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LINCOLN AGRITECH Ltd is celebrating 50 years of researching and encouraging agricultural engineering.
The company, approved by the government in 1963, was founded in 1964 as New Zealand Agricultural Engineering Institute (NZAEI) at Lincoln College (now Lincoln University). The first staff member joined in October 1964.
Financed chiefly by Ministry of Agriculture grants, it first worked on tractor safety frame testing, fencing, carcase disposal, farm water supply and farm aviation.
In 1979 NZAEI opened a second research division at Ruakura, Hamilton. Lincoln Ventures Ltd was created in 1994 as a merger of NZAEI, the Kellogg Farm Management Unit and the Centre for Resource Management.
In 2012 the company changed its name to Lincoln Agritech Ltd to better reflect its position as an independent agritech-focused science and engineering research company, owned by Lincoln University.
The company has spread its field of interest beyond farming, to the industrial and environmental sectors. Examples include:
A mechanical blackcurrant harvester developed and made commercially from 1973, and sold in NZ and elsewhere.
Water harvesting in dams and other types of storage in the 1970s for stock and irrigation, including the design of the Glenmark Irrigation Scheme in Waipara.
A direct drilling machine called the Rotodrill (1980) in collaboration with MAF, which enabled ploughing and seeding of land in a single step.
IRRICAD, a world-known software package used to design pressurised irrigation systems sold in 60 countries.
Aquaflex, a soil moisture sensor sold worldwide since 1991.
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