SWALWELL, Alta. – Most inventions are born when an idea meets a necessity.
On farms everywhere people come up with labor-saving devices that are simple and logical. Most farmers never take their inventions further than their own yard, but three southern Alberta men decided their project was so handy, others might want to use it too.
That is how E and N Wire Roller Co. started.
Ervie Toews, of Swalwell, and Norman Klassen, of Linden, along with welder Corney Penner, have been marketing a hydraulic wire roller since the fall of 1994.
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The idea began when Klassen built the first wire roller for himself. His neighbor Toews borrowed it and thought it had sales possibilities.
It is a three-point mounted machine that runs off a 5.9 cubic inch hydraulic motor that rolls and unrolls barbed wire or high tensil wire on a removable cone-shaped drum. There is a control guide beside the drum to guide the wires onto the spool evenly.
Pulling in rusty wire isn’t a problem. The spool can hold up to a half mile of wire and makes the work of taking down an old fence considerably easier, said Toews.
“It’s not as hard on the fingers (as) when you’re rolling it up by hand,” said Toews.
The machine also winds the wire into a tight ball that scrap yards readily accept.
One person can operate the machine and it requires little maintenance because there are few moving parts. Painted a bright red and white, the machine weighs 85 kilograms.
The men build the machines between their other farm chores.
They build three at a time and have about 20 in the shop at Toews’s farm ready for shipment.
Marketing is the hardest part but with some advertising and word of mouth, they’ve sold 50 across Western Canada and the United States.
“The marketing is a big issue. It costs so much to market,” Toews said.
They are also developing a hip lifter for cows. It fits over the hips of the cow and a tractor is used to jack her up if she can’t get up within a couple days of giving birth.
