How do you harvest wetter farming crops? Meet Edna, our ‘Scrapheap Challenge’ bulrush harvester!

As part of our exciting wetter farming trials, we are growing a commercial crop of bulrushes on purposefully re-wetted agricultural peat fields. But one question we get asked again and again is how do you harvest crops that are growing in these wetter conditions?

Wetter farming could be a sustainable and profitable way to manage much of the UK’s currently drained lowland agricultural peat, and to further this aim and understand the practicalities of wetter farming we are running a number of wetter farming trials.

Find out more about our wetter farming trails

Two of our trials are growing a commercial crop of bulrushes, and so far we have figured out how to re-wet the peat, how to manage the water levels, and how to sow the seeds – but how are we going to harvest the bulrushes from a wet field?

Meet Edna, an old apple harvester that has had the ‘Scrapheap Challenge’ treatment, thanks to the skilled hands of farmer Cameron Edwards.

Converting an old apple harvester for a ground breaking wetter farming trial (https://youtu.be/3CcQT6UYrjg)

Converting an old apple harvester for a ground breaking wetter farming trial - Credit: Lancashire Wildlife Trust

Thanks to funding from the Environmental Agency’s Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot scheme, as part of our bulrush wetter farming trial at Gore House Farm in West Lancashire, we purchased an old apple harvester that has been converted to harvest the, whilst also being able to tackle the boggy conditions of a rewetted agricultural peat field.

An old apple harvester that is being converted to harvest bulrushes.

How will the machine harvest the bulrushes?

Already fitted with tracks which helps spread the machine’s weight to cope with the wet ground conditions, Edna next needs a special cutter bar head which will cut through the tough bulrush stalk (at the time of going to press this is still in development). Once the bulrushes themselves are cut they then need to be collected, so Cameron has also adapted a conveyor belt system that will feed the harvested bulrushes into old potato boxes.

Cameron said:

"The pinch elevator will take the harvested bulrushes up and into spud boxes. This bit of kit was already on the harvester from when it was an apple harvester. It’s a really gentle pinch elevator that the bulrushes will be fed into, it will then pinch them and take them up the elevator. We can adjust the speeds, and we’re hoping it will handle the high volumes of leaf, bulrush heads, stem and not damage the actual bulrushes too much."

What other changes have been made to the harvester?

Along with the conveyor belt system, Cameron has been busy designing a flat bed to store the crop, as well as a pivoting elevator to feed from the conveyor belt system, into the repurposed potato boxes.

Cameron continues:

"On the original machine, there was a big hopper on the back that was used for emptying the apples that it had harvested. We took that off and I designed a flatbed on the back to fit two potato boxes.

"We started to look at how to fill the boxes, so we got this elevator which was originally a cleaner for an old potato harvester. I mounted it and put it on a swivel, so we can swivel and fill one or the other boxes, which is fairly easy to control from the cab. I designed it using an old trailer axle and an old ram and it is all speed controlled."

Cameron working on the bulrush harvester

When will the harvester be in action?

There is still some of work to be done before the harvester is ready and operational. Cameron is continuing to work on the design and mounting of the cutter bar head, which is currently in prototype mode. However, the bulrushes won’t be ready to harvest until 2026 so we still have lots of time to get Edna fully ready for action.

What is the purpose of this wetter farming trial?

Drained lowland agricultural peat is becoming harder and harder to sustainably farm. Lower crop yields resulting from declining soil health and regularly waterlogged land is causing problems for farmers across the country. On top of this increasing issue, the peat soils in these fields are emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, heavily contributing to our climate crisis.

Wetter farming helps to solve some of these problems by restoring the naturally higher water table of the peat. This protects the peat soil and significantly reduces the greenhouse gas emissions from the land. And by growing crops that thrive in these wetter conditions, the land can remain productive and profitable for farmers.

This is where the bulrush wetter farming trial comes in and the unique harvester that Cameron is constructing will be key in the success of this trial and the future of wetter farming.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the harvester, as well as news from the ground breaking project.

Find out more about our wetter farming trials

This project has been made possible thanks to funding from the Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot administered by the Environment Agency on behalf of Defra.