Alex Crawley
Necessity is the mother of invention……As a first generation, new entrant farmer without a farm in my early 40s I’ve looked to technology and innovation to start in Agriculture. Using my background in the military, diplomacy and cyber I set up a contract conservation grazing business focused on delivering biodiversity through extensive grazing, harnessing new technologies and partnerships with people. After a couple of years the business was fortunate enough to win the British Farming Awards 2023 New entrant category and now has partnerships with Government bodies, charities, land owners and corporates covering 450 acres.
I’m passionate about using agriculture to deliver environmental benefits and food at scale. I will use the Nuffield scholarship to explore new models and new technologies to make this possible
Precision Ranching; How can new innovations support UK extensive grazing
McDonald’s UK & Ireland
Study Overview
There is a huge growth in ‘precision grazing’ technologies globally. Technologies such as Geo-fencing, drones, Long Range Wireless Area Networks and Artificial Intelligence linked camera technologies are changing what is possible. They have the ability to improve animal welfare, productivity and profitability at scale.
Technical innovations can also enable creative new opportunities for people and partnerships to engage in Agriculture.
There are numerous challenges to new technologies and partnerships for managing the land. I ill explore how these are being developed and how people are overcoming these challenges at the cutting edge of changes in agriculture globally.
Many thanks to McDonald's UK and Ireland for their sponsorship and support.