King Charles cottons on to Kiwi's eco-friendly bale netting

Sitting in a decompression chamber out on the ocean, a Southland farmer had an idea that's now been picked up by King Charles.

Grant Lightfoot's eco-friendly bale netting is set to be trialled on King Charles' royal farms in the next year.

The Orepuki deer farmer is the creator of Kiwi Econet, a non-polluting baleage netting made from jute that can be eaten by animals.

While Kiwi Econet does not replace the outer plastic wrapping used for baleage and silage, it provides an alternative to the plastic-based netting inside which stock have been known to eat.

"He said that would be really good on our farms," Lightfood said of the royal. He followed up with King Charles' farm manager and left them a roll of the econet to trial this coming season.

Lightfoot hoped the royal attention would give his invention a boost as he looked to take it worldwide.

He came up with the idea of an edible alternative while working as a commercial diver, thinking of the farm back home while waiting in a decompression chamber.

Returning home, Lightfoot and his partner Colleen Quirk hand-knitted the first 50 metres of the 1.25m wide netting out of jute twine - it took weeks at a rate of about a metre per night.