Two technical innovations have won gold awards from the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) after a record-breaking number of entries in the annual competition.
Six silver awards and five commendation certificates were also announced to mark Royal Highland Show week, where the honours are usually presented.
Pressure washers company Lambert & Dyson from Skipton took one of the gold awards for its Landy PTO hot water pressure washer which is designed to run on either the front or rear linkage of a tractor, and Limagrain UK won a gold for its innovative winter wheat breeding programme.
The silver award recipients included Aberdeenshire-based Herd Advance’s “stockman” system which lets farmers monitor the statistics and status of their herd from a smartphone in real-time.
It can simultaneously record an animal’s weight, water intake and body temperature via thermal imaging and allows the user to automatically sort animals without the need for handling.
Ellon-based Murray Machinery Ltd also earned a silver award for its gravel road grader, which is designed to reinstate gravel roads which have fallen into disrepair, and another silver award was won by Lely Holding Sarl for the Discovery Collector 120 which vacuums up manure rather than pushing it to a holding area.
Peel Tech Ltd won silver for a filtration system which filters to the highest food waste standards and is of particular interest to farmers, chip shops, processors, sewage works and recycling plants who want to reduce waste caused by potato peel and vegetable starch.
A silver medal also went to Polaris Britain Ltd for its Polaris Ranger XP1000 ABS, which is the world’s first UTV/SXS utility vehicle to combine an anti-lock braking system with an active descent control system.
Pottinger Landtechnik GmbH also took silver for the Impress round baler, which has a host of innovative new features and a lower power requirement.
Commendations include CASE IH for the Magnum AFS connect tractor and Farmdata for the Cattledata mobile app.
Senesino Ltd was also commended for its Numnuts tail docking and castration system and Vicon for its Extra 700 mower conditioners, while Welsh Shearing Equipment Ltd was lauded for its Shearcordless MK2 animal clipper.
RHASS technical innovation chief steward, Christopher Shepherd congratulated the winners and said: “I am delighted that we had such a strong selection of entries to choose from this year.”