean real insights are being recycled or missed altogether?

Why was the future of the tractor anything but secure at the start of the 20th Century? Why were tractors in the early 1900s so dangerous? How did one man transform farm mechanisation forever?

With over half a million tractors sold, the TE 20 or “Little Grey Fergie” is an iconic piece of classic machinery but the real innovation was the patented “Ferguson System” that it sported.

With the Patent for the 3-point linkage issued to Harry Ferguson 100 years ago in 1926, Kit and Ray dig deep into his history as an engineer, innovator, motor racer, pioneering aviator and business person.

How did his farming background and talent as an engineer lead him to revolutionise implement and tractor design, make farming safer, easier and create a design that is still being used on modern tractors?

How does Ferguson's story intertwine with the fortunes of some old but not forgotten brands such as; David Brown, Ford and Massey Harris and the modern business that live on with Agco, Massey Ferguson, TAFE and CNH.

The co-hosts also take some time to appreciate Harry Ferguson the man, with a keen attention to detail in all aspects of life be it dress code or building machinery and his uncanny knack for showmanship and a relentless drive for smaller lighter machinery that could help turn the tide of price inflation.

Can it be argued that Harry Ferguson is up there with the likes of John Deere and the steel mouldboard plough, Jethro Tull and the seed drill or Charles “Turnip” Townsend and the 4 crop rotation?

Resources:

Harry Ferguson: Inventor and Pioneer-Colin Fraser - ISBN 9780953365128 https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/9780953365128/

Ulster Transport Museum: https://www.ulstertransportmuseum.org/stories/harry-ferguson

Ferguson Club: https://www.fergusonclub.com/development-of-the-ferguson-system/

Can vertical farming become a viable option for supplying fresh produce during a crisis? How do the markets for vertically farmed produce change between cultures? What does the future look like for vertical farming?

This week Kit and Ray speak to farmer, entrepreneur and Nuffield Scholar Will Brown. Will explains his background in agriculture, growing up on a tenanted farm in Oxfordshire and how his experience in frozen food wholesale helped him to build a small scale vertical farming business alongside taking over the family arable operation. Will explains how a Nuffield Scholarship turbocharged his learning about vertical farming and also led to an epiphany about the business model for vertical farming alongside traditional farming and why he had to make a difficult call about continuing to build his vertical farming business, OX3 Greens.

Along the way Will turns the tables and gives Ray and Kit a grilling about autonomous agriculture and asks when he can have robotic tractors to help free up his time for him to make more entrepreneurial decisions on the farm.

Will is a forwarding thinking farmer with a passion for new technologies and business models and this episode is a must listen for engineers, farmers and founders.

How did pioneering agtech manufacturer Niao take a need for a demo day and end up launching a global accelerator for farm robotics? How has a rebrand from FIRA to Gofar opened up new opportunities to expand the organisation?

This week Ray and Kit speak to Maialen Cazenave Co-Director at the Gofar - Global Organisation for Agricultural Robotics. Maialen explains her background and how she found her way to agriculture from a non-farming background, leveraging her business skills and education to become a leader at Gofar.

Maialen explains how Gofar is looking to deliver more value to farmers, growers and machinery manufacturers through a world wide tour aimed at developing and encouraging peer to peer conversations. With events such as Lamma, EMIA and Agritechnica becoming more about technology and automation, how is Gofar differentiating itself in a constantly evolving industry?

With a front seat at the bleeding edge of commercialisation of innovation, Maialen is well placed to provide the co-hosts with some of her hot takes for new and emerging technologies in agritech. Will smart irrigation tech start to emerge as the climate changes? Will AI and data management become the new killer feature for autonomous systems on farms? Is harvesting the next big opportunity for agritech innovators and engineers to exploit?

Is it the end of the road for Agrointelli and their Robotti autonomous gantry platform?

In the spirit of “The Rest is Politics”, Kit and Ray take to the airwaves to discuss the breaking news of Agrointelli’s bankruptcy. While the company is currently still producing robots and fulfilling orders their liquidity challenges could mean the end of the line for the company founded in 2015 to commercialise academic research. With a Danish government fund keeping the lights on, can a deal be done before time runs out? The pair also discuss other autonomy plays in the agricultural space, are the likes of Agco and John Deer going to lose market share to smaller players or will massive distribution take the prize in the long run?

Also this week the co-hosts break the news of the termination of the joint venture between Mahindra and Mitsubishi in Japan. With Mahindra pulling out of the Japanese market and focusing on their domestic customers, Ray and Kit ponder as to the motivations for such a move? Is Mahindra turned off by the aging population in Japan or have they pulled away with all the IP they need to further grow their domestic offering?

Finally, with the rise of automation across industries, including farming, do we have enough technicians and apprentices to keep the machines working? The pair take on the debate?

