Rising stars celebrate with farm engineering award

The best young agricultural engineer whose work is judged best at helping UK farms be more productive and sustainable will be celebrated at LAMMA 2024.

For the third successive year, event organisers have joined forces with the Institute for Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) for the 2024 Young Engineer Award, which will showcase the best emerging talent in the sector.

“The Young Engineer Award highlights and promotes the best of our young, British agricultural engineers,” says LAMMA event director Sarah Whittaker-Smith.

“Our industry is built on the shoulders of engineering innovation – and only stands to benefit from its continual progression.

“By giving engineers recognition and a platform for their work, we are rewarding outside-the-box thinking that benefits the industry.”

The 2023 Young Engineer Award was won by Daniel Broderick for his Cubi-Clean – a machine which makes the process of cleaning dairy cow cubicles quicker and easier, freeing up farm labour in a way that is both cost-effective and efficient.

Mr Broderick says: “The Cubi-Clean was the result of ten years hard work, so it was great to receive recognition from both the judging panel and the public. Winning the award has certainly helped with product awareness in the UK market.”

Since winning the award, Mr Broderick has had very high demand for the machine through the dealership he works with. “We are trying to build stock, but the Cubi-Clean is selling well and we can’t make them fast enough.

Celebrating youngsters

“There are worse problems to have. Everything is manufactured in-house from the raw materials, and we are always making continuous improvements throughout – anything from how the machine operates to the production process.”

Institute for Agricultural Engineers chief executive Charlie Nicklin said: “The rapid pace of innovation in the ag sector emphasises the importance of celebrating achievements of young people in our industry.

“Supporting young innovators not only gives them market exposure, but it also highlights what a great career engineering in agriculture can be. It gives me great pleasure for IAgrE to support the 2024 Young Engineer of the Year award at LAMMA.”

How to Enter:

The LAMMA Young Engineer Award showcases engineers who have created or made changes to a piece of agricultural machinery, equipment or technology and, by doing so, improved efficiency, profitability or sustainability on-farm.

Eligible entries can include:

• Products that have been designed and fully manufactured

• Prototypes in development

• Concepts in the initial stages of development

• Existing products that have been modified, providing they have substantially improved the efficiency, productivity and/or sustainability of the product.

Entry is free, both individuals and companies are eligible to apply, and the award is open to engineers 35 years of age and under as of 1st January 2024. Potential applicants can find more details and the application form here and at http://www.lammashow.com.

The deadline for entries is Friday, 8 December. Judges will decide the shortlist that will then be put to a public vote. The winner will be determined by a combination of judges’ scores and public voting results. The award will be made at LAMMA 2024.