Daysdale sheep producer Peter Mills’ ute hay bale lifter is among entries in this year’s Henty Agri-Innovators Award.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“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.
His invention, to make feeding out round bales easier, had its catalyst after Mr Mills was injured in a crash 18 months ago.
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 thought I could use it for lifting,’’ he said.
The award is designed for farm inventors, backyard tinkerers and students.
Entries must have 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.
“I showed it to a couple of blokes at the Daysdale pub and they wouldn’t believe I built it,” he said.
“I can’t find anything else similar to this on the market.’’
The lifter fits either a seven or eight foot long ute tray and will be fitted to a Falcon ute for display at Henty.
It can be also used for loading wool bales or 44-gallon drums.
The entries will be judged on Wednesday, September 20, with the winner announced at The Stump at 11am.
Mr Mills said it was ideal for quickly feeding out hay without the need for a frontend loader or tractor fitted with forks.
Once the tailgate is removed, a swing-arm frame is bolted on, together with a support frame secured with a spring pin, and two pick-up arms on the rear of the tray.
The support frame drops down behind the round bale to secure it.
The swing-arm frame is adjustable to cater for different sized round bales.
The ute is positioned close to the round bale and the support frame secured around it.
It is then hydraulically lifted onto the ute in a matter of 20 seconds using a hand held remote – the convex pick-up arms easily supporting the weight of the 350kg bale.
Mr Mills said the lifter frame takes only minutes to assemble.
“There are plenty of people with three or four properties keen on the concept as often the front end loader is tied up doing jobs when needed for feeding out,’’ he said.
Although this is Mr Mills’ first entry in the Agri-Innovators Award, he has spent a lifetime modifying farm machinery.
“Thirty years ago there was not a machine on this property that was dead standard for more than six months,’’ he said.
“Everything got altered straight away – dad always said if there was something which could be bettered, we should better it.’’
