Video highlights of the UK Agri-Tech Centres capabilities to Transform Food Production
Watch the video highlights from a two-day event to promote the capabilities of the four UK Centres of Agricultural Innovation.
In March 2019 KTN, on behalf of Innovate UK, hosted a two-day event to promote the capabilities of the four Centres of Agricultural Innovation or Agri-Tech Centres, namely Agrimetrics, the Engineering, Precision and Innovation Centre (Agri-EPI), the Centre for Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) and the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL).
You can now watch our video to see highlights from both days of this event.
The 2019 programme was building on the success of a similar event last year but this year’s theme was expanded to focus on Crop and Livestock sectors on separate days. Both events were held at Cockle Park Farm, which is a fully operational farm owned by Newcastle University, so the technologies on display could be demonstrated as practical applications on farm. The aim was to demonstrate how the Agri-Tech Centres are contributing to the UK’s Industrial Strategy of Transforming Food Production, with a focus on the development and adoption of disruptive data-driven solutions.
The delegates were made up of key decision makers and end users from across the Agri-Food supply chain. Over 370 registrations were confirmed with 160+ participants at each day of the event, made up of research academics, government departments, including the Department for International Trade (DIT), Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Natural England, BBSRC, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), plus staff from the four Agri-Tech Innovation Centres. An overwhelming majority of delegates came from industry.
At the crop event there were 6 interactive “Zones” to highlight the capabilities that the Centres have to transform food production. These included demonstrations of strip tillage, field robotics, drone and satellite field measurements, novel ‘vertical’ production systems, diagnostic trailers, mesocosm, post storage mini pods, crop monitor and KORE field platforms and many other exhibits alongside a workshop on data by Agrimetrics.
At the livestock event the 6 interactive Zones included demonstrations of the porcine research unit, gait analysis, C-DIAL feeding/observation pens, tail-biting, live animal sensors and mobile units such as beef monitor crates, sensory lab, CT scanner, video presentation on cold plasma, satellite farms, poultry and dairy units.
Highlights of many of these exhibits can be seen in the video.
The Centres for Agricultural Innovation (or Agri-Tech Centres) are a collaborative model between the agri-tech sector and government, established as part of the UK Agri-Tech Strategy . To find out more about the capabilities of the four Agri-Tech Centres, and particularly the leading R&D capabilities and unique facilities accessible from each Centre, please click here.