HERBY AND PAM’S GENEROUS SPONSORSHIP OF CRITICAL LIFESAVER

Herby says, “It fits perfectly for Landpower – the Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter service is critical to our people and customers across the lower South Island and the opportunity to give back to the community we started in is truly an honour.”

Landpower Group recently became Platinum sponsor of the Otago and Southland Rescue Helicopters.

Herby and Pam’s very generous five-year sponsorship will make a huge difference to this world-class life-saving service. Some facts from the Trustees include:

In 2022 there were 1,909 missions for often desperate situations across the lower South Island.

The Trust funds development of instrument flight rules (IFR) routes so missions can be flown where poor visibility would otherwise prevent response.

This is the largest and busiest service in New Zealand (which comes with a hefty price tag).

Herby and Pam have personally experienced how critical this service is. Their son-in-law in Arrowtown had a major heart attack in December 2019 at 5am. Ambulanced to the Frankton hospital within 30 minutes, the Rescue Helicopter Service then flew Ross to Dunedin Hospital. By 7.30am (just 2.5 hours after his heart attack) Ross had been operated on and was in the recovery ward. Herby says, “this wonderful rescue service saved Ross’s life, for which our family is eternally grateful.”

5 MINUTES WITH… JAMES HARRISON

James is a familiar name (and face) to many. In fact you could call him the ‘poster boy’ for Keep Growing with his recent appointment as Branch Manager for CLAAS Harvest Centre Geraldton about to take him full circle.

When James joined us in 2017 he started in Geraldton in service, then sales, before becoming Product ManagementHigh HP Tractors in early 2021 and moving to Melbourne.

Throughout this time James has successfully supported the growth of the High HP product range to where it is today, and he is excited about continuing the momentum and heading back west to maximise growth in the Northern WA region.

Tell us a bit about yourself

Me and my wife Toni moved to Geraldton from the UK in 2017, we had our twin boys in January 2020. We spent two years working in Melbourne and are now moving back to Geraldton.

What gives you a buzz about your role?

Increasing the brand awareness and providing solutions to customers. Being out in the field with customers and machinery gives me great job satisfaction.

Which Our Way speaks to you the most, and why?

Keep Growing – as a brand and as a dealership, we have huge potential to grow in our area.

What do you do when you’re not at work?

As a family we enjoy our coastal lifestyle and getting away camping. I also enjoy riding my motorbike.

What’s on your bucket list?

One day I would like to do a lap of Australia with the family. What would make today great?

Achieving what I set out to do and making sure my team and customers are happy.

Getting Up Close And Personal

The recent ‘Touch a Truck’ community day in Northland was a roaring success. When approached by the organisers to get involved, CLAAS Harvest Centre Northland Branch Manager Shane Powley and the team were only too glad to help.

Service Technician Josh Gregory took a used stock ARION 650-50 CEBIS to the event and hung out to help visitors get up close and personal with the gear. Despite the recent rough weather, the day was sunny, noisy and busy with around 4,500 kids and families there. This important fundraiser also raised $10K for the local Kamo and Ngunguru Volunteer Fire Brigades.

SPREAD THE WORD - AMAZONE SPREADER CAMP 2023 IS COMPLETE

It was three days of all things AMAZONE Fertiliser Spreading for 37 team members from throughout the wider Australian network 7-9 February. Blair McAlwee, AMAZONE Product Manager (Landpower Australia) says it was a fantastic Keep Growing opportunity to build skills and knowledge.

Day 1: Meet the Models

We learnt about the AMAZONE fertilizer spreading range of models and how sales and service team members could leverage updates to the MySpreader IoS and Android App.

Day 2: In the Field

First the filling aid was shown on the ZA-TS and ZG-TS where the lights flash to help the operator know when the target weight is achieved.

Johannes Herold (AMAZONE) and Russ McCagh (Product Specialist – Seed Hawk and Väderstad) demonstrated the Auto TS border spreading system working on a ZG-TS trailed spreader.

Team members rotated around three workshops to learn how to commission, calibrate and review the spreading procedure of different models. Emphasis was put on getting the lateral distribution or Coefficient of Variation (CoV) correct. CoV measures how evenly the fertiliser spreads: the lower the value, the more even the spread and the better the results for the farmer/grower.

Day 3: Interfacing and Interacting

The focus was on ISOBUS, GPS and interfacing different machinery brands. The new AMAZONE GPS scenario control option was reviewed with Tim Neale (Data Farming) talking about VRA (Variable Rate Application) and the data layers used.

Winners Are Grinners

A 20-question quiz to test attendees’ knowledge saw three winners take the spoils:

1st (with 17 points): Aidan Freeman gets a discount off an AMAZONE spreader in stock for his Swayn & McCabe dealership in Warrnambool

2nd (with 14 points): Nathan Wright from McPhersons, Agricultural Equipment Holdings in NSW took home a custom AMAZONE branded Leatherman Multitool.

3rd (with 13 points): Alan (Paddy) Murphy from Swayn & McCabe in Ballarat took home two models of AMAZONE machinery: the original ZA linkage spreader and the newest ZG-TS trailed spreader.

SPREAD THE WORDAMAZONE SPREADER CAMP 2023 IS COMPLETE CONT...

KEEP GROWING –SEED HAWK SKILLS

Growing our knowledge to grow our customer support was the end goal for the team behind the recent Seed Hawk iCon systems training.

The two-day training event was run in mid-February by Phil Hobbs (Technical Specialist - Spraying, Spreading, Seeding and Tillage) in Warracknabeal, Victoria.

Big In It Together Thanks To

James Harrison for bumping in the machinery and commissioning the CLAAS Tractors, Russ McCagh for facilitating the training and Ben Payne, Mick Beale, Phil Hobbs, Howard McDonald and Ian Hockaday for their help throughout.

Emma Muir (Marketing) and Natalie Lilley and Kahli Lorenseni (Landpower Australia Administration) for organising accommodation, flights, and training materials.

Special thanks to Johannes Herold from AMAZONE for helping us around our Australian dealerships. He created the training content and gave us a high level AMAZONE injection. We look forward to welcoming Johannes back again very soon!

Big thanks to everyone who helped pull the event together and nail down the moving parts including ensuring a machine on site for service technicians to get hands-on.