56 | RURAL SERVICES » PJ Brogden Contracting Service ethos drives ag contractor Whakatane based PJ Brogden is a one-stop shop ag contracting business for farmers in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Kim Newth Whether it’s harvesting maize, spreading effluent or wrapping baleage, farmers in the Eastern Bay of Plenty know they can rely on the team at P J Brogden Contracting to get the job done efficiently and to a high standard. Founded by Phil and Cheryl Brogden over 45 years ago, this one-stop agricultural contracting business is a trusted rural contractor operating throughout the local region. “It was such a shock when mum passed away 18 months ago,” says Mark, who first started working full-time with his parents in the family business in 2006. “I had been co-owner with them for three years but now it is dad and I doing this together. We employ eight other full-time workers and usually have one or two seasonal workers as well.” Mark’s fiancé Abby Fowler manages the company’s administration needs. “After losing Mark’s mum who used to do all of it, I have had some pretty big shoes to fill all while caring for our four young girls – Harper, 7, Ayla, 5 and twins Paige and Amelia, 4,” she says. At time of writing, the P J Brogden Contracting team was reaching the end of the maize silage harvesting season and was also busy seeding grass/getting new grass into farmers’ paddocks, along with some baleage work and muck spreading. Carting kiwifruit for local growers is another service provided by the Whakatane-based business. “Soon we’ll be getting into harvesting maize grain and sending it to the dryers in Te Puke or the Waikato,” says Mark. “We grow maize for grain as well as maize silage; we have 500 hectares of lease land that we use for growing crops.” P J Brogden Contracting has been proactive about replacing older machinery with new, putting them in a strong position for the coming season. “We could see that international supply chains were getting more and more stretched so last season we bought quite a lot of new gear to ensure we would be well-prepared. “You used to be able to order three to six months out from springtime but now it’s a minimum of 12 months before you can get any gear. Ordering decisions have to be made well in advance.” While labour shortages have been a problem for the sector because of a lack of overseas workers through the pandemic, Mark says they have been fortunate up to now in being able to find enough kiwi workers to meet their needs. Yet he observes it is getting harder to recruit people with the right skills, experience and mindset – even though advances in machinery/ systems mean working conditions are better now compared to a decade or more ago. Rising prices for fuel and fertilizer are adding additional pressure to the rural sector right now. As Mark notes, it is a difficult environment for those selling products like maize silage on presigned contracts. “While we’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel with Covid, the price of things is scary – for fuel, fertilizer, machinery, everything like that. Farmers are getting a good payout at the moment but their expenses are going up too so if that milk price drops things could get pretty serious.” Amid all the uncertainty, it has been heartening for Mark to see rural contractors using their networks and pooling resources when needed. “If another company reaches out because their baler has broken down, then we’ll help them out if we’re able to. Most of us have realised we’re all in it together and that we need to be prepared to lend each other a hand.”
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