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Roger and Sarah Smith.
Roger and Sarah Smith returned from China to New Zealand in 2012 to take up a 150 cow, 50:50 sharemilking contract near Pukekohe.
Thinking to change their 4000-hour tractor they noted it looked to be in good condition but was racking up repair and maintenance costs of $10,000 per annum.
Buying second-hand meant no guarantees, so they opted to go new, and get the peace of mind of warranties and reliability.
They wanted a tractor light enough not to damage their clay based soils in winter, yet capable of handling a 10 cube feed wagon and doing cultivation work, so they opted for a Kubota M100GX.
The M100GX stood out from its competitors as offering much higher levels of specification and features to make life easier. With 8-speed power-shift as standard, auto-shifting and field cruise control, this appears to be the case. This automation has come to the fore in recent months, as the Smiths tackled an ambitious re-seeding of one third of the farm with annual and perennial ryegrasses.
Roger says “the comfortable cab and ergonomic controls makes the tractor easy to drive, and excellent access and visibility are also right up there”.
These features are not lost on the farm’s owner, Grant Parkinson, who although aged 75 likes to keep his hand in on the farm, taking on much of the tractor work.
The tractor was bought with a MX T140 loader chosen for a good lift height and the availability of electronic joystick control, the latter being especially useful for accurate load placement.
Smith notes “the tractor/loader combination offers great visibility and makes loading maize silage from the pit into the wagon a breeze. The choice of the Kubota and MX has hit the mark for us in functionality and price”.
Signing up to a benchmarking tool is not about competition, but about improving collectively, says Ximena Puig and Alvaro Luzardo who are 50-50 sharemilkers at a 164-hectare (effective) dairy farm in Eketāhuna in the Lower North Island.
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