Once you climb over the Mingamingi saddle, inland from Eltham, good workable farmland starts to get harder to find. It is here that Harry Symes and his family purchased 650ha in March 2019.
Running over 3000 Sheep and 270 herd of cattle, largely by himself, Harry needs his operation to be simple and straight forward. When it came to finding a tractor for the farm, the same rules applied.
Though he has limited workable ground Harry found he still had plenty of work for a tractor. “I needed a tractor mainly for feeding out in the winter and maintaining tracks”.
When considering his options, Harry assumed he would buy a used machine, but his interest was captured when he saw the Kioti RX8030 advertised. “It wasn’t much dearer than the used tractors I was looking at and it had a four year warranty”. After meeting with Sam Vickers, from Power Farming Taranaki, and checking the tractor out, Harry liked what he saw and decided he was happy to have a go.
Now, six months after he took delivery, what does he think?
“It's bloody awesome!”
“I love the size of it. It’s small and light enough that I can get out and about in the wet without making a mess, but it’s still very capable. I load it up with two bales of hay and it can handle them no worries at all.”
Harry wasn’t sure about the advantage of the 4 in 1 bucket at the time of purchase but has since found it incredibly useful. “The bucket is awesome! I've used it for everything – pulling out barberry, lifting out posts and it works well when I’m working on tracks with my grader blade. The tractor has got awesome hydraulic power”.
It was on a big fencing project though that the RX8030 proved itself. Working with his neighbour to reinstate a steep boundary fence, the Kioti proved a huge time saver. “We debated for a while and the others were convinced we needed to carry the posts by hand and drill the holes, but I wasn’t keen on that - it looked like hard work! I was pretty confident the tractor could do it. I put the post driver on and loaded the forks with posts – as many as I could, it was a slow climb to the top but it got up there no worries at all!”
Having a capable tractor on the farm is allowing Harry to further reduce his costs, buy purchasing a drill. “This year I’ll drill about 17ha of grass and 8ha of kale crops with it”, says Harry.
So, was the Kioti the right choice?
“Definitely!” says Harry. “It's simple and easy to use. I like how easy it is to get on and off. It was awesome with the post driver. If I was buying now I'd definitely get another one!”
