Four young farmers from Essex, County Durham, Devon and North Yorkshire, have won Kuhn Farm Machinery (UK’s) ‘Dream Machine’ competition and an expenses-paid trip to the company’s global headquarters and manufacturing site at Saverne, France. Held in association with the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (NFYFC), the competition was designed to encourage young farmers to design an innovative and imaginative new piece of farm machinery that would benefit modern farming systems. Ben Robinson of Great Smeaton YFC in North Yorkshire won the Junior (under 16) category with his design for a trailed disc and tine cultivator for use on stony land. In the Intermediate (under 21) class, Benjamin Sell from Brentwood YFC in Essex designed a bale spike capable of safely and securely loading or unloading between one and four mini Hesston bales. The Senior (under 26) class was won by Caroline Baker of Stockton YFC in County Durham, who designed a bale wrapper with an automatic film loading system. Daniel Webber from Withleigh YFC in Devon won the Associate (27 years and over) category with a technique that combines a conventional large square baler with an adapted version of Kuhn’s SW 4004 bale wrapper to produce one machine which bales and wraps in one. Announced at the AGRI (Agriculture and Rural Issues) Forum as part of the NFYFC’s Annual Convention in Blackpool, when the four winners travel to France this October they will have the opportunity to present their concepts to the head Kuhn designers. Caption: Ben Robinson (left), Caroline Baker and Benjamin Sell (right) received their Dream Machine prizes from MD Sian Pritchard of Kuhn UK, and Sam Dilcock, chairman of the AGRI steering group.
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