Henty Agri-Innovators Award: Ute hay bale lifter entered
A UTE hay bale lifter designed to make feeding out round bales on the farm easier is an entry in the 2017 Henty Agri-Innovators Award.
A UTE hay bale lifter designed to make feeding out round bales on the farm easier is an entry in the 2017 Henty Agri-Innovators Award.
Daysdale sheep producer Peter Mills came up with the idea of adapting a lifting frame to the tilt tray of his farm ute, and operating it remotely.
“I don’t know how many stubbies and hours have been spent on it — it’s been through five stages of development,” Mr Mills said.
The Agri-Innovators Award is designed for farm inventors, backyard tinkerers and students.
The entries must meet the criteria of having a practical on-farm application, be based on an original idea of the entrant and not be in full-scale production at the time entry.
The entries will be judged on Wednesday, September 20 with the winner announced at The Stump at 11am.
Eighteen months ago, Mr Mills was driving home with a load of pea straw when his ute collided with a truck, leaving him with a serious spinal injury. After rehabilitation, he had a tilt tray fitted to his new ute to make chores easier around the farm.
“When it was fitted I noticed it had a two-way hydraulic ram so I thought I could use it for lifting,” he said.
A trip to the Henty field days last year gave him ideas of how to construct the lifting frame.
“I have been working on this prototype since Christmas with the help of Focus Engineering at Corowa,’’ he said.
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