Running a successful farm machinery dealership is more than putting up a for sale sign as the latest multi-national to open yards across Victoria and South Australia – Brandt Tractors can surely attest to just 20 months after setting up shop
We all know that frustrated feeling as jobs pile up, current farm operations are complex, demanding and constantly evolving and, on top of this farmers have to contend with an open-ended environment that is both unpredictable and challenging.
Take the past winter season as an example, following a disruptive two years dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a wetter-than-usual spring in Victoria it threw a few curveballs, and farmers found they needed to be more effective than ever with their decisions to stay on top of day-to-day operations.
For winter season 2022-23, Victorian growers planted a near record planting of 3.427 million hectares but part way through the state was hit with unseasonal wet weather that caused havoc.
As a result, the harvesting window was reduced considerably and Brandt dealerships across the state had to move quickly whenever a call came through for technical assistance or even a simple part delivery to keep everything running on-farm.
Good planning from Brandt staff meant that stock of parts inventory had been increased to ensure customers could get what they wanted, when they needed it and keep their farm operation running smoothly.
Victorian farmers came through the season with flying colours considering everything that was thrown at them, with the final winter harvest of 2022-23 surprising many with a new record haul of 10.7 million tonnes, beating the previous best season from two years ago when a healthy 9.9 million tonnes were harvested.
And the remarkable thing about the record result was all the waterlogging and flooding that wiped out 218,640 hectares, 6% of the winter crop area planted.
For farmers going through the ups and downs of the season, it was extremely important to have the backing of their local dealer at times when devastation stared along the rows for many, and plenty of consultation about harvesting in adverse conditions was sought.
“With the weather causing very soft ground we anticipated that some machines would be working harder at harvest. As a result, we increased our inventory of harvester, baler and header front parts before the season began,” explained John Pervan, Brandt Director of Product Support ANZ.
Brandt also focused on growing the number of product specialists at the grassroots level. The company increased on-the-ground support to ensure product and service expertise was available whenever customers made a call.
“Following the busy winter harvest of 2022-23 we have expanded our team and hired more specialists in parts inventory, whole goods inventory, service and customer support across our yards in South Australia and Victoria,” added John Pervan.
“We understand it’s our staff that are at the heart of everything we need to ensure our customers get every bit of assistance they need, and we are supporting our staff in every way possible so they can in turn support every need of our customers.”
Brandt’s customers are almost getting pampered as the company is responding to a changing environment by offering immediate on-site support in the form of John Deere’s Parts OnSite™ cabinets.
This service places parts and products within easy reach of farm operations, providing an added level of convenience to operators working under time constraints and needing a part immediately. These conveniently placed cabinets reduce downtime immensely by giving accessibility to a range of parts and products that are normally only available by an in-store visit.
For Brandt customers that took up the service, it ensured there wasn’t any downtime from ongoing supply disruptions, with savvy customers realising the benefit of setting themselves up for a hard and fast harvest season, in effect reducing their reliance on costly emergency orders.
With this advanced ordering system, operators were able to get immediate access to a stock of parts that are most likely to be in demand through the harvest season. Helping to maintain a high level of productivity and minimise any downtime.
This unique service is why a major international dealer operation such as Brandt can add value to local farm operations, as they have in this instance by demonstrating a strong commitment and anticipating the needs of growers through what became a record harvest.
Across diverse markets around the world, Brandt dealerships are united in offering the best support for the market-leading equipment they offer, in order to help their customers grow their business.
And with the benefit of 138 dealerships yards worldwide Brandt has observed how they deliver that support is changing as customers and the company recognise the increasing impact of technology in the agricultural sector.
Delivering on-farm solutions is no longer limited to on-farm interactions. Connected machines support a 24/7 dialogue with customers who can harness the potential of technology to achieve maximum uptime and allow Brandt technicians to remotely predict and diagnose issues.
“We use the technology that is available to us to predict failures before they occur and to stock parts before our customers realise that they even need them,” explains John Pervan.
Customers who want to increase productivity are turning to precision agriculture where in-paddock work is digitally recorded and used to make data-driven decisions to help increase overall efficiency.
Brandt’s investment in their people means farmers combatting an ever-changing environment and landscape can be fully supported by an expert team of digital and parts specialists – no matter how far they are located from their nearest dealership.
“Brandt is committed to providing solutions and ongoing support, and to delivering the products, parts and service that our customers need to build successful businesses,” stresses John Pervan.
John Deere Operations Center
With so many jobs around the farm, deciding what is the most urgent, often makes it difficult for farmers to stay on schedule. This is where John Deere Operations Center can step in and lend a hand.
John Deere Operations Center is a free online farm management platform that is available to anyone who creates an account, or in John Deere terms, an Organisation.
