Inventive and safe devices for the farm
It included a student category in the competition classes. Each of the three classes — agriculture, horticulture and forestry; home, leisure and building; and labour-saving devices — had high-quality entries, which were useful and safe.
The Eco Combi drainage machine was displayed by Bernie McNamee, from Longford. Featured in this page early in the year, it can be used to dig a drain and backfill it with stone to surface level in a single pass. It won the category for ‘inventions in agriculture, horticulture and forestry’, and the runner-up was Slurrysafe, an invention by Co Waterford’s Alan and Collette Martin. Its aim is safety while agitating and spreading slurry from open slurry pits. The steel safety platform can be fitted to an existing concrete wall, or a new wall at the entrance to the open slurry pit. The platform has an agitation point on its steel, non-slip floor, and a separate entry point for the hose pipe used to extract slurry.
Joseph Keniry’s lock multi-purpose mobile vice/clamp won the ‘home, leisure and building’ class. On wheels, it is suitable for holding logs, pallets, planks, sewer pipes, etc.
The Cow Tipper, designed and manufactured by Northern Engineering, in Co Tyrone, won the ‘labour-saving devices’ category. The animal is loaded in from the rear, and turned up onto its side. All four hooves can be restrained and worked upon safely. The machine requires a single, 220V electricity source.
Among the other inventions was Gus Langan’s anti-backing device, designed to safely prevent cattle from backing down a crush. It is easily fitted by a single person and can be installed on any part of the horizontal sidebars on the crush. It can be moved along the crush bars and, once the animal presses its weight onto it, the device cannot move.
The inventions competition was sponsored by the Farming Independent, WR Shaw, Tullamore; and Glenngorey Pumps Ltd, Newbridge, Co Kildare.
