TOP TRUCK
FARM TRUCKING ST YLE Story and photos by Andrew Geddes
With a history of owning and running its own trucks, Canterbury’s Brooker Farms went bold for its latest acquisition.
W
hen I was a young fella and just starting to find an interest in trucks in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I recall the long lines of trucks during summer months queued at Port of Timaru, heavy with grain and seed from local farms. Sadly, I wasn’t in much of a position to capture any
photos of those halcyon days; too young, horrible camera gear – and processing the film was another issue. The trucks were mainly old Internationals, D-series Fords, Bedfords, Austins and the like. In hindsight, I probably considered them too plain, especially when Macks and Kenworths were the focus of my attention.
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Some of those trucks were cartage contractors, while many were local farmers’ trucks bringing their product to process and market. By today’s standards, they were small and modest, with no fancy paint jobs or flash accessories. They were simply there to do a job until such time they were parked up in the farm shed to be the target of starlings nesting in the rafters. Times have moved on, and trucks are bigger and more complex, as are the farms and
their associated agricultural equipment. Transport companies have taken up much of the cartage of farm products such as grain, seed, feed and stock, freeing up farmers to do what they do best. Brooker Farms has, however, stayed true to its roots of owning its trucks, and its latest DAF is proof that big stylish gear can exist down on the farm. Shane ‘Shaneo’ Brooker and his father, Andrew, were introduced to me by Southpac salesman Mike Gillespie. The
