Tipperary farming: Tom boxes clever with mobile feed invention

The first annual Herdwatch #Agventions competition, in association with the Tullamore Show, has drawn to a close. The competition has been a great success with 20 separate entries and over 2,000 votes online.

The entries were narrowed from 20 to a shortlist of eight which was judged on August 4 by a panel of four judges. The judges' panel was made up of two members from Tullamore Show, Rodney and Lesley Cox, a local dairy farmer, Padraig Madden and a member of the Herdwatch team, James Greevy.

The judges were blown away by the standard of the entries and spent over three hours deliberating the merits of each of the Agventions before finally coming to a decision, with an overall winner as well as two runners-up of the competition being announced on August 7 .

The overall winner will receive a cash prize of €250 and is entered in the Tullamore Show national inventions competition.

The two runners-up received a year's free Herdwatch membership and were also entered in the Tullamore Show National Inventions Competition.

Tom Donlon's feed transport box was the first overall Agventions winner

Tom came up with the idea after getting injured on the farm last year, he needed a way to transport feed around the farm that did not involved lifting bags of meal on and off the quad.

The feed transport box can carry up to 100kg of meal safely on the back of the quad. It can be fed directly from the meal bin using gravity to release the meal once the handle is released.

Tom exhibited his Feed Transport Box at the inventions stand at the Tullamore show on August 12.

Michael Roche was one of the runners up. His invention, the portable cattle pen is a mobile cattle pen and crush that fits on the three-point linkage of any tractor.

Michael developed the idea because he has a number of out-farms and he needed a safe way to hold and manage cattle without the expense of building a cattle pen on each farm.

The pen can expand to a 20 x 23 cattle pen or a smaller cattle pen with a 9’ crush, sculling gate and rear gate.

Patrick Harney was the other runner up.

He invented the safety box to solve a problem on his farm.

He needed his quad to round up cattle on a piece of land away from his farm but he did not want to drive it on the main roads

The safety box allows him to carry the quad on the front of the tractor and bring the cattle trailer on the back of the tractor, saving him multiple trips up and down the road.

The safety box can also be used carry calves or sheep around the farm.