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Coolagown farmer Neilus Murphy, pictured with Anna May McHugh (NPA Managing Director) and others last week at the Ploughing Championships, where his invention the GrazeMate Drove won the NPA/Toplink Innovation Award.

An outing to the National Ploughing Championships in Co Laois last week, proved a worthwhile one for Coolagown man, Neilus Murphy, who captured the prestigious NPA/Toplink Innovation Award for his 'GrazeMate Drover' fence-opening device.

Neilus beat off competition from 32 other innovators and entrepreneurs to take the award. GrazeMate Drover is a new, easy-to-use, labour-saving device for farmers that allows the user to open or close an electrified barrier to a field using their mobile phone.

A farmer himself, Neilus conceived and developed the device, which he says can cut in half the number of daily visits to a field, resulting in time savings and greater efficiency for the farmer, particularly when a herd of cows is being returned to the farthest off field on the farm.

Neilus has first hand experience of the amount of time spent opening and closing gates in bringing the herd in for milking and returning them afterwards, especially late in the evening.

Neilus approached his local Leader group, Avondhu Blackwater Partnership in late 2011 with his idea. It was quickly decided that the concept was highly innovative and had sufficient merit for ABP to award a grant equal to 75% funding for a feasibility study.

The feasibility study was undertaken by PLAS Consulting Engineers in 2012 and the results proved positive, confirming that Neilus' invention was viable to manufacture, that it could exploit a niche in the market and, critically, that a sufficient target market existed to which it could be sold.

The ABP feasibility study also provided an action plan, setting out the most efficient manner of manufacturing the product and bringing it to market. It also set out the financial targets which had to be adhered to in order to make the product viable.

With the feasibility study providing the blueprint, the project was passed on to the North Cork Enterprise Board who were more appropriately placed to assist with the manufacturing process. It is hoped that, once the product is established in Ireland, it will also have considerable export potential.

GrazeMate Drover has been developed to allow a simple text message sent to a battery-powered unit to open and close a barrier fence on demand. It does away with the time consuming requirement to follow the herd back to pasture to secure them after milking. It can also be operated using a time clock device that can be set for regular milking times of the herd.

It has other advantages too, making buffer feeding easier, bringing cows into a shed without having to go to the paddock during bad weather and being able to open/close paddocks at will when leaving cows back in batches after testing and dosing. The device is portable enough to be attached securely to a typical electric fence post and is powered by a rechargeable battery.

"Winning the NPA/Toplink Innovation Award at the National Ploughing Championships was an immense achievement for Neilus Murphy and due recognition for the hard work and dedication which has seen him bring the GrazeMate Drover product from concept to market in less than two years.

"Avondhu Blackwater Partnership is delighted to have been in a position to provide support for this product in its initial stages, assisting a local entrepreneur at a critical time in the development of his small business and, as a result, supporting the development of the wider rural economy," said Valerie Murphy, CEO of Avondhu Blackwater Partnership.

Neilus is also grateful to Donal Murphy of Donlouco in Mallow, who was involved in the design and manufacture of the device and will be assembling it. "He was a great help," Neilus says of Donal. A lot of effort and a lot of sweat went into getting ready for the Ploughing Championships, Neilus says, but it was worth it. Winning the award there "was fantastic, it gives us great profile, it was a great start," he said.

The GrazeMate Drover is now available to order online at www.grazemate.ie or people can call 087-2788040 or 025-36363.

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