FIVE entries, including two from one person, have been selected as finalists in the 2016 PIRSA Vinnovation Award.
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Wine Grape Council of SA chairman Simon Berry said the Vinnovation Award was created to acknowledge and promote groundbreaking and practical solutions designed by grapegrowers, as well as celebrating innovative spirits and share these adaptors for greater benefit of other grapegrowers.
“After a decade of arguably the most difficult conditions for winegrape production grapegrowers are increasingly looking for solutions from within,” he said.
“We were looking for entries that were practical and which could be broadly adopted, both of which apply to the finalists.”
Treasury Wine Estates workshop manager Matt Lowe, Naracoorte, has two projects in the final five; and attachment that enables mechanical leaf plucking in cooler climates for improved quality in traditional ‘sprawl’ canopies, and a system for automating the accurate addition of sulphur to grape bins.
Madgett’s Block winegrape grower Oli Madgett, Willunga, is recognised for a mobile phone app that enables greater accuracy in applying mulch to highly variable soils.
Treasury Wine Estates maintenance coordinator Scott Irrgang, Barossa Valley, has invented a trencing tool from a tractor that eliminates the need for manual digigng of trenchs for layering vines.
Grape Logistics’ Charles Rosback, Woodside, is in the running with hydraulic heavy duty vine shears for cutting through Eutypa infected vines and wires.
The winner will be announced and presented with a trophy and $2000 cheque by Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell at the SA Winegrape Growers Summit at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, June 17