LIKE many producers, when the drought hit, Joe Fleming was looking for a new enterprise to occupy his time.
There was little stock left to feed or crops in the ground on his family's Walgett property Ulah, so Mr Fleming turned his hand to a lifelong passion, engineering.
Commissioned by a family member based in the state's Central West to create something to "help get rid of saffron thistle" the fifth-generation producer got to work on his patented creation the Bladerunner.
Similar to a crimp roller, the attachment was found to eradicate the problem weed, limit its reproduction and turn it into a mulch, which lead to improved soil moisture retention.
"Off the back of the drought, the saffron thistle was a real problem in places like Orange, Bathurst and Wellington because the weed had the least competition to grow," Mr Fleming said.
"That lead to it being a bit of a challenge for producers in that part of the world to really get going again once it did start raining, but the prototype really did a good job in hooking into the thistle.
"After trials that included some paddocks with spray application, some without, and some with crimp rolling, the best outcomes for thistle coverage were with no spray application and crimping just before flowering when the stem is thick and brittle."
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Along with his wife Emily, Mr Fleming then began to develop the Bladerunner into a tool which would "serve a lot of purposes for a lot of different operators".
"I wanted to create something that was really simple to use, user friendly and easily transported along the highway as well as paddock to paddock," he said.
"At the start of this financial year, we decided to branch out and create Evolve Engineering because I've always been really interested in technology designed to benefit agricultural operations.
"I know these things have got a long way to go but I think we are seriously on the path to make these sorts of implements a serious tool in farming.
"My main goal is to make it an affordable, accessible tool for every farmer to grab and implement into their management systems."
From those early prototypes, Evolve Engineering (which is an arm of Ulah Engineering) has now grown to employee four staff members and service producers across the state and beyond.
Ulah Engineering has been established for 10 years.
"We want to be able to give some guidance on how best to use them and how they can best suit different areas," Mr Fleming said.
"We have patented the structure and not so much the barrel because that is where it really differs from your traditional crimp roller.
"While it is like a crimper, we have called it a Bladerunner because it gives a lot more options than a traditional crimper and going forward, we're really excited to see what else it can be used for.
"At the beginning of this journey, it was just me in the shed but now we have grown to be able to employ four people as well, so it is a really exciting time and we're eager to help this business grow."
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