Back2Earth Composting co-founder Jeremy Spencer with one of Katunga Fresh's biochar processing hay feeders.
AgVic’s innovation promotion continued its outreach to farmers at Numurkah on Friday, October 27.
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The Startup Shakeup event drew aspiring farmers and high school students to network with farmers and agriculture manufacturers who had succeeded in bringing innovation to their production with support from the Farmers2Founders program.
AgTech’s project lead for regional innovation Mark Sloan said funding was available to farmers who wanted to develop any new ideas and was based on a ‘dollar-for-two dollars’ scheme funded by LaunchVic and co-ordinated through Farmers2Founders.
“We have engaged with service providers to work with entrepreneurs who have a brainwave idea in technology and then tease out the value of the farmer’s proposition,” Mr Sloan said.
“They help structure their idea in terms of a business and engage with networks to build their business.
“We provide the dollars, and Farmers2Founders provide the network.”
Mr Sloan said equity-free grants of up to $50,000 were available after a thorough assessment process
Naring dairy farmer Rebecca Phillips used the event to announce the impending arrival of robotic milking machines in the region.
“Robotic milking machines were something we only dreamed about once,” Ms Phillips said.
“But at the moment, any day now, we are going to see a farm not far from here start up 14 robotic milkers, making it the largest robotic milking dairy in the Southern Hemisphere.”
AgVic's Mark Sloan talks with Year 11 entrepreneur and farmer Tom Wilkinson. "Tom has got a pretty inquisitive and innovative mind," Mr Sloan said.
The event also saw farmers visit Katunga Fresh’s innovative processing operations established at its headquarters.
The company focuses on sustainability and recycling waste products to make compost and energy.
Carbon-enriched biochar is made by the company from kiln-baked biowaste and is used by farmers as compost.
Katunga Fresh also generates compost and methane gas from decomposing waste milk and milk products via a worm farm and bacterial decomposition unit.
Farmer and Year 11 student Tom Wilkinson spoke with Country News about his ideas to deal with the lack of transparency in grain trading.
Tom already runs an Angus stud with his siblings at their Goorambat property .
“I have had lots of ideas with different agricultural innovations and there were a few people here today who I have wanted to meet for a while,” he said.
“Right now I have had this idea to build an app which farmers and grain traders could use to see all current contracts and prices that everyone is using in real time.
“It would also be easier for farmers to manage their inventories and see how far they are into contracts.”
Mr Sloan said Tom had shown courage to approach him.
“I think Tom has got a pretty inquisitive and innovative mind on his shoulders to come up with an idea for a solution,” Mr Sloan said.
“Even if he’s not successful with this idea, he’s shown the capacity to be solving problems as an entrepreneur.
“Farmers2Founders provides these entrepreneurs with the tools to help them to navigate their ideas.
“Have they got a viable product and what will get a farmer to buy these products?”
Gavin Leersen at the Startup Shakeup event with his BaleTime sensors used to help farmers know when to bale hay. Mr Leersen is completing a second innovation course offered by AgVic and will soon apply for one of the $50,000 grants on offer to develop his sensors beyond the 100 he has sold by word of mouth. The Boort shearer said the first contact he made with AgVic’s Mark Sloan was when his journey began its change. “One thing about Farmers2Founders is that they really teach us to talk to the farmers to see their problem and not make what I want to make, but make what’s needed,” Mr Leersen said. “My shearing boss told me he needed a hay monitor to tell him when to bale. He told me the problem he wanted to fix, so I made him one. The sensors save a farmer sleeping in his ute in the paddock, keeping an eye on the conditions for him.” The devices work in pairs, placed on the top and side of a windrow with temperature sensors at different depths.
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