New prizes for farm inventions

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 14

New prizes for farm inventions

By

D. L. Fyfe

Keen interest is expected by the sponsors of a competition for farm inventions to be judged at this year’s Canterbury show from November 10 to 12.

Prizes, sponsored by the independent "New Zealand Farmer" magazine, will total more than $3OO. Entries will be divided by the judges into simple "gadgets” and more complicated “machines.” First prize in each case will be a return air fare to attend the New Zealand Agricultural Field Days near Hamilton next year. The second prizes will be one-way fares to the Field Days and the third placegetters will receive $3O in cash.

Entries may consist of whole machines or gadgets,

parts of them or modifications to them. Persons substantially employed in research bn farm machinery or commercial development of farm machinery are not elegible for this contest, but may enter other classes at the show.

The "Farmer” has for several years sponsored a similar competition at the New Zealand Agricultural Field Days. Several of the inventions have subsequently been manufactured commercially, while many other ideas have been copied in countless farm workshops after being publicised.

“This competition consistently draws about 30 entries of a remarkably high standard of workmanship, originality and practical usefulness,” said the editor of the “Farmer,” Mr R. Boyd Wilson. “It’s a remarkable fact,” he said, “that many of the most useful new concepts in farm equipment originate not from the research and development divisions of big organisations but in the minds and small workshops of practical farmers. “While the standard of

South Island entries at Hamilton is always high — there have been several winners from the south, including Mr Kevin Gray, of Owaka, this year — we are

aware that the trouble and expense keeps many other good ideas away. “We hope the farmers and other inventors from throughout the South Island

will support the event at the Canterbury show.” Entries should be made to the secretary-manager of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, P.O. Box 9002,

Christchurch, by October 4, with a fee of $l. They should be on display at the Show Grounds at Addington not later than 9 a.m. on November 10.