Waverley Harvesting’s two New Holland FR9060 forage harvesters have enabled the south Taranaki contracting business to increase its capacity and extend the time between trade-ins.
Waverley Harvesting is based in Waverley, half an hour north of Whanganui. Brothers Phil and Mark Crawford own the business along with their business partner Warwick Lupton. They are all dairy farmers as well, while Warwick also owns two transport businesses.
Phil bought a half share in in Warwick’s contracting business in 2002 and today he looks after day-to-day operations. Waverley Contracting is mainly focused on bulk silage grass and maize but it also does fertiliser spreading, baling, maize planting and ground work. It subcontracts out a number of other services, including mowing and ploughing.
Phil operates a range of New Holland machinery, including tractors, balers and forage harvesters. His tractor fleet includes two T7260s, a T7235, a T7235, a T7.250, a T6070, a T6050 and a TS125A. He and Warwick also hire out a number of other New Holland models as part of another business they own together, Tractor and Machinery Hire.
Waverley Harvesting bought its two New Holland FR9060 forage harvesters new from Norwood Farm Machinery Centre in Hawera. One of the foragers is three years old and has done 3,000 hours, while the other is five years old and has done 5,000 hours.
“We used to run New Holland FX forage harvesters before, but these FRs are the new models. New Holland has revolutionised them a lot, and they are a lot different to the old machines. They are a lot more driver-friendly and easy to work on to do maintenance. Servicing is a lot easier.”
Phil particularly likes the FR9060s’ new cutting cylinders, blower/accelerator and crop processor systems, and auto grease. “The productivity of the machines has increased markedly from what it used to be. We are having a good run with them. We usually trade in every couple of years, but they have got a lot more life in them than they used to and they get well serviced.”
The increased capacity of the FR9060s has allowed Waverley Harvesting to get through a lot more work in a shorter period of time. This helps enormously considering the way the seasons are changing.
“We are also putting out a better product that is more consistent and they FR9060s are exceptionally good with kernel processing too,” says Phil.
Phil is a long-time fan of New Holland machinery, partly because of the excellent service they receive from staff at Norwood Farm Machinery Centre. This extends from manager Mark Sanger, to salesman Chris Eames and all the workshop staff.
“We choose to deal with our local New Holland dealership because of the convenience and close proximity, as well as the great service and support we receive. We have had a good relationship with Norwood Farm Machinery for over 17 years.
“That’s the main reason we stick with New Holland. We like the product as well, but we get very good backup service,” Phil says.
“We use original parts and source them all from Norwood Farm Machinery. Most parts come out of Palmerston North, which is only an hour and-a-half away. If they don’t have parts in Hawera we can drive down to Palmerston North to them. If there are none there, Norwood Farm Machinery can usually get them overnight from one of the other centres.”
New Holland is imported in New Zealand by C B Norwood Distributors Ltd.