Co Down engineer shortlisted in Young Engineer Award

Richard Kane from County Down has been shortlisted for the LAMMA Show and Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) Young Engineer Award.

Richard devised the SpreadPoint range of agricultural spreading equipment after recognising that applying lime to farmland was both difficult and dangerous with existing systems. The SpreadPoint allows accurate spreading with reduced dust making it better for the environment and allows farmers to spread in all weather conditions.

He started developing the concept alongside a local contractor in 2020. The first prototype was tested from February 2021 and after a few preposition machines the SpreadPoint was officially released in late 2022.

Richard’s company now employs 15 people, produces around 80 machines per year and won three awards at the National Ploughing Match in September last year.

Others on the shortlist are Joe Grills of Grizzly Trailers in Devon for his modern trailers built to match high speed tractors, and Ieuan Evans of North Wales for his real time telemetry system that inhibits key information from a tractor and umbilical slurry pump.

The LAMMA Show is at the NEC, Birmingham next week (17 and 18 January). The Young Engineers Award winner will be announced at a special presentation with the Institute of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) at the end of day one.

It’s the third successive year that the LAMMA show and IAgrE have partnered to run the Award to showcase the best young engineering talent whose work helps UK farms to be more productive and sustainable.

“We are delighted with the growing popularity in this award and the number of quality applications and impressive shortlist which is testament to the immense engineering talent and skills we have in this country,” said Sarah Whittaker-Smith, Event Director at LAMMA. “Our winner will be announced at the Show next week and we can’t wait to celebrate their success.”

Past winners include Daniel Broderick from Omagh for his Cubi-Clean machine in 2022, which makes the process of cleaning dairy cow cubicles quicker and easier, and Stephen Davies, Powys-based inventor of the DTEC feed bucket in 2023.

Registration for LAMMA is free