John supplied a dozen Overshot style doors to the Goulburn Murray Water supply scheme, who found them to be an excellent solution for some of their Channel stop applications.
These structures were fitted with a custom automation system supplied by Ken Messner of kMed automation, our specialist electronics contractor of 20 years.
GMW have remained a great client over the decades requesting a range of products for their projects.
It wasn’t long until the business outgrew the back shed and new sheds and an admin office popped up in the front paddock.
After operating as Precision Irrigation for four years, the business name was changed to Padman Stops.
With other companies operating as Precision Irrigation anyway and our customers calling our products “Padman’s” anyway, it made sense.
But why ‘Stops’? Well, there are lots of local terms for irrigation structures around the country; weirs, gates, outlets, stops… and we’re happy to represent with our local terminology.
For over 50 years, the Elmore Field Days has served as the meeting place each year for farmers from northern Victoria and southern NSW. As a farmer, John had attended the Field Day and many others, but 1990 was the first time he went as an exhibitor.
He was eager to see what his fellow farmers thought of his 100% watertight door and was elated to be awarded the ‘Most innovative new product award winner’ run by the Stock & Land newspaper.
Padman Stops haven’t missed an Elmore Field Days since and have included many others as we find them a great opportunity to talk to our customers, not so much to sell, but to get feedback on how we can serve them better.
This approach has been the key to our longevity, as if John had have only focused on producing that product, Padman Stops would have been out of business years ago!
With his structures improving his own farm, it wasn’t long until the bush telegraph had John pouring structures for other farmers throughout the district.
In 1989, John moved his family from the farm over the NSW border to a few acres on the outskirts of Strathmerton to develop his irrigation ideas further into commercial products.
The business was named ‘Precision Irrigation’ and John focused on Irrigation outlets and played around with automation which were sold to predominately dairy farmers throughout northern Vic and southern NSW.
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