The Robotti 150D is the first robotic tractor to be fully operational on a British farm. It s been bought by the owners of Home Farm Nacton in Suffolk. Producing both organic and conventional vegetables, including leeks, brassicas, onions, red beet, potatoes, fodder beet, sugar beet and cereals, across 1940ha, Home Farm was looking for ways to adopt more advanced technology into the business. Andrew Williams, farm director at Home Farm, said: “A large amount of our produce is organic, so we are increasingly limited in how we can control weeds. Mechanical weeding is repetitive work, as is manual weeding, and sourcing seasonal, overseas labour is becoming increasingly difficult.
Robotti the first robotic tractor in operation in the UK
Home Farm Nacton in Suffolk has taken delivery of a Robotti 150D, from Danish manufacturer Agrointelli. It is the first robotic tractor in the UK, and is now fully operational on the farm.
Producing both organic and conventional vegetables, including leeks, brassicas, onions, red beet, potatoes, fodder beet, sugar beet and cereals, across 1940ha, Home Farm was looking for ways to adopt more advancedtechnology into the business. According to Andrew Williams, farm director at Home Farm the Robotti 150D ticked all of the boxes.
Future-proof the farm
“A large amount of our produce is organic, so we are increasingly limited in how we can control weeds. Mechanical weeding is repetitive work, as is manual weeding, and sourcing seasonal, overseas labour is becoming increasingly difficult. We wanted to future-proof the farm and Robotti is perfectly suited to our set-up.”
He put the company in touch with Agrointelli a farmer-owned agricultural machinery maker in Denmark and by January, Andrew had secured approval from Home Farm’s board of directors to introduce the new technology on the farm. The new piece of 150 horsepower kit costs around £150k versus about £120k for a conventional manned machine, and is said to be highly fuel efficient.
“I am very, very pleased and excited about it,” said Mr Wiliams.
The machine only in operation since mid-April was already proving its worth, he said although he admits it has been a learning curve.
On the first day after its arrival, the team at Home Farm Nacton tried it out on a potato field. What the farmers failed to realise was that while the field had been initially mapped out using GPS, it hadn’t when the field was de-stoned or when it was planted. That meant the mapping co-ordinates no longer reflected the precise plan on the ground and the weeder went awry as a result.
He put the company in touch with Agrointelli a farmer-owned agricultural machinery maker in Denmark and by January, Andrew had secured approval from Home Farm’s board of directors to introduce the new technology on the farm. The new piece of 150 horsepower kit costs around £150k versus about £120k for a conventional manned machine, and is said to be highly fuel efficient.
“I am very, very pleased and excited about it,” said Mr Wiliams.
The machine only in operation since mid-April was already proving its worth, he said although he admits it has been a learning curve.
On the first day after its arrival, the team at Home Farm Nacton tried it out on a potato field. What the farmers failed to realise was that while the field had been initially mapped out using GPS, it hadn’t when the field was de-stoned or when it was planted. That meant the mapping co-ordinates no longer reflected the precise plan on the ground and the weeder went awry as a result.