From Tech to Tractors: Exploring Agri-Tech with Minnie Cooke

Every year, our Recruitment Team hits the road and travels across the country, visiting universities and connecting with students at careers fairs. It’s inspiring to meet so many ambitious and talented individuals eager to shape their futures. One such standout was Minnie, who we met at the Harper Adams careers fair and who went on to win our Careers Fair competition!

Minnie Cooke is a final-year Agriculture student at Harper Adams University. She studied computer science for several years before attending university, initially studying Veterinary Physiotherapy for two years, then transferring to Agriculture with Animal Science.

Minnie spoke to us about her journey, the role of technology in the farming industry, and why the future of agriculture depends on young, tech-savvy professionals.

Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in agriculture?

In high school, I studied biology, chemistry, and computer science, but I wasn’t keen on a pure tech career. I wanted to work with animals, so I initially thought veterinary science was the way to go. After two years, I realised I only really enjoyed the agricultural modules. I’d done work experience on farms but didn’t know agriculture was an option for me; it wasn’t until I came to Harper that I learned I could pursue it. There is such a strong awareness at Harper of the shortage of young people with agricultural skills entering the field, so there’s an urgent need to recruit talent from other industries. I basically heard I could drive a tractor, I can go out and work on farms, I can be around animals, and, as corny as it sounds, I can feed people and actually contribute. We all eat; agriculture is one of the few businesses where you are part of someone’s life every day. I transferred to their access-ag programme and gained agricultural qualifications before starting my degree.

What are your plans once you finish your degree?

At university, surrounded by skilled individuals, it’s easy to feel that there’s always someone smarter or working harder than you, especially when you’re not from a farming background. During my placement year, I worked with a company that does health & safety consultancy alongside software distribution, so they were keen on my tech background. There’s not a lot of computer science advocacy within agricultural pathways, and I realised there is a very niche crossover between people who have agricultural awareness and people who have specific computer science knowledge. That’s when I realised that I really want to go into agri-tech and make use of my skills that way.

What was the most rewarding aspect of your role during your placement?

I would say the networking at the events. There was a lot of agri-tech companies with some fascinating premises, from all over the world. Groundswell, the Regenerative Agricultural Festival, was amazing, as it is almost purely forward-thinking, innovative farmers looking for solutions to improve their farm. I got to speak to so many interesting people and you really get a sense of what the culture in that community is like. I think that’s what made me realise ‘Oh, I actually have skills!’ It sounds silly, but when you’re at a specialist university and everyone’s doing the same course as you, sometimes you don’t realise what differentiates you and what makes you a good candidate. It wasn’t until I talked with these people, and they were like ‘oh, you did this, you did that’ that I thought ‘wow, okay, I should actually be bragging about this’.

How do you see technology influencing in the future of farming?

I’m actually doing a research project on that very topic. Currently I’m conducting a focus group alongside a wider PhD research project where we’re going to be asking stakeholders in the pig production industry how they feel about precision technology, where they believe there are barriers to its use and how they think we can support them as an industry in implementing this technology. One of the very prominent themes in UK agriculture is that we do really good research, but then we don’t implement it on farms. There is technology there for us to use, and certainly it’s seen really good use in countries like the Netherlands. We can never operate to the same intensification as some other countries, due to how we handle our welfare and our public perception, but what we can farm with is high welfare, high technologically capable, really productive farms.

Why aren’t we using available technology and data in agriculture?

There’s a lot of scientific discussion around it and it’s hopefully one thing my project is going to describe. The main theme is a combination of practicality and social impact. While these technologies can be expensive, we’ve seen similar investments in feed and housing innovations, despite high capital costs. The real barrier is social awareness – farmers are hesitant to invest if they don’t fully understand how the technology works, how to install it, or how to maintain it. If we can support farmers in understanding which technologies are most useful, how to use them, and how to interpret the data, we’d see greater uptake in precision technologies.

