Aussies award Kiwis for their innovation

Aussies award Kiwis for their innovation

An innovative New Zealand business has won two prestigious Australian awards.

Perkinz Ltd won the Best Overseas Invention, for the second year running, at the “Sheepvention” Show in Hamilton, Victoria last month, with their DrenchMaster system, a clever innovation that takes the hard work out of drenching sheep on-farm.

Perkinz also gained third place in the show’s “Sheep Handling Section” for its CrutchMaster product. Its SheepFlow bristles won the Best Overseas Invention at the 2007 Show.

These awards follow on from a special merit award given to the Perkinz SheepFlow in the innovations competition of New Zealand’s National Fieldays at Mystery Creek earlier this year.

The Perkinz DrenchMaster was recognized for its innovation but Managing Director Wayne Perkins who went to Australia for the awards, said it’s the systems simplicity that had everyone talking at the show.

“Farmers like that it works without a lot of fuss and moving parts, and also appreciate that it costs significantly less than the v-belt conveyor system some farms use. Not only did we get the recognition for clever design and simplicity, we got everyone talking, and we’ve taken lots of orders, so it was a great week for us,” Mr Perkins said. “Over the last few years we have invested heavily in the research and development of simple solutions and it was good to have this recognized.”

The sheep control system can increase sheep throughput, while making the drenching process easier on the back and safer for the operator.

Chris Brooker, who is one of Perkinz Australian Distributors and a current world ewe shearing champion, sees huge potential for the DrenchMaster system.

“It couldn’t be more simple to operate, yet it is considerably faster, easier and safer - the common reaction from our customers is, ‘That's so simple, why has no-one thought of this before?’"Mr Brooker said. “It has an operating speed of 700-1000 an hour which we believe compares favourably with a conveyor system.”

It’s used to drench and vaccinate sheep, and to check mouths and udders of ewes, and with no noise and nothing to scare the sheep, they run well.

The “CrutchMaster” is a portable solution for crutching, with everything self-contained on a trailer. It’s also available as a built-in system of up to four stands. Sheep walk up a ramp onto the machine and are tipped out onto the crutching platform. The animal is restrained at the neck and, optionally at the hind legs, allowing access to all the parts of the sheep that need crutching, including the belly and eyewigs. Some of the system’s more innovative features include the SheepDecoy to encourage sheep flow through the race, and a clever discharge mechanism.

The Perkinz SheepFlow is an "anti-backup" product designed to improve the movement of sheep through races. It is simply a set of angled bristles attached to the sides of races, which allows the sheep to move forward, but catches the sheep and stops it from moving backwards. It’s silent and therefore doesn’t “spook” the sheep, has no moving parts, is simple to install, and low cost. Most importantly, it works.

About Perkinz
Perkinz is a South Island-based company that looks outside the square, taking the way things have always been done on the farm and looking for smarter and more efficient methods. It already has on the market some of the most ingeniously simple animal handling products the rural sector has seen, including SheepFlow, SheepDecoy, DrenchMaster and CrutchMaster, and more revolutionary developments are underway. These products are designed and developed by people with shearing and farming experience who understand practicality, and engineered by professionals so they are robust to handle rugged farming conditions. They’re already making a big difference to efficiency on farms throughout New Zealand and Australia and Perkinz has received orders from as far away as Chile. Wayne Perkins is the company founder, backed by a team of Shareholders and Directors with significant expertise, covering shearing, farming, engineering, business and marketing.
www.perkinz.co.nz

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