106 | Total Harvesting’s winning strategy Total Harvesting’s line up of equipment includes 18 tractors and three Claas Harvesters plus a comprehensive array of other equipment. Russell Fredric Ongoing investment in machinery that benefits both Total Harvesting and its clients continues to be a winning strategy for the company. Based at Allanton near Dunedin airport, the highly diversified business is run by Craig and Rebecca Mitchell. During the hectic harvest season, it employs up to 20 staff who operate in two crews. The post-covid relaxation of immigration restrictions have been a relief, Rebecca says. “This is the first year in the last two that we’ve managed to get our UK staff back over. We usually have four to six staff that do the season for us, then they would head home about February/March and they would go back to do their season back at home. “Of course, once covid hit we couldn’t get anybody in and we had to get our staff from around the neighbourhood which we managed to do [but] myself and Craig were driving a lot. This year we have two Irish guys and three from the UK.” Total Harvesting’s line up of equipment includes 18 tractors and three Claas Harvesters plus a comprehensive array of other equipment to handle everything from groundwork, cultivation, direct drilling, fodder beet, harvesting, mowing, hedge cutting, effluent spreading and spraying. This year the company purchased three new Massey Ferguson tractors; the biggest and newest may as well have been delivered by Santa himself, having arrived on Christmas eve. Another recent upgrade was a McHale Fusion 3 baler which was also delivered just in time for Christmas, while a new seed drill was another significant purchase to complement the machinery already employed in this area of work. RURAL SERVICES » Total Harvesting Ltd WE’RE PROUD TO TOTALHARVESTING LTD SUPPORT OTAGO 18 Stack St, Airport Turnoff, Allanton 03 489 8886 The Fusion 3 features patented systems, including for simple bale transfer, reduced handling and maximising output while reducing maintenance intervals. It also has a moisture metre and scales. The direct drill, a new model Taege AS480 series with a large 110 litre hopper was purchased May last year. Rebecca says one of the benefits in operating such a variety of machinery which enables a comprehensive range of services to be offered, is the ability to create a steady flow of work through the four seasons. Adding to Total Harvesting’s vision of running the most efficient business possible was the purchase a year ago of Cook Transport which is based further inland in Hyde. This strategic purchase, which includes bulk truck and trailer units and fertiliser spreaders, adds a further enhancement to the time-critical workflow chain, Rebecca says. “We were waiting on the fertiliser trucks to put the fertiliser on before we could drill the crops, so now we can do the fertiliser spreading so essentially we’re a one stop shop really.” With immigration restrictions lifted and finding seasonal labour no longer a problem, Total Harvesting is seeing normality return, but highly variable weather, from unseasonal rain to intense heat, has been this season’s curved ball to deal with. “It’s been pretty slow going, it’s been quite dry, but we had that wet weather just before Christmas; crops were fantastic at the start and then everyone just needed some moisture to get them underway.”
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