TWO of the region's most promising start-up agricultural businesses have received a major boost in the form of $7000 thanks to a business competition.
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The Pitch2Grow event, was held by the University of New England's Smart Region Incubator (SRI) and offered start-up agtech businesses the chance to pitch their businesses to 12 judges from across the world.
Bill Mitchell's Optiweigh and Dave Rubie's SmartShepherd won the judges over and received the funding to help their businesses grow into an international market.
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Armidale farmer Bill Mitchell, whose company specialises in allowing farmers to increase the efficiency of beef production by providing liveweight information from the paddock, said he was honoured to have won the award.
"Optiweigh came about because we just needed to be able to weigh cattle without bringing them into the yards," Mr Mitchell said.
"I had an idea and played around with the idea of having a platform in the paddock for the cattle to stand on and then correlate that to the total weight of the cattle.
"We started using it regularly at home five or six years ago and after we had to destock our property due to the drought, I set about commercialising it and so I got involved with the SRI.
"To have won this competition is really pleasing and I'm really pleased to have been given the nod."
Mr Mitchell said breaking into the international market "would be massive" for his business.
"I'll look to invest the winnings into some professional advice to help take my business to the next level," he said.
"There was quite a few options we could use the money on, but we wanted to make sure we do it properly so we will enlist some help before we do that.
"It's pretty exciting to see where we can go with this and we're very grateful for the opportunity."
UNE SRI director Lou Conway said both SmartShepherd and Optiweigh were deserving winners of the competition.
"I am delighted to announce that two SRI founders will receive $7000 each to grow their international market," Ms Conway said.
"I would like to congratulate Bill and Dave, and all the founders who are leading the way in creating new enterprises in regional NSW."
