Spark of innovation

Gallagher is this year celebrating its 80th anniversary, and in a moment of serendipity New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays is celebrating its 50th year.

Gallagher was founded in 1938 by the late Bill Gallagher senior who, wanting to prevent his horse Joe from rubbing against his Essex car, wired it for current. The rest, as they say, is history -- a family business designing and supplying electric fences. 

Eighty years later that 10-person business is a multinational with 1100 employees worldwide, pioneering not only in electric fencing and animal management, but also in security and fuel systems. Its offerings are technology-led.

Gallagher was among the original exhibitors at the first Fieldays at Te Rapa, Hamilton, in 1969.

Now it is ‘Celebrating the Spark’ -- shining a light on the importance of its innovative thinking and tech-led solutions that “spark possibilities” and solve farmers’ problems.

Sir William Gallagher re-invests in the company to spark new ideas, channeling 10% of annual revenue into the business.

Fieldays 2018 will see the launch of three new products.

The new TWR-5 weigh scale and reader combines an EID reader and the award-winning Gallagher TW weigh scales into an all-in-one solution. 

This enables tag reading and weighing by one person, and it has all the features of the existing TW scales, e.g. a daylight-readable touch screen and the ability to add up to nine traits.

The S200 and S400 integrated solar energisers provide reliable power off the grid, giving farmers a portable means of controlling animals and break feeding supplement crops. The tough, robust units have been well received at the three regional field days held this year. 

The Gallagher energiser dashboard app enables farmers to monitor electric fence system performance remotely; it provides regular fence updates, including faults or problems, on a mobile device.