The LAMMA show and the Institute for Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) have partnered up for a third successive year to announce the 2024 Young Engineer Award, showcasing the best of young engineering talent whose work helps UK farms to be more productive and sustainable.

"The Young Engineer Award highlights and promotes the best of our young, British agricultural engineers," comments Sarah Whittaker-Smith, Event Director at LAMMA. "This award is important as our industry is built on the shoulders of engineering innovation, and only stands to benefit from its continual progression. By giving promising engineers recognition and a platform for their work, it serves to reward outside-the-box thinking that benefit the industry."

Daniel Broderick won the 2023 Young Engineer Award for his Cubi-Clean machine, which makes the process of cleaning dairy cow cubicles quicker and easier.

"The Cubi-Clean was the result of ten years hard work, so it was great to receive recognition from both the judging panel and the public," said Daniel. "Winning the award has certainly helped with product awareness in the UK market."

Since winning the award, Daniel has had very high demand for the machine through a dealership that he works with. "We are trying to build stock, but the Cubi-Clean is selling well and we can't make them fast enough. There are worse problems to have. Everything is manufactured in-house from the raw materials, and we are always making continuous improvements throughout – anything from how the machine operates to the production process."

"The rapid pace of innovation in the ag sector emphasises the importance of celebrating achievements of young people in our industry," comments Charlie Nicklin, IAgrE CEO. "Supporting young innovators not only gives them market exposure, but it also highlights what a great career engineering in agriculture can be. It gives me great pleasure for IAgrE to support the 2024 Young Engineer of the Year award at LAMMA."

Award details

The LAMMA Young Engineer Award showcases engineers who have created or made changes to a piece of agricultural machinery, equipment or technology and, by doing so, improved efficiency, profitability or sustainability on-farm. Eligible entries can include:

• Products that have been designed and fully manufactured
• Prototypes in development
• Concepts in the initial stages of development
• Existing products that have been modified, providing they have substantially improved the efficiency, productivity and/or sustainability of the product.

Those interested can find more details and the application form here and at http://www.lammashow.com. Entry is free, both individuals and companies are eligible to apply, and the award is open to engineers 35 years of age and under as of 1^st January 2024.

The deadline for entries is Friday 8^th December, and judges will determine the shortlist that will then be put to a public vote at http://www.lammashow.com. The winner will be determined by a combination of judges' scores and public voting results and will be announced at the LAMMA Show in January 2024.