The innovative founder of a Suffolk agricultural machinery firm has been nominated as an industry 'Game Changer' in a national awards scheme.

Jeff Claydon, chief executive of the family company which bears his name, has been shortlisted for the new category at the Farmers Weekly Awards, which recognises individuals who have "driven agricultural innovation and had a positive impact on food and farming during the past 20 years".

Mr Claydon, who has farmed at Wickhambrook, near Bury St Edmunds, with his brother Frank since 1970, has also built a successful global machinery brand.

His first product was the Claydon Yield-o-Meter, which he invented in 1980. The grain-monitoring device could be fitted to almost any combine to give accurate readings of how many tonnes were being harvested before the grain left the field. It was a roaring success.

In 2001, when falling grain prices made traditional combinable crop production less economic, Mr Claydon developed the Opti-Till System - drilling seed directly into uncultivated land to dramatically reduce the time and cost taken to establish cereal and oilseed rape crops.

The firm says this zero-tillage system enables farming businesses to operate much more efficiently, profitably and sustainably than traditional methods.

Claydon manufactures its Opti-Till range of direct drills, straw harrows, rotary cultivators and inter-row hoes at its Wickhambrook factory, which employs more than 70 staff and supplies machines to more than 30 countries, from Europe to New Zealand.

Mr Claydon is one of 10 Game Changers invited to take a bow at the Farmers Weekly Awards in London on October 3, where one overall category winner will be announced.