Shows / Brash Ag
Brash Ag
Brash Ag will be lifting the lid on everything agricultural technology and agtech. Your hosts Raymond King and Kit Franklin are both Chartered Agricultural Engineers and experienced innovators and technologists. Through a mixture of commentary, insights and interviews, Ray and Kit will be using their experience to explore and explain the concepts, ideas, technology and business models that make agtech one of the most exciting and engaging industries to be involved in. Email us…
Episodes
Brash Ag106. Kidd Farm Machinery – Building Machines, Buying Businesses and Bouncing Back
How do you go from an unsuccessful job application to owning the company? And what does a brush with bankruptcy teach you about keeping a machinery business…
Brash Ag105. Automation in Agriculture: From Innovation to Impact - Landwards Conference 2026
Landwards 2026 Roundup – The robots are ready; are you? This week, Kit and Ray round up the conversations from the Institution of Agricultural Engineers’…
Brash Ag104. British Design Fund – How hard cash meets hardware
What does it take to build an investment fund from scratch? Can a fund focused on hardware hold its own against rivals investing in software and AI? And why…
Brash Ag103. Harper Hits 125, Oxbury Goes Global & Robotti Rides Again
Can Oxbury take their pioneering farm finance global? Who saved Robotti and can they build a home for the hardware in the UK? How is Harper Adams celebrating…
Brash Ag102. Is the perfect fence, No Fence?
Can managing livestock really be as easy as a few taps on a smart phone? How can a tech career go from Silicon Valley to a Nordic fjord? Can a virtual fence be…
Brash Ag101. How a Teenage Founder Got 200 Farms Using His App in 90 days
How do you grow a brand new farming app from zero to over 200 farms in 3 months?! Could anyone vibe code an app for farmers? How do you scale and sell a…
Brash Ag100. The Brains Trust
The podcast has hit 100 episodes, to celebrate this milestone, Kit and Ray sat down with a formidable Brainstrust panel, with a collective 100 YEARS of…
Brash Ag99. Control Technologies UK – Speaking the language of machines
This week, Kit and Ray speak to Mark Wood, CEO of Control Technologies UK. Mark shares his unconventional journey from rowing coach to controls engineer and…
Brash Ag98. Economad – Where There’s Muck, There’s Gas!
Could anaerobic digestion power the future of small farms? How small is too small when it comes to herd size and viable energy production? This week, Kit and…
Brash Ag97. We F**ked Up and We’re Sorry—Plus Robots, Crop-Sap Scanning and Bespoke Fertilisers
This week, Ray and Kit issue a sombre apology for some of the mistakes they made in Episode 94. Did they get too giddy about receiving the podcast’s first…
Brash Ag96. RootWave – Can electricity kill off herbicides?
What inspired Andrew Diprose to swap a career in the City for reviving a weed-control technology first explored in the 1980s? What makes RootWave different…
Brash Ag95. Warwick Agri-Tech – Can robotics solve farming's toughest bottlenecks?
How can we bring industry and academia together to solve some of farming's biggest challenges? What can agriculture learn from the automotive sector? And where…
Brash Ag94. TAFE Builds DEUTZ – Plus AI Dystopia, 3D Printing Nirvana & are we now at ‘Peak Subscription’
What can we learn from DEUTZ's new manufacturing partnership with TAFE? Could 3D printing turn customers into your best R&D team? And are subscriptions and AI…
Brash Ag93. Could lasers be for losers? - The Earth Rover Story
What is concentrated light and how can it beat lasers at annihilating weeds? How can autonomous weeding help fill in resource gaps? Who actually grows the…
Brash Ag92. Roger Robson-Williams – Electrifying Farming
Are electric tractors the future workhorses of agriculture? What can life in New Zealand teach us about the fragility of global oil supply chains? And could…
Brash Ag91. Groundswell - Stuart Oates: No diesel, no problem?
Can sunrise yoga cure a hangover? What new technologies are needed to remove fossil fuels from farming? And has Ray really been replaced by Brash Ag's number…
Brash Ag90. Jamie Hutchinson of Cordon technologies and the £1 million bet on smarter spraying.
