AFTER a significant investment and a lot of hard work, Neale and Trevor Postlethwaite have been recognised for their revolutionary farm machine.
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The brothers, who run a property at Coonooer West, were announced the winners of the machine of the year award at the Henty Machinery Field Days this week.
The duo designed an axial throw flatrac that fills in tracks made by farming.
Neale said the machinery had been borne out of need.
“With the advent of GPS guidance, tractors are driving in the same place all the time and are compressing the soil down, leaving wheel ruts,” he said.
“They’re difficult to handle.
“This machine has been designed and developed for a problem that didn’t exist 15 years ago.
“It fixes that problem.”
Neale said his brother had been transporting grain in a field bin and was watching how the soil was moving.
“We thought we could make something move in the same way,” he said.
“We built a few prototype machines and eventually came up with the machine you see today, which does the job really well.
“We had to build quite a few machines with modified designs to get to the final machine.
“It’s been about an 18-month process since we made the first prototype.”
The brothers, who run TPos Fabrications, have applied for a patent.
“There’s nothing like it in the world,” Mr Postlethwaite said.
“There isn’t any other machine that does this.
“When we had the first machine working in the paddock and saw what sort of job it did, we were excited.
“We knew it was actually going to work.
“It had to work in our own farming situation and we knew it would be a success.
“It’s pleasing to see our thoughts have turned into reality.”
Farmers from around the country have already started placing orders for the machine, which costs about $40,000.
Henty machine of the year director Matt Bermeier said the award judged machines invented in the past year.
He said to win the award, the machines had to be innovative and fulfil a need.
“We’re looking for machines that make farming more productive and solve problems with new systems,” Mr Bermeier said.
“There was a problem arising with wheel ruts and how to fill them in.
“This machine is well-built.
“It scrapes the dirt in from the side to keep things level, whereas other machines dig the dirt up.”
He said previous winners had gone on to become standard pieces of farming machinery used throughout Australia.
