Developing a highly targeted spray system is the task for the team at Farmscan Ag. The company, which was founded in Australia, now works with manufacturers of agricultural equipment across the UK too. Its aim is to support precision farming and crop management, developing high-efficiency tools including autonomous farming, crop sprayer technology and liquid fertiliser application.
“While the researchers are working on predicting where slugs will be and identifying them in situ, we are the application partner – converting that knowledge into real world activity,” explains director Callum Chalmers.
“The end goal is an automated system that will find slugs in the field and spray them precisely with nematodes. These are very expensive so unless application is highly accurate it won’t be viable.”
The team is working on making spray width as small as possible and once developed the spray system will be added to an existing autonomous farm vehicle. “We are aiming for 25cm or less, which would mean four nozzles per metre,” explains Callum. “We are running first trials at the end of 2025, then field trials will be in full swing in early 2026.
“It’s great to be part of the SLIMERS project. I believe the government will continue to clamp down on agrichemicals, so farmers need economically viable alternatives.”