O and some cool AI in construction: https://youtube.com/shorts/elT6Ggcx_vQ?si=Iag54RO6c2ei2Lcu

Can a war lead to more investment in vertical farming? How can a tractor help you iron your trousers? What new tech can farmers buy with the latest grant funding in the UK?

This Week Ray and Kit catch up for a much overdue news feed episode. With recent developments in the Middle East and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz all but ceased the UAE has experienced food supply disruptions. The co-hosts discuss the opportunities for vertical farming to be part of a food security plan for the country and how agricultural engineers (as ever) are part of the answer.

The pair also dive into the recently announced Farming Equipment and Technology Fund for 2026 and what new tech is supported this time round? Are farmers ready to invest in a grain weevil? Will UK dairy farmers have an appetite for mobile slurry separators?

Does Roger Robson-Williams have the marketing for electric tractor conversions nailed? How does ironing and running a toaster link to James Watt and horse power as a unit of measure…

How do you sell a brand new concept to some of the sharpest farmers and business people in Australia? What is the killer sales strategy? Is autonomy a barrier to adoption or do farmers need to think about things at a system level?

This week Kit and Ray are joined by Sam Scales, product specialist at Landpower in Australia,. Sam is pioneering the sale of Agxeed robots in Australia. Sam has a fascinating background going from an apprenticeship to Masters degree from Harper Adams alongside a wealth of experience from roles at Hawk Plant Hire, Railability and JCB.

Sam explains how a chance call from his good friend (and friend of the pod) Will Flittner, led to him and his wife travelling down under to work for Landpower, a huge scale dealership for Claas, Grimme and AgXeed equipment (to name a few of their brands).

Now a few years into the role Sam has been demonstrating, hiring and selling equipment to some of the world's most savvy farmers. Sam shares his secrets to delivering value for his discerning customers; from understanding agronomy, how autonomy can help improve the soil and applying a systems based approach to help farmers adopt new ways of working with machines that drive themselves.

This is a must for engineers, farmers and anyone trying to build a market for new technologies.

#engineering #agtech #agritech #agriculture #farming #swarmfarm #robotics #Australianfarming #Australia #farmingdownunder #automation

How much horse power is too much for a stock tractor? 300hp? 500? How about 5000hp? Does subscription free AI exist? and why are small bales King in the USA?

This week Kit brings us four of his top picks from the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville Kentucky. But before we hear about the latest Agritech Kit shares his experience from the Championship Tractor pull and some of the ear splitting engines fitted to these beasts of the arena.

Meanwhile at the show we heard from:

Eric Franks of Visionworks Camera Systems who tells us all about their subscription free AI safety cameras that promise to help drivers identify and avoid collisions with bystanders by providing alerts and distance measurements.

Mark Ray from GEA who explains the CattleEye system for tracking lameness in dairy herds using AI driven camera systems to monitor behaviour. Can prognosis be better than diagnosis and do the numbers stack up for all dairy businesses?

Bryce Baker of PTX talks through the latest developments from the GPS navigation company and how their hardware and software could help farmers to access autonomy for field operations such as corn carting and harvest. Could retrofit autonomous tractors open up opportunities to complete tillage tasks within time critical windows? Bryce also showcases the Arrowshot technology that can perfectly orient and place maize (corn) seeds in the ground during drilling to ensure all the leaves all all the plants are aligned in the field.

Ben Mansfield (a friendly face from the UK and Harper Adams days) describes how British manufacturer JCB is finding its niche in the US machinery sector with skid steers and telehandlers. Ben also explains how JCB is challenging perceptions about the role of a telehandler on the farm. Could a ‘construction machine’ really find a home working in an ag setting? European farmers think so.

As ever Ray and Kit deliver these insights with their own thoughts and insights…

Could farm machinery be the new frontline for the war on cyber crime? How will cyber threats shape the future of autonomy on farms and what can farmers and engineers do to protect themselves and each other?

In this episode Kit and Ray are joined by Ezekiel (Zeke) McReynolds to talk all things Cyber security and agritech. With a fascinating background that spans agricultural engineering and military work, Zeke is well placed to guide the co-hosts through the murky world of cyber crime and the vital work that is being done to help keep users, owners and the public safe.

The hosts share some of their experiences of how cyber security has been (or hasn’t been adopted) from their own experiences innovating in farm robotics and ag machinery space.

Zeke also offers some real down to earth examples of how farmers and engineers can implement cyber security in their day to day work without breaking the bank in the process. A big fan of Brash Ag, Zeke also echos the rallying cry to encourage more engineers into agriculture and highlights the opportunities for Cyber specialists to move to a more rewarding career supporting farmers and agtech in the field. Could agriculture help free more people from sinking forever into their seat cushions?...