The livestock kit invention’s sent into this year’s Inventions Competition, showed off the ingenuity of farmers across the country.

We look at  some of the best entries.

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Robert Neill’s feed trailer

Former Farmers Weekly Farmer of the Year Robert Neill built an ATV-drawn cattle trough that can be moved around his fields in the Scottish Borders without making too much mess.

There’s space for up to 20 cattle to dine from the two 6m-long halves of 600mm twin-wall drainage pipe.

This is held in a galvanised box-section frame, with a rigid rear axle and a steering bogie system on the front.

Neatly, the drawbar folds up out of the way while simultaneously clamping a length of round bar against the front tyres to act as a brake.

Total cost was a little over £1,000; the pipe was £300, the four 30mm stub axles £160, and the four rims and tyres £60 apiece.

Robert plans to add a rear drawbar to his next one, so he’ll be able to tow two in tandem.

Ken Hopkins’ mobile weigh cells and dosing race

Keen to have the use of weigh scales, a dosing race and three-way drafting gate at multiple holdings, Ken Hopkins created a handy mobile setup.

This comprises two sections: a plain race at the rear with a side exit drafting gate, and a weighing platform with two-way drafting/stop gate at the front.

For ease of transport, all components are fitted into a single trailed unit, which has removable wheels and drawbar that are held in place by a couple of pins.

The whole lot can then be lowered into work using a simple lever arrangement, and lifted back up again when the wheels need to be refitted.

There’s also space at the rear for carrying additional hurdles, which help balance the outfit and make it easier to move into position by hand.

James Yoxall’s continuous flow water trough

To prevent drinking water freezing when outwintering cattle, James Yoxall from north-east Scotland created a series of ingenious continuous flow troughs.

These are fed from nearby watercourses that don’t freeze, even when temperatures are as low as -7C for several days.

Each trough is positioned at a lower height than the extraction point, so that water flows down the pipe into them by gravity alone.

A large 50mm pipe is used for the outflow, ensuring there’s plenty of water movement to prevent ice forming, which drains into the same watercourse.

Several iterations have been made over the years, and James now has both small and large versions to suit different situations.

Both can be used as regular troughs in warmer months, saving him having to swap to a different setup.

Elis Anwyl’s bale unroller

An old Kverneland wrapper provided the ideal platform for Elis Anwyl, who’s based in Bangor, North Wales, to build a powered bale unwinder.

The wrapper’s original side loading arm is used to pick up a bale and load it onto the machine.

And where the table would normally be, he’s fashioned a hydraulic tilting platform that pushes the bale into two spiked rollers.

These are powered by a hydraulic motor and chain drive that’s geared so that the top one turns three times faster than the bottom.

This allows the lower roller to gently turn the bale while the higher spikes fling silage out into the feed passage.

All the hydraulics and almost all of the steel was salvaged from the wrapper itself, meaning the project cost him virtually nothing, other than his time.

Ben Sargent’s straw spreader trailer

In need of a safe way of transporting his Teagle Telehawk between farms, Ben Sargent built a custom trailer to pull behind his JCB TM320S telehandler.

The starting point was an old 4t Weeks chassis to which he grafted brackets that the spreader locks into.

Such is the design of these that there’s no need to slot in any additional pins or have to strap it down.

Another bonus of towing the spreader is that the telehandler headstock is free to carry other implements.

He put the trailer together over a couple of days, fitting it in around other jobs, and it cost virtually nothing as he already had most of the steel.

Frank Anstee’s bale trailer load securing sides

To save having to strap down loads of straw, Frank Anstee added four gates to the sides of his bale trailer, which he picked up at a farm sale.

These are mounted with simple hinges, so that they can be swung open for loading and unloading.

They’re also removable, so that the trailer can be quickly converted back to a regular flatbed.

Llyr Griffiths’ mobile chicken coop

After a fox broke into his son’s wooden chicken coop, Llyr Griffiths set about building something far more substantial.

Fashioned from galvanised steel sheeting with a corrugated roof, it features a roll away egg box, rainwater harvesting for the nipple drinkers and a mechanism for raising it onto transport wheels when it needs to be moved.

Alan Bourne’s auger feed bucket

On a quest to ease the process of filling pig feed hoppers, Alan Bourne built a neat auger bucket to fit on the front of his Manitou skid-steer.

It is constructed with a sturdy box-section frame and has a hydraulically driven auger in the base to distribute the contents.

Matt and Jack Jones’ ewe lift

With his dad suffering from limited mobility, Oswestry-based Matt Jones and son Jack came up with a lifting system that would allow him to lamb ewes at a more comfortable height.

The converted man lift features an adjustable side gate to hold the animal in position and a chequerplate platform extension that forms the start of the access ramp.

Castor wheels allow it to be rolled around the shed, and there’s an on-board battery and motor to run the hydraulic ram that works the forklift-style up/down mast.

Patrick Gilman’s feed blower

Blowing blended feed into a shed bay with a roof too low to accommodate a tipper is now a simpler and less dusty affair on Patrick Gilman’s Shropshire farm.

His up-and-over transfer system uses lengths of 100mm-bore tube that carry the material from the intake port to a recycled oil drum hung from a rafter.

It enters the drum at an angle and spins around its interior, allowing the wind to gradually dissipate such that he reckons it eliminates 95% of the dust.

Expenses extended to the pipe, a 90deg joint and the wall brackets, which came to £225.

Daniel Roberts’ tow ball

Daniel Roberts, of Treuddyn, Flintshire, has come up with a quick means of attaching a tri-axle trailer to his tractor.

Rather than fitting a ball hitch in place of the drawbar, the former simply slots into the clevis of the latter. The locking pin keeps it tight, he says, it takes just seconds to fit, and it’s carried at the perfect height for the trailer.

Tom Overbury’s feed trailer

Gloucestershire farmer Tom Overbury now has a fleet of four home-made feed trailers to help satisfy the appetite of his outwintered cattle.

A drop-down side grants access to the 5m-long feed deck, there’s a badger-proof salt lick holder on the back, and the whole lot is protected by a corrugated roof that stops hay and silage going soggy.

Matt Sanders’ folding cattle yard

Devon native Matt Sanders made his own self-contained folding gate system to help corral cattle as they are brought into the yard.

Having previously relied on a hotchpotch of machinery to form temporary blockades, he can now open the five 12ft galvanised cattle hurdles to cover various exits or arrange them into a pentagon shape to create a mobile collection yard.

This can be done with the gates free-standing or left attached to the loader via an integrated Euro 8 bracket.

Michael Parkin’s bin door

Michael Parkin took a saw to his new Symms cake bin to add an angle iron-framed door with two latches and a knob.

The opening makes it far easier for him to free bridged fodder, and he’s now mulling the idea of adding a Perspex window to give him better sight of what’s inside.