Roger Dean with his hand-crafted wooden milking system replica.
When Cambridge local Roger Dean visited the Agricultural Heritage Village at Mystery Creek, a popular tourist attraction and historic site at Fieldays, he was inspired by an item he found there.
During his time milking cows in the UK as a young man, he would frequently use a certain type of milking system that was not commonly found in New Zealand. But he found one in the Ag Heritage Village and decided he would make a replica made completely out of wood.
It’s a craft Roger has been passionate about for most of his life – in fact he’s been wood turning since the 1980s. And so a labour of love followed, and after around eight months and several visits to the village, Roger’s piece of art was created – and what a masterpiece it is.
The milking system replica is made completely out of wood, predominantly paulownia, with the tubes made from walnut and the seals and a few other bits and pieces made from mahogany.
Roger plans on entering his masterpiece in the National Woodskills Competition known as WoodFest, held this year in Kawerau in late September.
