A Norfolk farmer has lifted the trophy for his club's biggest sugar beet of the year - after growing a hefty specimen weighing in at 12.103kg.

Roger Lankfer won Stoke Ferry Agricultural Society's annual contest ahead of John Lowe in second place, with a beet weighing 9.123kg, and David Eyles, who took third place with 7.562kg.

The trophy was presented by Richard Cogman of seed breeding firm Strube, who also gave a talk outlining technological advancements in the sugar beet sector.

Club chairman Martyn Cockerill said: "We learnt about their use of artificial intelligence, developing an app for identifying diseases in sugar beet, particularly cercospera and working towards the app being able to differentiate between that and yellow rust in its early stages.

"Richard also talked to us about their robotic weeder and plant counter called 'Blue Bob'. This machine is fully autonomous and is capable of weeding around 30 hectares a season."

The club's next meeting, on December 12 at Ryston Park Golf Club, will hear from master beekeeper Venetia Rist.