A REVOLUTIONARY trailer coupling designed by Lithgow innovator, Joe McGinnes, has taken first place in the final of
The Land and NSW Farmers Association Farm Inventor of the Year competition at the Australian National Field Days (ANFD) in Orange.
The invention, a regional winner at Gunnedah’s Ag-Quip field days, is a different concept to a conventional tow ball coupling.
It features a tapered pin locking system and a universal joint which minimises wear and allows a trailer to articulate through a very wide arc.
Judges described the device as a standout piece of farm ingenuity with a lot of applications on the farm for trailers and towable machinery and applications outside agriculture including the armed forces and leisure travel industry.
Second place in the national final went to a remotely-controlled, battery-operated hip clamp for lifting downed cattle designed by former Victorian dairy farmer, Ian McKeown, Melbourne, which originally topped his judging at Henty Machinery Field Days last month.
Gunnedah Year 12 student and Ag-Quip finalist, Daniel Wicks, took third prize with an automatic drop-down gate for quad bikes he made for his HSC Design and Technology project.
Fourth place went to Coolah farmer, Tony Raaen, for a manual tilt-frame for pouring liquids from 10- and 20-litre drums without spillage.
Mr Raaen had earlier in the field days won the under $1000 category in the central NSW regional judging at Orange which had attracted 12 entries.
The farm inventor competition during the past three months has drawn more than 35 entries at the State’s big three regional field days.
An increased number of farmers, landholders and old-fashioned machinery enthusiasts turned up to the opening day of the ANFD.
The sun, or perhaps lucrative tax savings, attracted about 8000 people to the first day, 20 per cent more than last year.
If similar numbers are registered today and yesterday it would easily exceed the 2008 total gate figure of 20,000.
“When I saw the dollar figure for the first day I thought ‘that’s fantastic’,” said fruit grower and ANFD administration manager, Jayne West, “Balmoral”, Orange, who became head organiser this year after she helped co-ordinate the field day the past eight years.
“The weather is an advantage. Last year we had sleet and snow.”
National Australia Bank agribusiness general manager, Khan Horne, said numerous people had asked about the 50 per cent taxation allowance, which saved farmers thousands of dollars on new machinery purchases.
Natural Resources Commissioner, John Williams, in officially opening the 2009 event, said rural communities had become resilient to the shocks of drought and continued to produce food and fibre, but rural landholders now had to be repaid for the responsible way they had looked after their land.
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