A FRESH produce box made on-farm from waste vegetative material from the same farm is just one example of an outcome from the pursuit of inventing.
While the Biomass Box is still being developed, it is being driven in part by Keon Research managing director, Dr Michael Manion, who spoke at Hort Connections on the topic of creating opportunities through prolific invention.
Keon Research is driven by three key motivators: to explore, invent and build.
The business was described as operating in the space between university research and product development.
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It takes the approach of "throwing a lot of ideas into the air" and seeing which ones will fly.
According to Dr Manion, latching onto an invention to solve a solution is rare but possible.
"We fail more often than not. It's not for everyone. It's hard for someone to hear that their idea is not that good, especially when there is an emotional attachment to it," Dr Manion said.
At the intersection of the spheres of technology, intellectual property and economics is where commercial opportunities lie, according to Dr Manion.
"You can invent into this space intentionally," he said.
His presentation, within the global innovations speaker session, was aimed to push growers to think beyond the paddock when it came to horticulture.
"This industry is impressive the way you all embrace innovation and seek to better the world," Mr Manion said.
Another example within the realm of agriculture in which Keon Research has been involved was the development of a colour-changing livestock tattoo for cattle which indicates stress levels in the hopes of avoiding dark-cutting meat.
The project has been developed for Meat and Livestock Australia.
"It's hard to get a cow to sit down and tell you how she feels," Dr Manion said.
Part of the Keon Research process involves a workshop lab (or "toyshop" as Dr Manion prefers to call it) which holds development tools from high end analysis equipment and laser instruments, through to hammers and drills.
Ashley Walmsley
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
