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from Dairy News Australia August 2022

Network continues to grow

O’CONNORS IS increasing its reach after buying the full Sunrise Ag dealerships in Swan Hill and Ouyen and the Case IH broadacre component of the Mildura outlet.

O’Connors chief executive officer Gareth Webb said the Sunrise Ag dealerships were a good fit for the business and the expansion helped reinforce the strength of the O’Connors’ network.

“The Sunrise Ag location at Ouyen represents a strong broadacre farming area where we have considerable knowledge and experience, while Mildura and Swan Hill have more agricultural diversity where we can work to expand the reach of Case IH smaller horsepower machinery,” Mr Webb said.

“That diversity is exciting for us and we see a lot of opportunities across the three locations.

“We have 58 years of experience in the agricultural machinery industry, representing the Case IH brand, and building a reputation for outstanding service, and second-to-none knowledge of the industry and commitment to our customers.”

This most recent expansion extends O’Connors’ footprint from Ballarat in southern Victoria, north to Condobolin in the NSW central-west, and east to Corowa and Shepparton, linking up the dealership network. It follows last year’s acquisition of former Agrimac dealerships in Ballarat and St Arnaud.

Case IH general manager Pete McCann welcomed the news and said it helped secure the Case IH brand in an important agricultural area.

Sunrise Ag owners Steve and Luke Ayling and O’Connors chief executive officer Gareth Webb.

Hay making bigger than Texas

Stinger hay bale stacker on one of the US farms. KATANDRA HAY producer and contractor Luke Felmingham found hay making and agricultural production was literally bigger than Texas on a recent trip to the United States.

“It’s happening on an industrial scale; very effi cient,” Luke said about the size of farming operations where dairy farms carried huge herds, feedlots stocked tens of thousands of head and hay making was organised at a highly mechanised and effi cient level.

The speed of hay making was an important aspect for Luke, who runs a business processing about 7000 tonnes of hay every year.

The turnaround time for hay making — including the cutting, raking and baling processes — are critical for effi cient hay production and can also impact on susceptibility to hay fi res through spontaneous combustion.

“One of the goals of the trip was to see how they are making hay between three to seven days,” Luke said.

“In Australia we are struggling to achieve that.”

One of the advantages may lie with a rollercrusher that is employed after the crop is cut.

Luke believes it can speed up the curing process by one to two days as it removes moisture from the leaf more effi ciently than traditional conditioners.

“Just about everyone had them over there.”

He was so impressed on his return, he ordered some of the rollers.

They will join Luke’s stable of hay production equipment, which includes two Staheli steamers that use a diesel-fi red burner and a low-pressure boiler system to control hydration of hay during baling.

“We want to be able to produce better quality hay and that was a goal of the trip,” Luke said.

“The quicker we can get the crop down and into the bale the less chance we have of getting microbial growth and the less chance of that leading to shed and haystack fi res.”

The bigger US operators threw large numbers of heavy machinery at big swathes of fi elds.

Baling around the clock with a steamer in tow in the US.

Katandra hay producer and contractor Luke Felmingham saw super-sized hay making during a tour of the United States.

“Nothing is done by half. Once they get the job they throw everything at it,” Luke said.

“When they were mowing they could have between three to 10 mowers going, 10 to 20 rakes and in some cases you’d see three to five balers going on one field.”

The machinery included the hay stingers, which gather, carry and then stack big squares.

Luke acknowledged that the scale of operations did not translate to Australian conditions but some of the principles they employed were probably useful here.

In Utah, which was very hot and dry, the group saw hay production using steamers in almost every case, running at about 100 per cent to generate between 12 and 13 per cent moisture.

While some of the states had ready access to groundwater, during dry conditions they were noticing the levels falling away and Luke wondered how long that access would remain under continued, intensive farming.

One curious point of interest were the sidelines that many successful farms had developed.

They often had identified a promising and profitable small aspect of business which they developed and enlarged, and this was something Luke would like to try his hand at, although he is not yet ready to disclose what he is ruminating over.

Luke’s tour, sponsored through the Hay Guard and Tama companies, took the group through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada in two weeks during June, the hottest time of the year for the mid-western states.

The Australian tour group in a lucerne paddock in Kansas. Luke Felmingham inspects a Massey Ferguson mower conditioner fitted with crusher rollers. Photo: Simon Finlayson.

Machinery scams hit hard

Last year, Australians lost $1.4million through fake online sales of heavy machinery, the majority being tractors, backhoes, bobcats and excavators.

FARMERS AND agricultural businesses lost more than $1.5 million to scammers last year.

The most common agriculture scam was fake online sales of agricultural machinery such as tractors, backhoes, bobcats and excavators, accounting for reported losses of more than $1.4 million.

Scammers created fake websites to sell new tractors and operated second-hand tractor scams on platforms such as Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace.

This data was collected by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which released its latest report on scam activity on July 4.

The largest combined losses in 2021 were: $701 million lost to investment scams, $227 million lost to payment redirection scams and $142 million lost to romance scams.

The ACCC found Australians lost more than $2 billion to scams in 2021.

GRABMAX

Silage Grabs

CAKEBUCKET

Auger Buckets

NEW MAPS TO GUIDE HEAVY VEHICLE MOVEMENT

Eight pre-approved maps that give mobile crane operators information about where they can travel on the road network have been released.

The maps – which are an Australian first – are for mobile cranes with six to nine axles and will ensure they can continue delivering projects without the need for a bridge assessment.

The maps will also assist operators with direct access from the ports of Portland, Geelong and Melbourne to a number of depots identified by the industry and several wind farm locations in western Victoria.

The network has been expanded to include key corridors such as the Hamilton, Calder and Glenelg Highways, further facilitating windfarm development in and around those corridors.

Operators will still need to apply for access permits for these cranes but will no longer need individual route assessments on the published routes.

The Victorian Government worked closely with the Victorian crane industry, including the Crane Industry Council of Australia to develop these new preapproved route maps.

Publication of the mobile crane maps has been a priority of the Heavy Vehicle Permit Reform Roadmap.

To access the new maps visit: https://www. vicroads.vic.gov.au/business-and-industry/heavyvehicleindustry/heavy-vehicle-map-networks-invictoria/cl1-spv-osom