Dr Charles Whitfield, from NIAB, provided an overview and some key updates on the POME project at the BAPL and NIAB annual Technical Day on 10th February 2025.
Building on the work of the PODS (Precision Orchard Dosing System) project, POME (Precision Orchard Management for the Environment) aims to develop a commercially viable system for precisely targeting orchard inputs.
Running from November 2023 to October 2027, it’s a multi-disciplinary initiative that integrates sensing, data interpretation, and automated interventions into a single system to “close the loop” and enhance efficiency in precision orchard management.
We’re proud to be the mechanical and electrical engineers supporting this project, which is led by the crop advisory company Hutchinsons, alongside NIAB, The Acclaimed Software Company, Avalon Fresh, Outfield, Antobot, Fotenix, University of Kent, Loughborough University, and the Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD), plus growers AC Hulme and Plumford Farm
Funded by Innovate UK and DEFRA, the POME project aims to develop a system that moves beyond existing research projects in this area and commercial precision technologies and products available to growers, which often only address one aspect of the process – either data collection (sensing) or intervention (spraying, automated actions) – rather than integrating both.
POME aims to create a fully integrated system that scans and surveys the orchard, interprets data to generate dose adjustment maps and executes precision-targeted spraying interventions. This, in theory, will allow crop management inputs to be targeted in a way that has never been seen before in UK orchards.
The Fendt 207V Vario we have supplied has been fitted with a front-mounted sensor tower equipped with several sensors for real-time orchard scanning, including LiDAR to measure canopy density and RTK GNSS receivers for high positional accuracy.
This data is used to generate a 3D prescription dose adjustment map with values calculated being translated into individual outputs for each of the nozzles on the sprayer we have helped to develop. Data from aerial crop surveys, scouting robots, and soil maps can also be included in the algorithm for calculating the spray dose adjustments.
The sprayer we have adapted for the POME project is an adapted KWH Mistral Crossflow, which features a 40 bar 110ltr pump and a 1,000ltr tank with a 3.2m tower.
At the technical day, Chris presented a small snapshot of some of the work NIAB has carried out looking at spray deposition and spray drift trials comparing standard constant rate spraying to precision variable rate spraying.
The current data shows that deposition is significantly more uniform for the variable rate, in all canopy positions, but more work needs to be done on the dose adjustment algorithm to increase the amount of the mean deposition per leaf for the variable rate sprayer.
There was also a massive reduction in ground drift shown with variable rate spraying at 3.5m and 6m from spray line. Drift amount as a percentage of the total liquid sprayed shows variable rate spraying generates <50% drift compared to constant rate.
Later this year, further trials conducted by the POME project will also look at aerial drift as well as more work to show that these systems are viable and provide an economic return to growers. While the sprayer is currently a single-row, we are busy working on a multi-row version which will hopefully be trialled in 2026.
If you missed the technical day and would like to access the presentations, or watch any of the recordings, including the one given by Dr Whitfield, please head to: https://www.britishapplesandpears.co.uk/bapl-rd-meeting-on-10-february-2025/
For more information on the KWH or Munckhof sprayers with variable-rate technology, please give the sales team a call on 01580 712200 or email sales@npseymour.co.uk
