At 71, Peter Allen says he is “just getting going.” He specialises in the design and manufacture of feeders for all types of farm livestock and can produce bespoke designs to suit the needs of individual clients.

Despite having been in business for more than 40 years, Grove-based Mr Allen is still full of a youthful enthusiasm.

“I am always thinking of new ideas for products and for developing variations of those I already have on the market,” he said.

He is himself a farmer’s son, having been brought up on a farm near Wantage and lived there until the age of 19 when he joined the staff of a company that manufactured milking machinery.

“That was one of the best times of my life,” he recalled. “I was there for five years and I travelled the country installing the milking equipment.

“A lot of the people I was working with were straight out of the Army. I heard a lot about what they went through — they were fantastic people.

“When I decided to leave I began to set up my own business in Wantage, based at The Wharf. I started by buying and selling second-hand equipment in the agricultural line.

“Then I began to run out of things to sell but people were still ringing up wanting to order supplies from me. So I started to make my own.

“I built up a whole range of products, including the rota-feeders which I still sell. I produce my own ideas, I am entirely self-taught. I have taught myself welding and all the other skills needed in production.

“If somebody tells me they would like a particular piece of equipment I will look into ideas for what they want and even for industries other than agriculture.

“I work the idea out in my head, scratch my thoughts down in chalk on the bench and then set about making it.”

Mr Allen has a staff of five when in full production. He has his manufacturing base at Elm Farm Business Park in Grove and has recently taken a new office in Grove Business Centre at Grove Technology Park for his design and administration work.

The principles behind his designs for the animal-feeding machines include practicality in time-saving and in increasing farming efficiency.

The field dispenser range distributes animal feed quickly over relatively large land areas, a practice aimed at reducing bullying among the stock and livestock distress.

Among his ingenious inventions is the Hydro Arm, which enables the farmer or his staff to distribute feed into troughs up to 2.5 metres away while on a vehicle towing the unit.

A new metering unit will dispense a dustbin-sized container full of feed in four seconds and there are bolt-on parlour feeders for dairy units, where the stock have just to press a button for the feed to be dispensed.

The majority of the products are for pig farms but dairy farmers and those with sheep and poultry are also catered for, with pile-droppers for the feeding of sheep out at pasture and hopper-feeder fillers for free-range poultry systems.

Mr Allen has also sold hopper-fillers for the filling of seed-drills when farmers are sowing in spring or autumn but this is a lesser part of the market.

He is now moving further into another field, that of the equestrian market.

Mr Allen is never short of new ideas or requests to develop new products. Among the latest is an electronic feeder for horses, which is just going into production.

“It will handle all types of feed — chopped carrots, nuts, horse mix — whatever is required of it,” Mr Allen said.

“I have developed a number of new ideas in the last two years. Some take several years to be developed fully and I make and modify each new product as I go along. But whatever I do, I have to remember the basic principle of ‘keep it simple’.

“I am currently updating one of my ad-lib feeders. These are for where the animals just help themselves. They just have to move a pin to make the feed fall. The animals quickly learn how to operate it.”

Mr Allen has built a loyal customer base over the years. “My firm is the only agricultural company in Europe doing what we do,” he said.

He also supplies farmers in The US, Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Allen says he loves travelling and he does all the deliveries himself for his British clients.

“It is good fun, I thoroughly enjoy it. I enjoy the travelling. I must have done some three million miles in my time — I do a thousand miles a week.

“I thoroughly enjoy meeting the farmers. And I enjoy looking over the hedges to see what they are doing on their farms.

“I see wonderful historic buildings that you would never see at a tourist attraction. These old barns were made out of the ships’ beams when the ships were scrapped, 300 years ago.”

Mr Allen gains another benefit as well from his time spent out on the road.

“I invent my machines while I am driving,” he says. “I just think about them and the ideas come into my head.

“I thoroughly enjoy my work, I enjoy what I am doing. It is not about getting old — it is how you get there.”