What if the biggest opportunity in precision spraying isn't a new sprayer at all? This week Kit and Ray are joined by Jamie Hutchinson, founder and CEO of…
Brash Ag89. AI, Automation & Agricultural Paradoxes
Are start-ups changing agriculture for the better? Has Clarkson's Farm improved the public's understanding of ag-tech? Can robots stay lightweight as they…
Brash Ag88. Cereals Special - Chapter 3 - Spotting
Is 6 cylinders still better than 4? Have Smith Robotics really got a Balespike product on their hands? Is the UK back on track when it comes to funding for…
Brash Ag87. Cereals Special - Chapter 2- Networking
Is there really a market for a €90000 blackgrass detecting drone? Are German manufacturers taking the UK market seriously? Is a farmer built RTK network a UK…
Brash Ag86. Cereals Special - Chapter 1 - Brashing
Was the Cotswold Brash kind to the co-hosts? Were they knee deep in mud or was the show a roaring success? What new tech is worth keeping an eye out for? This…
Brash Ag85. Can Technology Outperform Traditional Agronomy?
Can robots really farm better than humans? Where have machines got an edge? Does the real value come from humans and machines working in harmony? This week Ray…
Brash Ag84. Paul Mikesell: Carbon Robotics and the $1million laser weeder
Can farmers really justify investing $1million in a new machine? How can AI be leveraged to solve physical problems in ag? Why did Nvidia, one of the world's…
Brash Ag83. Connie Bowen: Why Agtech needs more chickens, more cows and fewer unicorns
Where do VCs get the money from? Is the power-law dead for farm tech funding? What is a $100 million chicken? This week Kit and Ray are joined by General…
Brash Ag82. Jonathan Trotter: “Keeping up with the Droneses” Technology Trials Manager at Agrii
How do agronomy businesses stay at the forefront of technology development? What happens at the interface of robotics and farming? How can farming experience…
Brash Ag81. Luke Breedon: Biochar - Smoke, Fire and Black gold
How did charcoal support entire ancient civilisations? What is biochar and can it support and improve today's soils and modern farming techniques? This week…
Brash Ag80. Jonathan Gill: The future is now, the future is robots
Is it unusual to see robots working in a field? Do ag robots have to look “roboty”? Do Dutch farmers embrace technology more than the rest of the world? What…
Brash Ag79. Charlie Nicklin: IAgrE and the Fastrac to success
How do you stand out in a big organisation like JCB? How do you transition from a technical role to management? In light of Kit taking over as President of…
Brash Ag78. S.W.O.T Team - USA Agritech plus *Breaking News*
What are the biggest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing agri-tech in the USA? Is the US ahead of the rest of the world and what could the…
Brash Ag77. Patent battles, startup downfalls, Indian tractor sales explode and AI grinds gears
Who will win in the Bobcat vs Caterpillar patent showdown? Is this the end for Monarch tractors? Is Tafe at the top of its game? Has AI ruined Linkedin…
Brash Ag76. 100 Years of the 3-Point Linkage - The legacy of Harry Ferguson
Why was the future of the tractor anything but secure at the start of the 20th Century? Why were tractors in the early 1900s so dangerous? How did one man…
Brash Ag75. Will Brown on Vertical Farming: Hype, Hard Truths, and What Actually Works.
Can vertical farming become a viable option for supplying fresh produce during a crisis? How do the markets for vertically farmed produce change between…
Brash Ag74. Maialen Cazenave: Co-Director of Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics
How did pioneering agtech manufacturer Niao take a need for a demo day and end up launching a global accelerator for farm robotics? How has a rebrand from FIRA…
Brash Ag73. Emergency Pod - Ag robot meltdown!
Is it the end of the road for Agrointelli and their Robotti autonomous gantry platform? In the spirit of “The Rest is Politics”, Kit and Ray take to the…
Brash Ag72. News Feed: Can vertical farming solve food security?
Can a war lead to more investment in vertical farming? How can a tractor help you iron your trousers? What new tech can farmers buy with the latest grant…
Brash Ag71. Sam Scales: Scaling autonomous farming down under
How do you sell a brand new concept to some of the sharpest farmers and business people in Australia? What is the killer sales strategy? Is autonomy a barrier…
Brash Ag70. Kit's on the pull for AgriTech at the National Farm Machinery Show
How much horse power is too much for a stock tractor? 300hp? 500? How about 5000hp? Does subscription free AI exist? and why are small bales King in the USA?…
Brash Ag69. Ezekiel McReynolds: Cyber security lessons; from the frontline of warfare to the bottom line of farming
Could farm machinery be the new frontline for the war on cyber crime? How will cyber threats shape the future of autonomy on farms and what can farmers and…
Brash Ag68. Maddison Dixon: From Blues clubs to blue skies, how drones and the Mississippi Delta changed the world
How did the Mississippi delta change the world of music, aviation and agriculture? This week Ray and Kit are joined by Maddison Dixon, Associate director at…
Brash Ag67. LAMMA Show Pt2 - Cows can’t use toilets…can they?
