Southland Farmer's Edible Bale Netting Gains Attention

• Kiwi Econet's edible bale netting offers a sustainable alternative to plastic netting.
• Southland farmer Grant Lightfoot created the product, inspired while working as a diver.
• Farmers worldwide are showing strong interest, including requests from Texas.

A Southland farmer's innovative edible bale netting is gaining worldwide attention, with interest coming from as far as Texas.

Grant Lightfoot, a deer farmer from Orepuki, developed Kiwi Econet — a type of bale netting made from jute. Unlike traditional plastic-based netting, which is often burned or buried, Kiwi Econet is designed to be safe for livestock if consumed.

"You can't recycle it, you can't do anything with it. Some farmers bury it, some burn it. It's a serious problem," Lightfoot explained.

Lightfoot first came up with the idea while working as a commercial diver. Reflecting on his farm back home during a decompression chamber break, the concept began to take shape.

Back in New Zealand, Lightfoot and his partner Colleen Quirk spent weeks hand-knitting the first 50 metres of netting, creating about one metre per night.

"Then we put it in the baler and it held together. It went through like a piece of cake and I thought, wow, we're onto something here and the old goose bumps started," he recalled.

The prototype won the open section of the Southern Rural Life Farm Innovation Awards last year. Recently, the first two shipping containers filled with hundreds of netting rolls arrived in New Zealand.

"I've been doing this for five years now just about and I can guarantee it works, it does, it works 100% on baleage," Lightfoot said.

Since his story aired on Country Life, Lightfoot has received dozens of calls and numerous emails from farmers eager to try his product. Interest has come from around the globe, including several farmers in Texas, one of whom has already requested a full shipping container.

"The response has been mindblowing," Lightfoot said, adding that he was left feeling "pretty emotional."

Although the future impact of overseas interest remains uncertain, Lightfoot is optimistic. The nets are currently manufactured in Kolkata, India, and he plans to visit the United States and Europe in May to promote the product further.