A wire winder made by John Cotherman (photo) and his father Bill mostly uses materials that John had on hand. A cattle operation uses lots of wire to create temporary paddocks and replace old fences.

Anyone who has ever wound a coil by hand has probably idly wondered “How do they do this with a machine?” at some point in the tedious process. That’s about when your attention wanders and the wire ...

Andrew Marchington’s wire winder was runner-up in the intermediate category of Farmers Weekly’s annual Inventions Competition. Farmworker Andrew Marchington, of Copplestone in Devon, decided to build ...