Deere gear covers the ground for busy contracting family

Contractors’ gear must work every time. A breakdown has ripple effects for all the jobs waiting in line.

So, when dairy farmers Andrew and Anna-Marie Guthrie started contracting in 2005, and their current farm tractor was not up to the job, they turned to John Deere. Since then, they have relied on the brand to cover most aspects of their business.

Initially, Andrew and Anna-Marie combined farming with cultivation services. Their sons Bevan and Chris worked part-time with Andrew for a few years and joined full-time in 2015. They are now joint managers.

Services have increased to include baling and bulk silage, precision planting, excavation and harvesting.

Chris explains the switch to John Deere. “We jumped over because of the dealer in Feilding and John Deere’s reputation.” Now, 16 years later, Guthrie Agwork Ltd is based in Moutoa, southern Manawatu and has four John Deere tractors and it employs an owner/driver with a fifth and leases a sixth every season.

The Guthries have two 6215Rs that they use for baling and precision planting. One was new last season and the other the year before. A grunty 2018 6230R does the mowing sporting triple mower-conditioners as well as cultivation. This includes pulling a 5m power harrow and a 4m ripper.

Chris reckons the 6230R is a lot more fuel-efficient than the 7000 series.

The oldest green tractor in the fleet is a 2014 6150R on 8000 hours.

It used to be the main tractor, but as others were upgraded, it has slipped down the ranks to be semi-retired on raking and loader work. It is the old faithful which will never leave.

Transmissions are a mixture of IVT and CommandPro. Chris likes the IVT for its simplicity but prefers the CommandPro.

“The IVT is versatile, smooth and easy to operate. It is a good all-rounder but, I prefer the newer CommandPro. CommandPro is more technical to use but is bloody good. “All the controls are at your fingertips. It is a bit more refined with more control.”

For example, when he is mowing, he can engage or lift the front or rear mowers, speed up, slow down and engage the GPS without moving his hand from the joystick.

Chris also likes the cab layouts.

“John Deere has it nailed. The screens are simple and easy to go through and change. The GPS is simple and easy to use. They are just comfortable.”

With front and cab suspension they are comfortable, and they are quiet places to spend the day.

All of the Guthrie Agwork tractors have auto-steer except for the oldest, the 6150R. 

They are also ISOBUS-compatible. This is important because each driver keeps their tractor and swaps around implements. With ISOBUS it is easy to plug them into the tractor’s monitor. 

Cervus Equipment in Fielding services the family’s tractors.

“They have been through thick and thin with us as we grew rapidly from three to six tractors. They have provided plenty of support and helped us lease to get there.”

Chopping and baling

Guthrie Agwork also runs a John Deere self-propelled forage harvester. Their first was a 7450, which they bought in 2016 from Cervus Equipment, and in 2020 they upgraded to an 8500i.

Chris says it is noticeable how much throughput in the 8500i has increased from their previous model. “It is amazingly more efficient, with less maintenance. It is bloody easy to work on.”

He says the capacity of the new SPFH is so much greater. They needed to get a new stack tractor to keep up with the throughput. In good conditions, it can chop 50 tonnes of dry matter/hour in maize.

A feature Chris particularly likes is HarvestLab. This is a mini nutrition lab that uses near-infrared technology to record the crop’s dry matter, protein, starch, and moisture on the fly.

“It gives a yield map of the job, so farmers can see where paddocks perform best and apply more fert to certain areas if needed. It is amazingly accurate if calibrated regularly.”

Other features that have improved a lot on the 8500i SPFH are the lighting, vision, and cab comfort.

Chris says for something so technically sophisticated; it is remarkably easy to use. “Our driver mastered it really quickly,”

Guthrie Agworks runs the forage harvester with an eight-row maize front so it can bring in maize over a 6m working width. In grass, a 13m four-rotor rake works in front of it.

In 2015 Guthrie Agworks was looking for a combination baler-wrapper to increase efficiency with one less tractor and driver.

Cervus brought around a John Deere 960 round variable-chamber baler with a Goweil G5040 Kombi wrapper. It never left the yard.

It is equally good on hay, straw, and silage, and is used mainly for grass and lucerne, Chris says. “It makes bloody good bales of lucerne.” 

The 960 baler has a 2.2m rotor cut pickup and a hydraulic bank of knives.

A drop floor swallows blockages in a gulp, and Chris says 90 percent of the time blockages can be cleared without leaving the cab. 

“If we have to get out, then it is usually with wet grass in early spring, and we probably shouldn’t be baling anyway.”

The 960 baler wraps the bales with net, and Chris is looking forward to the next model which is film-on-film.

John Deere balers can vary bale density in two zones. The centre can be different to the outside, giving a softer centre to make feeding out easier if required.

Most of Guthrie Agworks silage bales weigh 850-900 kg.

Usually, Guthrie Agworks bales on the flats but, when they are on hills there is never a problem transferring the bale to the wrapper. “It is as good as gold.”

The John Deere baler is another reason to stick with green machines.

“It bales without problems and is simple. It’s been a good baler from day dot.”