Hope for 2023 asparagus harvest as Muddy Machines gains funding

Muddy Machines, which is building a small herd of Sprout robots for the 2023 asparagus harvest season, has raised £1.5m. The funding will enable it to develop new crop harvest capabilities and scale production of its robotics.

Muddy Machines‘ robotic platform has been designed to meet the requirements of speciality field crops and is capable of deploying a variety of harvest tools.

Asparagus is difficult to harvest as the spears grow from a crown under the soil surface, emerges at random and grows very quickly.

Traditionally it is harvested by hand and the harvesters walk the field with a long knife determining by eye which spears are ready for harvest. The spear needs to be cut carefully below soil level.

It is a skilled job for a short season and there are insufficient people available to meet the needs of the industry.

John Chinn of Cobrey Farms, the largest UK grower of asparagus, says the situation is desperate.

Muddy Machines was founded in 2020 by Christopher Chavasse and Florian Richter with a vision to sustainably solve labour issues in farming with robots. The company has since won nearly £2.5m in grant funding from Innovate UK and DEFRA.

The recent funding was led by Regenerate Ventures; MD Paul Rous comments: “We were impressed by Muddy Machine’s vision and speed of technical development.”

The company’s harvester prototype was well received at the Biennial British Asparagus Growers conference.

Florian Richter, CEO of Muddy Machines, says: “We are now focused on creating a meaningful amount of harvest capacity for our customers.”

More about Muddy Machines

Muddy Machines featured in the REAP 2021 Start-Up Showcase.