Brash Ag

Brash Ag will be lifting the lid on everything agricultural technology and agtech. Your hosts Raymond King and Kit Franklin are both Chartered Agricultural Engineers and experienced innovators and technologists. Through a mixture of commentary, insights and interviews, Ray and Kit will be using their experience to explore and explain the concepts, ideas, technology and business models that make agtech one of the most exciting and engaging industries to be involved in. Email us: contact@brash-ag.comThe first season and launch of the podcast was supported by the Douglas Bomford Trust www.dbt.org.ukRaymond King https://www.linkedin.com/in/flynt-technology/Kit Franklin https://www.linkedin.com/in/kit-franklin-33649a51/

Brash Ag is a business podcast hosted by Raymond King and Kit Franklin, with 95 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Raymond King and Kit Franklin hosts Brash Ag, a business show with 95 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #96

  96. RootWave – Can electricity kill off herbicides?

  Aug 20, 202649 minS4

  What inspired Andrew Diprose to swap a career in the City for reviving a weed-control technology first explored in the 1980s? What makes RootWave different from other approaches to electrical weeding? And how can partnering with established machinery manufacturers unlock entirely new markets for a core technology? This week, Ray and Kit sit down with Andrew Diprose at RootWave's high-tech facilities in Warwickshire. Andrew explains: How, inspired by his academic father, he swapped a career in the City for a 'shed venture' developing chemical-free weed-control technology. What it took to build the business, develop the technology and bring it to market. How RootWave's unique approach to generating and delivering electrical energy is designed to make electrical weed control as safe as possible. How partnering with Garford Farm Machinery has helped RootWave take its technology into markets it may otherwise have struggled to reach. How the business has raised investment and where the funding needed to support the journey has come from. Why Jorge Heraud joined the board to help steer Rootwave to success. From shed-built prototypes to high-voltage weed control and major manufacturing partnerships, this episode explores the journey behind RootWave and asks whether electricity could become a genuine alternative to herbicides.

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  Episode #95

  95. Warwick Agri-Tech – Can robotics solve farming's toughest bottlenecks?

  Aug 13, 202654 minS4

  How can we bring industry and academia together to solve some of farming's biggest challenges? What can agriculture learn from the automotive sector? And where should robotics be deployed first to deliver real value? This week, Kit and Ray head up the Fosse Way to visit Warwick Agri-Tech at the University of Warwick, meeting the engineers developing practical technology for growers today. Hear from three members of the team: Alicia Feledziak – Business Development Manager at Warwick Agri-Tech, explains how the initiative brings together engineering, crop science and industry to tackle real-world farming challenges, how Warwick Agri-Tech was founded, and why collaboration is key to accelerating innovation. Harry Boyce – Lead Engineer (Hardware and Robotic Developments), demonstrates how his team is helping J&A Growers tackle one of nursery production's biggest labour challenges. With more than 200,000 tree saplings needing to be sorted every day, Harry explains why automating even part of the process could transform productivity. Ben Ayre – Lead Engineer, Intelligent Vehicles – Integration and Trials, gives Kit and Ray a demonstration of autonomous logistics in a commercial strawberry operation, arguing that supporting human pickers may deliver greater value than trying to replace them with complex harvesting robots. From autonomous logistics to AI-enabled tree sorting, this episode explores what happens when world-class engineering meets real farming problems.

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  Episode #94

  94. TAFE Builds DEUTZ – Plus AI Dystopia, 3D Printing Nirvana & are we now at ‘Peak Subscription’

  Aug 6, 202657 minS4

  What can we learn from DEUTZ's new manufacturing partnership with TAFE? Could 3D printing turn customers into your best R&D team? And are subscriptions and AI giving manufacturers too much control over the products we buy? In this week's News Feed, Ray and Kit unpack: TAFE's newly announced agreement to manufacture DEUTZ 50–100 hp engines in India. Is it simply a cost-saving move for DEUTZ, or part of TAFE's strategy to secure world-class powertrains for its next generation of tractors? They also explore how Festool and Renault are using 3D printing to put manufacturing directly into customers' hands. Could user-generated parts and accessories become a competitive advantage rather than a threat? The pair discuss reports that a Ford Bronco was effectively disabled over a missed subscription payment. Whether the story is entirely accurate or not, it raises a bigger question: have manufacturers pushed subscription models too far, and are engineers sacrificing customer ownership in the process? Finally, with AI becoming embedded across engineering businesses, Ray and Kit ask whether companies are becoming dangerously dependent on AI providers whose pricing, policies and capabilities remain outside their control. Kit also shares two interviews from a Harper Adams study tour organised by Gofar, the team behind FIRA, exploring why Australian farmers have come to the UK and what British agriculture can learn from the exchange.

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  Episode #93

  93. Could lasers be for losers? - The Earth Rover Story

  Jul 30, 202656 minS4

  What is concentrated light and how can it beat lasers at annihilating weeds? How can autonomous weeding help fill in resource gaps? Who actually grows the trees that get planted for every new conservation project and hedgerow in the UK? This week Kit and Ray are on the road (Up the Fosse Way again!) and headed to J&A growers in Warwickshire to see an Earth Rover robot in action, eradicating weeds in beds of Hawthorn saplings. The pair speak with Earth Rover CEO James Miller, hearing about his career working in engineering consultancy, moving to work for Tafe in India as the group CTO and why he moved back to the UK to spearhead the future of chemical free weed control. Harry Ellis, Field Test engineer at Earth rover also helps to give more detail about the system, how it works and his experience since starting at Earth Rover a year ago. While in the field the co-hosts also take the opportunity to speak with Jamie Dewhurst Director at J&A Growers to hear why he has chosen to work with Earth Rover and what benefits the autonomous concentrated light autonomous weeding system (CLAWS for short) has brought to the business of growing saplings for wholesale. Could UK agritech steal a march on the likes of L&Aser and Carbon Robotics when it comes to chemical free weeding? The future’s bright the future’s….concertrated

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  Episode #92

  92. Roger Robson-Williams – Electrifying Farming

  Jul 23, 20261 hourS4

  Are electric tractors the future workhorses of agriculture? What can life in New Zealand teach us about the fragility of global oil supply chains? And could electrification completely redefine how farm machinery is designed and used? This week Roger Robson-Williams joins Kit and Ray around Kit's dining room table to discuss his journey from crop scientist in the UK and New Zealand to becoming a freelance sustainability expert—and the owner of an electric tractor affectionately known as Lottie. Roger has a background in crop and horticultural science, working for the likes of RHS, FAR and The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd. His experience has given him a deep understanding of the challenges facing farming. Now a small holder and Sustainability consultant, Roger takes a systems-level view of the transition away from fossil fuels, explaining why electrification is about far more than simply replacing diesel engines with batteries. The trio explore how energy generation, storage, machinery and farm infrastructure must work together if agriculture is to make the most of electric power. Roger also shares what he's learned from putting Lottie through her paces on the farm. Which jobs are best suited to electric tractors? Is there a future for converting existing machinery, as pioneers like Ben Bament and Loxley Innovation are demonstrating? And as implements become smarter and electrically powered, could the mechanical PTO eventually become a thing of the past?...Critically the trio discuss if a better metric for electric tractor is crumpets per hour? To check out more from Roger and his consulting work visit Future-Fit Business Benchmar. Kia ora Roger! #BrashAg #AgriculturalEngineering #AgriTech #ElectricTractor #Electrification #FarmInnovation #FutureFarming #FarmMachinery #Engineering #PrecisionAgriculture #RenewableEnergy #BatteryElectric #NetZero #CleanTechnology #Podcast

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