It was a win-win situation at Fieldays last week as the National Fieldays Society crowned the Innovation Award recipients and Fencing Competition champions.

More than 60 finalists were in the running for four Fieldays Innovation Awards: Prototype, Early-Stage, Growth & Scale, and Fieldays Young Innovator of the Year.

The panel of 15 industry expert judges crowned student start-up Delta Waterways the Young Innovator of the Year.

Delta Waterways, a project from the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology, uses the latest satellite data and data analysis techniques to revolutionise the way waterways are monitored.

Group members Brendan Bell and Anders Castelltort say Delta Waterways helps to give people a more complete picture of their waterways which helps to identify areas of problems of say algae bloom or sediment buildup.

The 2022 Prototype Award winner was The University of Waikato for their Kiwifruit Human Assisted Harvesting e-BIN which was developed to address the labour shortages in the kiwifruit industry by making fruit picking easier.

Instead of each individual having to carry around a bag when fruit picking, a group of four pickers walk alongside the e-Bin on wheels. As each kiwifruit is picked, it is dropped into a fruit catcher on the e-Bin. A net cushions and secures the fruit, before it rolls down and comes to rest in the main bin. This could allow people who usually aren’t physically able to take on picking jobs to get into the industry.

Waikato University’s School of Engineering lecturer Nick Pickering says there is a real need for people in the kiwifruit industry and physicality can be a barrier to filling this labour shortage.

The 2022 Early-Stage Award winner was SNPshot, a company that uses DNA to verify an animal’s potential and guide farmers in their decision-making. Their five-part, fully patented system is completely digital and compatible with standard DNA lab equipment, so farmers don’t need to buy multiple pieces of software and hardware.

SNPshot general manager Graham Adler says taking DNA samples from any animal can be complex and often involves a lot of manual work.

“SNPshot is simple to use, more accurate, and effectively increases your chance of finding your Dan Carters among the club rugby players so to speak.”

The 2022 Growth & Scale Award winner was previous Innovation award winner RiverWatch whose hardware and software solutions offer real-time information about the quality of oceans, rivers and streams.

The idea was created by father and son duo Grant and James Muir to solve the problem of water pollution upstream from their farm but the pair quickly realised that there was a growing water quality crisis in New Zealand.

New Zealand National Fieldays Society chief executive Peter Nation said the Innovation Awards were significant for the industry.

“Fieldays is the home of innovation and the best platform to launch new ideas in the agricultural sector. Fieldays Innovation Awards is a programme that I, along with the wider Fieldays team, am immensely proud of.”

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Fencing Competition (NZFC), held at Fieldays every year, was a fierce battle between a total of 17 competitors from across the country.

The competition demands a high level of physical strength, fitness and an eye for detail which the winners showed in the high quality of finished products.

Reigning champion Tony Bouskill from Hawke’s Bay won the Golden Pliers by Wiremark Singles Championship trophy for the fourth year running. He has a history of winning fencing competitions, not only at Fieldays. In 2018 alone, he took out titles at the Taumarunui A&P Show, the Hawke’s Bay A&P Show doubles competition and Cambridge A&P Show doubles competition.

He also won this year’s Fieldays Silver Spades Double Championship together with his father Shane for the third time. The dynamic father-son duo already won the award in 2017, 2019 and 2021.

First-time competitor Sander Visser won the Bill Schuler competition which is named after legendary Waikato-born fencer Bill Schuler who passed away in 2018. The competition is a novice final for those who did not make it into the Golden Pliers final.