Technology doesn’t always have to be complex – something as simple as a temperature sensor on pig arcs that adjusts ventilation can save time and reduce labour. If we present these technologies in clear, practical terms, showing tangible benefits, farmers will be more likely to embrace them.

What other strategies can encourage farmers to adopt precision technology?

We need to make it financially viable. A key part of my project is using precision technology to improve welfare, which many people wrongly assume doesn’t impact productivity. In fact, improving welfare does boost productivity, and there’s plenty of evidence to support this. If we show farmers the financial benefits of using precision technology, especially in pig and poultry farms where efficiency relies on data monitoring, we’d see much wider adoption.

Are there subsidies available to farmers?

Subsidy culture in the UK is quite strange compared to Europe. While subsidies should be driving innovation, improving welfare, and raising food standards, they often support less profitable sectors like sheep and beef, while more profitable industries such as poultry and pigs receive less support. This lack of subsidies limits investment and innovation in those sectors. In Scandinavia, there are ongoing projects that provide tailored advice to farmers on technology adoption, which has helped increase confidence in new technologies. I’ve seen first hand how a distrust of technology, like simple apps or sensors, can be a barrier to progress.

Do you think we need to bring younger people into the industry to help address this issue?

In the normal working population, the 19 – 25 age range is where most of the work force is, yet that’s where the least amount of farming workforce is. The most amount of farming workforce is over 60. It’s not great when you think of the skills that are going to be lost. That’s why there’s such a push to recruit from outside the industry. You need people who aren’t from farming backgrounds, and you need people from the technological sector to enter the industry. At the moment, you have people from pure tech designing agricultural solutions, and it is very clear that they do not know anything about agriculture. It’s disappointing to see that. I truly believe agriculture is going to become more technology-reliant; with the way legislation is going, that’s the way public mindset is. We are moving towards a sustainable, high welfare standard and to ensure that, there has got to be some sort of regulation.

How do you measure welfare accurately?

You won’t have a behaviourist on your farm daily, but you could have a camera with AI algorithms to monitor animal behaviour, providing a scientific and standardised welfare score. Imagine seeing a meat product with a welfare rating, like ‘4.5 out of 5’. This would give consumers more confidence, as current systems rely on annual inspections. With daily data collection and annual averages, farmers would be more motivated to maintain high welfare standards. If assurance schemes were more trustworthy, consumers might be willing to pay a premium for high-quality products, boosting profits in the sector.

What’s been one of your most fulfilling days working in the industry so far?

It’s got to be one of the days I did as part of my student ambassador work at uni. We did a Future Farming Day with a group of local primary school kids. We had them eat insect proteins (I ate them too!), and we took them around the farm. It was amazing to be able to impart wisdom and actually share to the younger generation about how farming works and how the future of farming will look for them. They were so keen about it! They came up and hugged me afterwards, and I did think I might cry!

What do you think are the main challenges in getting young people interested in agriculture?

I grew up in Northern Ireland and it’s more prevalent in the culture because it’s much more of an agricultural society. But in England from what I’ve experienced, there is a mass… I don’t want to say the word ‘ignorance’, but maybe not as thorough an education within young people into appreciating what goes on to create their food. We’ve got a lot of laws and legislation that are going to be passed, and people need to be aware about them. Often, people don’t even know what the labels on their food mean. I think raising people into the industry and attracting people from outside the sector is super important, and we can only do that by educating.

What advice would you give to individuals without a farming background who are considering a career in agriculture?

If you’re interested in purely farm work or management, you could start directly on a farm. But if you do want to work in other sectors and you’re not from a farming background – university or some form of higher education is a really good choice. It teaches you the basics that you otherwise would take a very long time to learn on the job. There’s a lot that goes into producing food that I think people don’t realise. We have limited land and resources, and the demand for food will only grow; the only way we can produce more food is to get way better at farming. You know, about 200 years ago before the onset of the Massey Ferguson tractor, we wouldn’t have thought we’d get the outputs that we get now. I really think things are only going to improve, and I personally believe technology is the way forward.