Veenhuis Nutri-Flow slurry analysis wins the IAgrE Ivel award for Innovation

Veenhuis Nutri-Flow slurry analysis wins the IAgrE Ivel award for Innovation

Veenhuis Machines BV has won the Ivel Award from the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) for its Nutri-flow real-time slurry analysis.  Their system uses near-infrared spectroscopy to monitor NPK and ammonium levels in slurry in real time.

Alastair Taylor, CEO of IAgrE said, “As precision farming advances it’s great to see technologies being developed to measure the nutrient value of slurry.  This allows precision application as part of a wider farm nutrient plan.  We should not underestimate the technological and engineering skills required to develop a product such as this.”

The NIRS analysis technique determines the levels of nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, ammonium and dry matter in organic manure which helps to recover soil health and reduce nitrate leaching.

The company has also won a Silver Future Innovation award at LAMMA.

In 1902 Dan Albone, a Bedfordshire inventor, designed and patented the first practical and successful light internal combustion engined agricultural tractor, setting up Ivel Agricultural Motors Ltd in Biggleswade in 1903.  This set in motion a revolution in mechanical farming. He was a decade ahead of Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson, and almost three decades ahead of the first Ferguson.

The awards committee of IAgrE decided in 2007 that it would be fitting for the Institution to celebrate the name of Dan Albone and the memory of the Ivel tractor by making an annual award using the Ivel name.  The committee felt that this award should be for a new product or innovation which will have the most positive impact on the environment.