In the 1930s, Bill Gallagher devised an electrical circuit to stop his horse Joe scratching on his Essex car. More than eight decades later, Research and Development still drives the Gallagher range of innovative electric fencing, wireless water monitoring and livestock management and handling products.

For many years, Gallagher was best known for its electric fencing systems, but these days it's equally as esteemed for its animal weighing and electronic identification (WEID) equipment, as well as its livestock handling solutions.

Technical research to develop and improve products to aid farmer productivity remains a strong focus, with 10 per cent of the entire team in R&D. The company releases several new products a year, across electric fencing, WEID and livestock handling.

As Sir William has said, "We will always have heavy investment in R&D, because that has driven the company to where it is today."

Malcolm Linn heads up Gallagher in Australia, with the Customer Service Centre just north of Melbourne.

"Innovation - and success - outside of product, has been the Gallagher culture because the family owners are driven to improve things for farmers, and that allows us to look way beyond plans for just the next few months, say," Malcolm said.

"We're known as the people who enable excellent animal productivity through fencing, handling and data-collection products. There are still great opportunities in Australia for producers regarding measuring individual animal and mob performance, and increasing productivity with respect to improving pasture utilisation through low-cost electric fencing."

Striking a blow to ferals

Peter and Kacee Artridge are two such farmers.

Despite being very close to state and private bushland, the Artridges began keeping feral dogs out of their south-eastern Riverina property in NSW with three wires on a Gallagher Westonfence.

Peter Artridge said, "We started with one wire on standoffs, and after a while upgraded to the Gallagher Westonfence system because we had been so impressed with the effect of feral-animal control. Some friends who have the Gallagher Westonfence advised us to do that as well."

The Artridges have been on the 521-hectare "Banoon" at Mullengandra for 22 years, running a 1500-head Coopworth flock, selling most lambs to a feedlotter. They also trade in cattle when the prices and seasons are right.

Coopworths have excellent mothering ability, regularly achieving more than 140 per cent weaning rates for the Artridges. Their protective nature has also seen them fend off some feral animals, but it's a not a trait the Artridges want to test too much.

The former chairman of Sports Shear Australia Association Inc., whose father Stan was also a gun shearer, says as soon as they saw the Gallagher Westonfence, they liked it. "It's simple, effective and easy to erect."

To date, they have used Gallagher Westonfence on three-quarters of their boundary, powering it with solar.

"We have two and three hot wires and one cold wire on a sloping fence attached to most of the boundary - some of which is neighbours' stand offs - and we've also used seven-wire Gallagher Westonfence for paddock subdivisions."

The result has been an enormous reduction in feral pests.

"We now have no dogs and almost no roos, which means there's a lot more feed left for us.

"The impact on productivity has been dramatic in our back country: there's 600 acres [243ha] of hill country we've fenced that struggled to run 1000 Merino wethers when we first came here. Now, with pasture improvement and the Gallagher Westonfence, we now fatten lambs and cattle on that same country. The difference is huge."

Solo drafting easy, quiet

Likewise for WA farmer Merv Williams, the difference in using Gallagher sheep-handling equipment has been notable: allowing him to expand his operation at Mundijong.

The Sheep Handling Range includes the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter and three handlers - the Auto Weigh Crutch & Dag, Crutch & Dag, and Auto Weigh - which provide an OH&S friendly solution to capture and contain animals, while saving labour.

Williams said, "I went for the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter because it's a faster drafting than some of the others, and it just seemed to be more sheep friendly. It's very quiet. The lambs stand at it. When there's one in the gate, there's another one standing at the gate, nudging, waiting for it to open to get in."

He's found the Sheep Auto Drafter's speed and user-friendliness made it a great investment - with a very fast return on investment.

"I can do 270 lambs in just under 30 minutes, myself. So with just two loads of prime lambs off to the abattoir, the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter's paid for itself. If you didn't use it, you could hit too many penalties, you just lose so much money. I run them through the drafter and say ‘these lambs will make us X amount of dollars'. Early on I estimated a 330-head lot at between $120 - $125 a head, average. They came out at $123.60. That's the beauty of the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter."

Investment is long term

Sir William said, "It's several years at least, until we get back R&D investment. If I wanted to have really good short-term results, then I'd halve R&D and cut marketing down. In the short term, we'd get a very good result, but it wouldn't be long term, and it's the long-term objectives of giving people solutions to help their businesses grow, that we're after."

Malcolm Linn said, "We're very, very customer driven and our people are very, very focused — as are all rural people, because you can't hide from customers in the bush. Our large national team are based throughout regional Australia and are only a phone call away to support you on-farm or over the phone."

For more information about Gallagher Electric Fencing, WEID products and the latest Gallagher Roadshow information, please visit am.gallagher.com or call 1800 425 524.

Learning through Gallagher Roadshows

As well as attending all major field days around Australia, Gallagher holds some 100 demonstration days nationally.

The Gallagher Roadshow is a perfect opportunity for farmers to see hands-on demonstrations of all Gallagher products, so they can ask about what's relevant to them. Practical demonstrations include Gallagher Westonfence - the complete and permanent boundary or internal fencing solution that outperforms legacy fencing on every measure.

Marketing manager Ben Winter said, "For example, with our WEID gear, a lot of producers have been interested in our TWR-5 Weigh Scale & Reader, which is the next generation of the Touch Weigh Scale, or TW, in the Scale and Data Collector family. It has a fully integrated EID reader, and these Gallagher Roadshows are ideal to show producers how the ‘all-in-one' solution means hands-free EID reading, so only one person needs to be in the yards, with significant labour savings."

Winter said the Gallagher Roadshows also cover Gallagher permanent and temporary electric fencing solutions, including "the fence that talks.

"Gallagher fence communications solutions really give producers peace of mind with ‘fences that talk'."

Same-time communications from fence to phone provide farmers with important fence performance information wherever they are.

He said the i Series fence communications also make fault finding and fence repair cost effective and easy by removing the labour and uncertainty out of the fence status.