Year in Review: Schoolboys’ kiwifruit orchard invention does the heavy lifting

Liam Fisher, aged 17 from Ōpōtiki, and St Paul’s Collegiate School classmate Ollie Robertson, 18, with their Ag Beam lifter. Photo / Merle Cave

The Country looks back at some of the biggest and best stories of the past 12 months, including readers' favourites, news events and those yarns that gave us a glimpse into rural lives and livelihoods across the country.

Originally published August 29 on Coast & Country News. By Merle Cave.

Three St Paul’s Collegiate School boys have come up with a simple but effective way to take the hassle and manpower out of replacing or repairing beams or posts on orchards.

Liam Fisher, 17, and classmates Ollie Robertson, 18, and Heera Sandu Singh 17, have invented the Ag Beam Lifter, which they showcased at Fieldays 2024 from June 12-15.

The trio’s Kiwifruit Beam Solutions Ag Beam Lifter was selected to enter the 2024 Fieldays Innovation Awards, under the prototype category.

As one of five finalists, it put them on a stand in the innovations tent talking to event-goers – including growers – about their product.

The Ag Beam Lifter is designed to fit on to the rear three-point linkage on any tractor and be driven under a kiwifruit canopy to fit under fallen Ag-beams and lift them back up onto their posts.

The device can also lift Ag-beams to take the weight off the post if it needs replacing.

With backward and forward tilt plus 360-degree turning, the device is easy to manoeuvre in tight spaces on kiwifruit orchards and safe to use.

“There’s nothing out there like it on the market,” Fisher said.

He grew up on his family’s Ōpōtiki kiwifruit orchard – where the idea sprouted from.

“We’ve got 14 canopy hectares – about half green, half gold,” Fisher said.

“My family has been growing kiwifruit for more than 20 years, I’d say; so we have some fairly old orchards and we get Ag-beams every year which need replacements or repairs.

“So I came up with this idea and it’s gone from there.”

Kiwifruit Beam Solutions’ Ag Beam Lifter saves manpower, labour and time when replacing or repairing ag beams or posts on orchards. Photo / Merle Cave

To replace an Ag-beam or posts under canopies, orchardists would traditionally use manpower to bear the weight for the work to be done.

“When there is severe damage you’d have to get up to 10 guys in to lift an Ag-beam – with this product they are not required,” Fisher said.

“One person can lift the Ag-beam using this device on the back of the tractor, meaning staff or contractors can do other orchard work.

“So it saves manpower, labour and time.”

Fisher said hand-jacks or hydraulic jacks could be used for replacing Ag-beams “but they can be quite dangerous to use”.

“This device reduces the safety risk.”

The trio began their invention journey in February, with Fisher engineering the first structure himself.

Liam Fisher, aged 17 from Ōpōtiki, and St Paul’s Collegiate School classmate Ollie Robertson, 18, with their Ag Beam lifter. Photo / Merle Cave.

Since then they’ve trialled it on his family orchard in Ōpōtiki and tweaked it.

Then they took it to a local engineer and said: “This is what we want – can you make this?”

“We got a price and got two made up for Fieldays.”

Perry Metal Protection in Hamilton galvanised the two devices for Fieldays.

“So that’s an option for customers. Plus R&R Tractors Te Puke have supplied us with one of their Ferrari tractors, which we are very grateful for.”

Robertson said: “Since our prototype, we’ve really developed and so what we have here at Fieldays, it’s come quite a way.”

Feedback at Fieldays has been positive – the boys even got to talk to growers in the Zespri tent too.

Robertson said growers “gave us ideas of what we could do in future with it – or what we could change to make it easier for them to use, which was very helpful and got us to where we are today”.

In fact, the youngsters picked up potential product orders at Fieldays and planned to look at commercialising their Ag Beam Lifter.

“We’ll see what our target market thinks and decide from there,” Fisher said.

So what does his dad reckon about not having to do the heavy lifting for Ag-beam maintenance on his orchards?

“Yeah, Dad loves the idea – it’s good in our orchard.

“We really enjoy it, it makes the job so much easier and faster.

“It’s something you only use for a certain part of the year – after harvest – but having it there you can fly through the orchard and get the job done.

“That means Dad can get to other jobs that need doing.”