NZ Bred Sheep
Geoffrey Peren, Francis Dry and James Little
New Zealanders didn't invent sheep, although we would have if it weren't for the small stumbling block of them having already been invented. However…
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Category · 24 inventions
Agriculture & Farming
From the electric fence to the rotary milking shed — the ingenuity that built a farming nation.
Agriculture & Farming
Sport & Recreation
Medicine & Health
Engineering & Technology
Food & Household
Science & Mathematics
Social & Cultural
Maritime & Transport
Domesticated Deer
Ken Drew & Les Porter
In 1973 Dr Ken Drew and MAF vet Les Porter borrowed a few deer and set up an experimental farm. The two set out to put a structure around deer…
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Allflex ear tags
Brian Murphy, John Burford
Put simply, the Allflex tag system is a farm-management tool. It is not an invention that can be described as a first, but it deserves its place in…
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Electric Fence
Bill Gallagher
In the 1930s Alfred William (Bill) Gallagher (b. 1911, d. 1990) developed a plan to keep his horse Joe from scratching itself on the family car (an…
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Eze-Pull Fencing tool
Chris Johnson
Chris Johnstone was a farmer and a bagpipe player and also had a kind of head start - he was the Great-Nephew of Ernest Rutherford. He put his…
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Staplelock
Staplelok fenceposts are a high-tensile, galvanised steel section, with a scalloped groove down one side of the post. The staples that hold the wires…
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Vacreator
H. Lamont Murray & Frank S. Board
In 1923 Lamont and Board were about to open their own butter factory in Te Aroha, and were unhappy about the method that was being used to pasteurise…
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Milking machines
John Blake
One early example of New Zealand's farmer/engineer breed was John Blake, of Otakeho Taranaki. He bought one of the earliest milking machines, but…
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Spreadable butter
Dr David Illingworth
Dr Robert Norris and David Illingworth and the team at the NZDRI started working on the 'spreadable butter' project in the 1970s. Part of their…
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Woolspill thing
WRONZ
In March, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez broke up in the waters of Alaska, spilling oil over thousands of square kilometres, researchers started to look…
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Wide-toothed shearing comb
New Zealand and Australia both have a strong tradition of sheep-shearing that is part of the defining mythology of our two countries. Shearing heroes…
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Designer Endophytes
AgResearch
Field testing proved very successful and in the year 2000 AgResearch released the world's first novel endophyte, AR1.
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Topdressing
John Chaytor & Alan Pritchard
In 1906, one John Clervaux Chaytor (b. 1836, d. 1920) became the first person in the world to apply agricultural materials aerially - he went up in…
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Farm bike
Johnny Callender
Cyril John (Johnny) Callender (b. 1928, d. 1978) was a New Plymouth mechanic who spotted a gap in the market.
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Tretech
Tim Cox
New Zealand has a lot of trees. It's probably even possible to count how many without too much difficultly, given enough time and eyeballs. But…
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Milk production meter
John Hartstone
No doubt about it, John Hartstone (b. 1923) is the quintessential 'bloke in a shed' inventor.
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Rotary Milking Shed and Herringbone Shed
Ron Sharp / Merv Hicks
Postwar prosperity in the New Zealand dairy industry meant a lot of farmers here had cash to invest in new machinery. In an era when the motorcar was…
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Gudgeon
Patrick Roskam
Patrick's father had just bought a farm and was frustrated at having to hang 20 gates from their 'gudgeons' - the metal pin that farm gates hang…
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Zinc treatment for facial eczma in cows
Gladys Reid
Gladys Reid (b. 1914, d. 2006) was known to the science establishment as a crackpot. ‘Mad Glad’ they called her, and ridiculed her publicly, causing…
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Chicken switch
Robert Ellis
There is no doubt about it - farmer Robert Ellis (b ?, d. ?) of Brightwater (near Nelson) is one of New Zealand's unsung geniuses. In 1910 he…
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Microclimate Agriculture
Early Māori
The first settlers to New Zealand had a problem. After travelling thousands of kilometres across the sea carrying them, their beloved Kumara (sweet…
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Plastic milk bottle
Fonterra
Critics have said that lightproof milk containers create a solution for a problem that didn’t exist. Dairy giant Fonterra claims that the new…
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Wire Strainers
John Reid / Ernest Hayes
John Stuart Reid (b. 1857, d. 1894) came up with an ingenious invention to fix up the broken fences, but also to solve another issue. No.8 Wire, so…
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Zammr Handle
Grant Pearce
Erecting a temporary electric fence is fiddly. Sometimes you need a live connection, sometimes an insulated one, and the connecting handles would…
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24 of 202 stories
The whole No.8 wire story is in the book.
Every invention here — and 178 more — told in full, with the people and the laughs, in No.8 Re-Wired by David Downs & Jon Bridges.