Friday, 31 March 2017 08:55

Brand’s tech features, service keep contractor rolling

Written by  Mark Daniel
Mike Silson. Mike Silson.

Mike Silson and his wife Claire operate Riverlea Contractors from their home in Hawera, south of Mount Taranaki.

They offer a full range of agricultural services including cultivation, harvesting and baling.

For the last 20-plus years they have chosen New Holland tractors and machinery, based on the brand and the service from Norwood Farm Machinery (NFM) in their home town.

Now they run 16 New Holland tractors – a diverse range from a TS 115 through to a T7.270 and most models in between, plus round and square balers.

Having looked at other tractor brands over the years, Silson has continually chosen New Holland because of the features they bring to his operation.

Tractors are selected with specific jobs in mind. For example, the T7270 with Auto Command transmission was bought for doing silage stacks. Says Silson, “I believe the Auto Command is the strongest transmission out there, which is why we chose them to do the hard work”.

Riverlea Contractors also has three New Holland BR750A round balers, a BR760 round baler, two BB940 large square balers and a BB1270 large-square baler. Both the round and square balers make a dense bale, are reliable and easy to operate, Silson says.

“The square balers in particular are high-density machines, and the BB1270 provides high productivity on a daily and seasonal basis.”

The support of Norwood Farm Machinery in Hawera keeps the Silsons coming back. The sales department helps custom build units for out-of-season delivery on indent; and they get a quick response in the event of a breakdown or an emergency. NFM knows about the pressures contractors face, and the urgency required in getting machines running again.

Silson uses genuine New Holland parts and lubricants in the tractor fleet to help extend service intervals to 600 hours, which saves time and money and has a direct effect on the business profits.

www.newholland.co.nz

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