Homemade unit wins comp

Cundinup feedlotter Matt Camarri won the inaugural WA Lot Feeders Association’s innovator of the year award at a presentation held on April 15 in Busselton as part of this year’s Better Beef event.

His homemade remote control liquid dispensing unit is able to operate air valves on an overhead tank that disperses water and feed oil into a feed mixer.

It was a take on commercially available units that require customer assembly.

“Electrics for remote and air-operated values were at a cost of almost $3000 a few years ago, so we just built what we thought would work without a copy to work from,” he said.

“It has never failed yet.”

Mr Camarri said the pipes connected to the overhead tank that carried the liquids into the mixer were angled up so when the valves, located higher than the outlet, shut off, the liquid stopped immediately. “When the valves switch off at the press of a button, the flow stops immediately, which allows an accurate dispensing of liquid,” he said.

“This allows the loader operator an easier option in adding liquids into the mixer.

“There is no need to get out of the loader and turn a pump on or manually open valves.”

Mr Camarri said the remote control efficiency came from when the last dry ingredient was added to the mixer and the loader operator could then immediately add the liquids, a time-saving function.

“Over thousands of mixer loads, the time saving is quite substantial,” he said. “It takes a lot of the frustration out of loading the mixer because it dispenses so much faster than a pump.”

Mr Camarri’s practical remote unit was judged against three other entries in the competition, with organisers asking for further interests in developing an even stronger innovator contest in 2022.