Roger and Amanda Garland, with their daughter Brooke as Business Manager, operate The Y Wuri Trust, an extensive dairy farming operation in an area to the North of Taupo. One might suggest that there’s plenty to worry about, given the scale of the operation, with four dairy herds of 1000+ cows, an effective platform of 1600ha, and a team of contract milkers’. Add to that, five dry stock/run-off blocks, 2500+ young stock and heifers, with all calves raised on farm by the contract milkers’ wives, then you can see this is a sizeable operation.
Roger, like the rest of his team is very much a hands-on dairy farmer, often found at the wheel of tractor, with the favoured brand being German-built Deutz Fahr. The current stable includes an Agrofarm 420 ROPS unit, a pair of 5120’s, three M600’s, a sole M615, and a duo of the latest 6185RC models. The large fleet is dictated by the geography of the operation, but also considering that each location needs to be self-sufficient, while the focus on one brand, means machines can be moved around and easily operated by staff.
The smaller tractors in the fleet, such as the 420 and the 5120’s are the utility tractors and like all the others, they are fitted with front-end loaders. These units are used daily to load bales, feed out and undertake any tasks that are thrown at them. The M600’s tackle the heavier jobs, putting their 140hp to good use towing heavier loads or feed trailers, while the bigger units, and the 6185RC’s, are the ‘grunt” on the farms. Called upon to undertake all the cultivation and cropping, the big modern Deutz’s regularly pull Hooper Giant discs, a 5-metre power harrow, 5-metre roller-seeder, and the farms 3 metre Gaspardo drill. The power at hand also means that jobs can be undertaken quickly, often taking advantage of limited weather windows.
All the tractors are powered by Deutz engines, famed for their frugal fuel use, with Roger commenting “We like the Deutz tractors because they have low maintenance and running costs, as well as the fact that they’re a great place to work, and of course, they look really sharp.”
The Garland’s tractors are supplied by Power Farming Morrinsville, the joint-venture business between the Clarke and Maber families. Power Farming dates to its founding by Laurie Maber in 1946 that led to the founding of The Power Farming Group, the largest privately-owned distributor of tractors and machinery in the Southern Hemisphere. Looking back at his records Roger notes “we first started using, what was then called Maber Motors, close to twenty years ago, using McCormick tractors to break-in large areas of forestry blocks. Those tractors worked hard and we got great support from Maber’s and Power Farming. Nowadays, that pioneering work is complete, but the operation still needs a reliable fleet of tractors to get the work done. As we’ve seen the Garland’s have switched to Deutz Fahr, brought about by the fact that Power Farming switched to the German brand, but readily accepted by these large-scale dairy farmers because of the great support and back-up they received.
Roger summed up the relationship in the practical manner for which he is known, commenting “Our operation relies on reliable and productive tractors and machinery to get things done. We’re smart enough to know that sometimes they break down, but Power Farming Morrinsville is only a call away, and get us going with a minimum of fuss.” He goes on further to say, “We’re a family business and we like dealing with the Maber family, and now Richard Clarke. They give us a good price on the tractors and machines we buy, and a fair price for our trades. Add to that, the great effort the Power Framing Group put into the regular trips they organise to Europe and Australia- something we really look forward to-it all comes together to keep us going back to the one name that covers it all.”
