Jeff Claydon, inventor of Claydon Yield-o-Meter, shortlisted in Farmers Weekly Awards

The founder of a Wickhambrook-based agricultural machinery maker has been short-listed in the Game Changer category of the prestigious Farmers Weekly Awards.

Jeff Claydon, who has farmed at Wickhambrook with his brother Frank since 1970, founded the firm Claydon 10 years later to manufacture the Claydon Yield-o-Meter, which he invented.

The first device to provide an accurate real-time reading of crop yields in the cab of almost any type of combine harvester, it enables farmers to analyse their crop performance before the grain has even left the field.

The Yield-o-Meter proved a huge success and was quickly recognised by the Royal Agricultural Society of England, which awarded it a silver medal. It was soon fitted to combine harvesters across the UK and Europe.

In 2001, when grain prices fell to levels which made combinable crops uneconomic using traditional methods, Jeff again demonstrated his innovative skills by developing the Opti-Till system.

By drilling seed directly into uncultivated land, the time and cost taken to establish cereal and oilseed rape crops without impacting output was cut dramatically.

On a personal level, the technique was instrumental in securing the future of Jeff’s family’s farm, which has not been ploughed since 2002.

Claydon machinery, made in Wickhambrook, is sold and used in more than 30 countries all over the world by a commercial team run by one of Jeff’s sons.

They enable farmers to change from slow, expensive traditional methods to a much faster, highly efficient and sustainable approach.

At the beginning of this year, Jeff was presented with the Suffolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group’s Peewit Award for Excellence in Ecological Farming in recognition of his company’s achievements in designing and manufacturing machinery

In an editorial, Farmers Weekly said: “In an age where many once-famous British agricultural machinery brands are no more, the Claydon name is going from strength to strength.”

The Farmers Weekly Awards ceremony takes place at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on October 3.