Since starting May Brothers Contracting as teenagers 17 years ago, the brothers have grown their business from a second-hand 1986 Hesston windrower to a fleet of more than 30 John Deere tractors, combines, forage harvesters and windrowers. In addition to servicing Canterbury’s small grains, forage and grass seed industries, the brothers also grow potatoes for a large global company.
Phil says their ability to streamline their operation, closely monitor expenses and offer a cost-effective service has been influenced by having John Deere machines equipped with JDLinkTM and John Deere Operations CenterTM.
He comments that as far as technology is concerned, everything is more efficient – and right there on your phone.
“We’ve always got to be managing our costs when we’re running machinery, and Ops Center shows us how efficient the machines are, delivering information on our working times, idle times, how much fuel is getting burnt and even how much time we’re spending on the roads,” says Phil.
“Having these capabilities means we can factor all of that into what we’re charging and offer a cost-effective service.”
Looking at areas such as yield maps that are provided quickly via Ops Center, Phil notes that the technology was a far cry from the “old days” when a USB was needed to transfer information from a machine to a computer to create such maps.
“For example, you’ve got all the benefits of sending information from the forage harvester straight back to the office. I wouldn’t look back; today’s systems are a lot more user-friendly and all remote – it’s quite brilliant,” says Phil.
As they were growing up, Phil and Tim got to know Peter Etheridge, whose John Deere dealership, Drummond & Etheridge, has been operating in Ashburton for 50 years.
“While you do business with the dealership, it’s the people who make the business. Knowing Pete has been a big part of our John Deere background and growth,” Phil says.
Looking at the latest connectivity, “The ability for the machines to send error codes to the dealership often means that when we phone to tell them we’ve had a breakdown,” says Phil.
“Drummond & Etheridge are almost one step ahead of us.”
While it was hard to put a dollar value on connectivity for the business, it saves time by collating data and providing detailed information on their fleet and crop performance.
The May Brothers’ latest investment in green and gold is a JD X9 1100 combine harvester that’s been put to the test in a variety of crops including ryegrass, rapeseed, kale seed, wheat and barley.
“We’ve only done the one harvest with the X9 so far, but the performance in cereal crops is probably twice the capacity of anything we’ve ever owned,” says Phil.
