Jersey farmers turn to robots for technology-driven future of industry

Sam Wane – a senior lecturer at Harper Adams University in Shropshire – has visited Jersey to talk about robotics in agriculture with the Channel Islands Group of Professional Engineers.

He is currently working on robotic technology specifically for British farms that grow mixed rather than mono crops to encourage diversification.

‘What I am doing is for small-scale farms and would suit farms here as it would allow for diversification of crops, which is very important in terms of what you grow for export as for yourselves,’ he said.

Automated precision agriculture is about applying technology to produce crops most effectively, such as using GPS plotting to deliver a droplet of herbicide instead of spraying an entire field.

Mr Wane is also working on a trial of automated strawberry-picking equipment, but Jersey’s largest soft fruit grower Joe Freire says there is no way he could move to automated production.

  • Earlier this month, the JEP launched its Keep Jersey Farming campaign to back the industry.
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And after being quoted £75,000 for an automated packing system for his asparagus crop, Mr Friere says robotic technology would be too expensive for the Island.

Christine Hellio grows Jersey Royals, vegetable and salad crops in St Ouen, with her husband, Didier.

She said: ‘I would love to see anything that reduced labour prices because that is what is most expensive, but the problem is it would not be ideal for Jersey because our fields are too small.’

However, she hopes someone will invent technology for the labour-intensive process of standing potatoes, which requires each seed potato to be placed in boxes by hand, ready for the next season’s planting.

‘When you have 50,000 boxes to do, and it takes the staff a day each to do 50 or 60, you think: “When are they going to finish?”‘ she said.

William Church of Jersey Royal Company, the Island’s largest exporter of Jersey Royals, was also sceptical and concerned that automating production would be detrimental for the Royal’s Protected Designation of Origin status.

The Jersey Royal brand attracts this level of protection because of the unique way in which it is traditionally produced, and that includes planting and digging by hand.

‘It is how we do it that matters,’ he said. ‘It is about the methods of operations and if you lose one of those, you lose the uniqueness of the potato,’ he said.

[figure caption=”OVER recent years our lives have been made easier by advances in technology and now thanks to revolutionary machinery, even farming and maintenance work will be as simple as pressing a button.

A remote controlled mower, known as Robocut, has been designed to tackle some of the steepest and wettest côtils, coastlines and fields in Jersey.

The company behind the idea, Le Pav Limited, specialise in agricultural contracting and caring for land covered with grass and other low plants.

Oliver Simmons, managing director of Le Pav, said: ‘This amazing piece of kit will help with the recovery and maintenance of old and lost fields, like up on the north coast.

‘It will also help manage and protect the State’s wildlife plan and National Trust wildlife and habitats.

Robocut is operated by a remote control, as long as the person using the remote is within a range of up to 150 metres.” title=”7563080″ align=”center” url=”/wpmvc/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/7563080.jpg” id=”1183533″ size=”100″]

The Robocut in action at Mourier ValleyThe remote control for the Robocut. Two large joysticks provide precise control of motion, steering and flailhead height control - while gearing, rotor speed, speed sensitivity, radiator self-cleaning, and an emergency stop can all be accessed at the touch of a button

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