In this second episode from Ray's adventure to LAMMA Show 2026. Ray brings another three of his top picks from his day. Did Ray manage to complete his side…
Brash Ag66. LAMMA Show Pt1 - V8s & Mullets, 1980’s fashion but state of the art Tech
LAMMA Show Special Part 1. This week Ray brings three of his top picks from his recent trip to LAMMA 2026 show at the NEC. Ray spent a day at the show and…
Brash Ag65. From Wiltshire to Japan: What January’s Ag News Tells Us About the Future
In this episode of Brash Ag, hosts Raymond King and Kit Franklin dive into a packed January news round-up covering UK agricultural engineering, global farming…
Brash Ag64. Prof Simon Pearson MBE - An Honour Earned Engineering in the Field
In this episode of the Brash Ag Podcast, Raymond King and Kit Franklin are joined by Simon Pearson — farmer’s son, ag-engineer, academic, commercial operator…
Brash Ag63. New Year, New Realities for UK Farming & AgTech
In this news-led episode, Raymond King and Kit Franklin dig into what really matters as UK agriculture heads into a turbulent new year. We unpack: 🚜 What the…
Brash Ag62. Myles Reay -End of Year Special | From Workshops to World Stages
In this end-of-year Brash Ag episode, Raymond King and Kit Franklin sit down with Myles Ray, a mechanical engineering student on placement at Holbrook…
Brash Ag61. Trivikram Kumar ~ Micro-Tractors vs Sharks, how XMachines was Built
Can micro-tractors replace an aging workforce in rural India? Can micro-entrepreneurs help finance the “robots as a service” dream? This week Kit and Ray go…
Brash Ag60. Andy Newbold - Building a bridge to safety
What do we want from autonomy? Are farm robots the answer to on farm safety or are they an accident waiting to happen? This week Kit and Ray catch up with…
Brash Ag59. News Feed - Has Monarch tractors lost its crown?
Have Monarch Tractors over-promised on ag autonomy and electrification? With a pending lawsuit one dealership in the US seems to think so… This week Kit and…
Brash Ag58. Agritechnica 2025 - “East meets West”
Are we seeing a quiet shift in the world order of farm machinery? Can EV tractors provide a foot hold for Chinese tractor makers or will the sheer volume of…
Brash Ag57. Agritechnica 2025 - “We found the farmers, but what are they buying?”
Will Chinese manufacturers steal a march on the big tractor makers? Are all agricultural robots just marketing fluff? Can the Germans run a train timetable as…
Brash Ag56. FIRA USA 2025 - “Hot oil and silicon chips”
FIRA USA 2025; The robots have taken over FIRA — but where are the farmers? This week we hear part two of Kit's tour of FIRA USA in California and catch up…
Brash Ag55. FIRA USA 2025 - “Let the engineers speak”
FIRA USA 2025; What does the future of agtech look like through the eyes of Silicon Valley tech nerds, venture capitalists and Californian farmers? Our man in…
Brash Ag54. Will AI revolutionise agriculture?
Is AI set to take over farming as we know it? Will human farmers be replaced? The IAgrE Landwards conference recently brought together engineers, business…
Brash Ag53. From Cotton Fields to Autonomous Acres: Inside America’s Ag Robotics Revolution
When you think of cutting-edge agricultural robotics, Mississippi might not be the first place that comes to mind — but Professor Alex Thomasson is changing…
Brash Ag52. He Turned Gut Instinct into Data-Driven Profit — Then Sold the Company
Clive Blacker started, built and sold his agtech company right here in the UK. Listen to find out how he did it… With a Nuffiled Scholarship as a launch pad…
Brash Ag51. Farming in the Matrix: How VR and AR are Rewriting Reality on the Farm
This week the co-hosts question the nature of reality itself and explain how the virtual world could help farmers to solve real world problems. Ray talks about…
Brash Ag50. From pasture to politics with James Wright of Breedr
James Write is a true pioneer, a first generation farmer and agritech entrepreneur with political ambitions in his sights. Kit and Ray hear how James found…
Brash Ag49. Drones: Flying High or Crashing Hype?
This week, Ray and Kit go in person and in deep on drones in agriculture – from early hype to present-day reality. Kit recalls his 2012 vision of swarm…
Brash Ag48. Chewing the Cud: Innovator Ben Bament of Somerset EV
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to drive a 1970s tractor with an electric motor instead of an old diesel engine? Well this week the lads find out…
Brash Ag47. Lessons from a year being Brash
This week Kit and Ray say Namaste to a whole year of being Brash. To celebrate a year of broadcasting, the pair meet up for a pint in a pub, fresh off the back…