Robotics developments tend to fall into two camps: tech or machinery manufacturers seeing an opportunity in the market or farmers looking to solve a challenge on their own and similar farms. The Earth Rover CLAWS robot is in the latter category, with Pollybell Farm, one of its developers, looking to tackle weed control issues on its organic enterprise. Yet the business now finds itself with a product which offers much wider potential as chemical weed control becomes increasingly restricted.
Starting organic
Pollybell Farm is a diverse farming business on land ideally suited for vegetable production – fertile, free draining peats over sand or clay near Doncaster.
The farm underwent organic conversion beginning in 1997, as director James Brown explains. “We began with the worst land, as during the process there are two seasons with no income apart from grants, at a time when the business is also investing in staff and machinery so we needed the productivity from conventional crops. We now have 2,000ha in the mixed rotation that is key to organic production with grass clover leys on which we finish 500
