John Daysh - Farming ingenuity

It's been 100 years since the first mechanical milking machine was patented, a few years after being devised at the kitchen table of Wairarapa dairy farmer and inveterate tinkerer, Norman John Daysh. There had been attempts to free farmers from the milking stool in the decades preceding Daysh's invention - but his was the first to simulate the effect of the suckling calf and also be comfortable for the cow. Daysh was forced to look offshore for capital for his invention, and teamed up with the De Laval company of Sweden. After 100 prototypes, the De Laval Milker was patented and ready for sale in 1917 in the US, where the Daysh family temporarily moved. Norman's grandson John joins Kim to talk about the ingenuity that created an agricultural revolution.