Ops Center, as it is more commonly known, has a suite of tools to help set up, manage and analyse the current farm operation. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Connected machine, Precision Ag technology or even own a John Deere machine.
Ops Center and Brandt’s experts have the tools to help set you up and keep the farm running smoothly in a well-organised manner.
Equipment Inventory
Something as obvious as having a list of equipment that is part of the farm arsenal might seem obvious but not always readily available at hand, and even if a list exists in hard copy, it’s not always that easy to follow for a record of regular maintenance and repair jobs.
Imagine being able to have a digital list of all machines, implements and precision technology hardware* that you own and how easy it would be to update it anytime you want, and to produce it for insurance purposes.
Such a list becomes possible with the Equipment tool in Ops Center. Possibly one of the most underrated tools in the suite, this list can be built from VIN numbers of machines, manually entering machine/implement information and if it isn’t a John Deere green machine, you can even choose icons and colours to suit.
And as an added bonus feature, if your machine or implement profile is set up in Equipment, it can be sent out to a John Deere Display so they don’t need to be set up in the cab.
Paddock records in an instant
For farm operations that have taken over more land recently, or an additional contracting customer and there are more paddocks to add to your operation. Use the Land tab in Operations Center and keep all geographical information organised.
Land tab will save heaps of time by adding client information, farm dimensions, and all paddock information to your existing records, even before you get into the cab ready to take on a job.
We’ve all seen the mud maps of paddock names and boundaries scrunched up in tractor cabs, nothing could be more annoying and difficult to comprehend. Well, now an operator can input that information before getting to the actual paddock and save heaps of time and confusion.
Land allows the operator or manager to manage paddocks, boundaries, guidance lines and flags. And there is the ability to hand draw a boundary purely for location purposes for an operator to cross-check. You can edit guidance line names, so the operator knows which one to pick in the paddock.
Also, mark out obstacles in paddocks to help operators avoid them. Small steps it may seem, but once entered in, it helps to keep your farm operation running as smoothly as possible, with much reduced downtime.
Work planner
A big part of this convenient record-keeping is the planner. John Deere Operations Center Work Planner allows the owners of Connected Machines and Gen4 Displays to create job plans and send them to the respective machines in the fleet.
This means that when an operator drives across a boundary paddock by mistake, a note pops up on the Display telling them just what paddock they are in, and what operation needs to be untaken such as spraying a product at a specific rate and can include further notes to assist the operator.
This helps take the guesswork out of any operation and can save time. Once the planned work is complete, it then sends the recorded data back to Operations Center so it can be viewed and checked at any time.
A hidden gem
Finally, a little-known tool within Operations Center is Maintenance.
The obvious implication here is the ability to set up factory maintenance plans for all machines in the fleet, but in addition, this tool also allows for individual custom plans to be established.
A lightbulb moment for technicians at Brandt, was when a customer asked if he could use this tool to setup up daily checks for his machines. The answer was yes.
This opened the door to the many opportunities and how operators could use this tool in their daily/weekly/monthly maintenance of machines that may not need the services of a technician.
Being able to produce a solid maintenance history of a machine is always useful but has much more clout when looking to on-sell or trade a machine at a premium price.
For Brandt customers in Victoria the 2022-23 winter harvest was less stressful than most growers had to endure in sometimes lonely back-paddocks, working blind and with no back-up.
Instead, Brandt customers had the full backing of any staff that was required to assist, and often well into the night.
Brandt Tractor now controls the ten former Cervus dealerships across Victoria, located in Ballarat, Colac, Hamilton, Hastings, Knoxfield, Leongatha, Lilydale, Maffra, Pakenham, Sunshine and Terang.
And the former Wickham Flower yards at Bordertown, Keith, Mt Gambier and Naracoorte South Australia take the Brandt tally to 15 yards in Australia, all specialists in John Deere model lines.
While the company also operates from 13 locations in New Zealand, after taking over the assets and dealer yards of AGrowQuip NZ Ltd within its own operation.
For any enquiries about what Brandt services are offered in your Victorian or South Australian district, get in touch with your local dealer on this link, see the full range of models to add to your own farm operation on this link.
Further reading
See how Brandt established its reach into our region by taking over several dealerships in Australia and New Zealand on these links:
Cervus Equipment sold to Canadian company Brandt
Brandt takes over Wickham Flower yards
Brandt completes Wickham Flower acquisition and has the backing to add more
Brandt expects to add another yard to its southern Australian dealer network
Brandt expands across the ditch with take over of Agrowquip NZ
Brandt acquisition of Westernport Tractors closes with smiles all round
Brandt Tractor finalises acquisition of New Zealand dealer AGrowQuip
