Cody Killalea's 'Crate Mate' idea aims to reduce water wastage in livestock haulage sector

On a mission to improve agriculture's water management, a St Brendan's College student has come up with a solution to make the agricultural sector a more sustainable industry.

Grade 10 SBC student Cody Killalea created a solution to combat the amount of water used in the clean up process of livestock cartage.

As it stands, an average of 20L of water per minute is used to hose out haulage trucks.

Cody, who grew up on a cattle property at Springsure, said his father worked on cattle trucks and he estimated it took on average between three to four hours to clean up one b-double, using around 4000L per truck.

Cody said he came up with the The Crate Mate idea one night at the Monto show while he was with the cattle club parading their animals.

"We were sitting around a fire and I was looking at the truck next to us thinking how could we make livestock transportation more innovative and sustainable and this is where The Crate Mate originated," Mr Killalea said.

"The Crate Mate is a large industrial scale vacuum cleaner, which sucks up the manure left behind from hauling livestock.

"It is helping create a more sustainable environment as we will he saving millions of litres of water, and we are also gaining the resource of manure which can be used for fertiliser for community gardens or over means."

At the beginning of the project, Cody had the chance to present his idea to Brendan Menegazzo and Brent Stevenson from Stanbroke Pastoral Company.

"I was very pleased when I was told I had the chance to present a rough presentation of the idea to Stanbroke Parstrol," he said.

"They were very pleased with my idea and were very engaged during the presentation.

"They said it was a very innovative idea and could definitely have a place in the world one day."

Cody has ambitious plans now of turning this idea into a reality.

"I am consulting with a very knowledgeable man at school who is guiding me and my idea further. During the Christmas holidays we hope to pitch this idea to a business in Victoria to see how far this idea can go," he said.

"Time will tell how this will go but going into the future we need more sustainable practices and this is the perfect way the cattle Industry can improve."

Australian Industrial Vaccums also took time out to speak to Cody about the application of his idea which they viewed as having the "foundations to become very successful in the future".

Head of Agriculture at St Brendan's College, Bill Oram, said the college continually introduces new ways for students to participate in real-world industry.

"Cody intends to see how far he can take his idea and believes he has the solution to managing the water waste associated with livestock haulage," Mr Oram said.

"We are looking forward to seeing where Cody's innovation takes him."

St Brendans College agriculture students Cody Killalea and his fellow classmate Hayden Culliford recently presented Crate Mate at the National Startup Business brilliant kids shark tank competition in October.

Cody said they were both extremely nervous during the presentation.

"My partner, Hayden, and I zoom called Leigh Morgan and his team, pitching the idea in a national start up business competition," he said.

"There were over 10 other schools and we managed to place second in the whole of Australia, beating teams with extremely innovative ideas."

The judges were impressed that Cody had taken the initiative to contact industry leaders and how he may be able to tailor their technology to an application in the agricultural sector.

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