46 | Baling business that keeps on growing Green machines: The lineup of John Deere tractors at Paddison Baling. Inset: New truck and trailer unit to cart bales. Anne Boswell Sam Paddison’s friends have joked that he “bleeds green”, thanks to his love of John Deere tractors – but those tractors are an integral part of his family’s 20-something-year-old baling business. Based in Matakana, Paddison Baling Ltd was established in 2002 by Sam and his father Les. Sam, a fourth-generation farmer on the family property, says his family has been baling hay for a long time. “My great grandfather stacked his by hand,” he says. “And Dad’s been baling hay for many years. But it was always just for the farm, back then.” In 2002, the pair bought a round baler and established Paddison Baling Ltd, baling hay for local farmers. Sam says for the first 10 years it was only himself, Les and a driver, with Sam’s brothers helping out a bit from time to time. Slowly the business grew, and they added a square baler and a wrapper to their machinery cache. Today, the business undertakes baling/ baleage/hay as well as cartage, cultivation, direct drilling, fertiliser spreading/spraying, mowing and mulching. Paddison Baling services the area stretching between Pakiri, Ahuroa and Wellsford. As more and more farms in the area have been subdivided, Sam has ended up doing a fair proportion of his work on the resulting lifestyle blocks. However, the region is still home to a small but close group of locals who are third to fifth generation farmers – “old-school locals” Sam says RURAL SERVICES » Paddison Baling – who are all family friends. Despite the decrease in farmers, the business’ bale numbers have remained consistent at around 9-10,000 bales per year. “The farmers around here are very proactive at making sure they have enough feed on-hand throughout the season,” Sam says. From the first John Deere tractor Les bought in 1980, the business has expanded to include six John Deere tractors – “too many”, Sam says – ranging from 120-200hp, anda McHale Fusion 3 round baler. Despite Sam’s initial reservations about using a single-axle baler on hills, he has found no issues with its stability. “And its bale transfer is second to none,” he says. “It is so quick and so reliable… it is over 12 seconds quicker than comparable machines, from first stopping to beeping that you can go again.” Paddison Baling also has a New Holland medium square baler, a conventional baler,a Kuhn square wrapper, Claas mowers and rakes and other cultivation equipment on hand. Sam also added a truck on the road this season, moving bales back and forth, and dump trailers to deliver metal supplies to his customers. “It fills in a gap,” he says. In a good year, baleage kicks off around mid-September. Cultivation begins in early October, getting the ground ready for maize planting. Sam tries to get a bit of hay done before Christmas, but more often than not it happens after Christmas, and is tied up by mid-February. Then, there is a bit more baleage to be done before the maize crops start coming off and grass starts going in. Sam’s wife Julia does most of the beef farm work over Sam’s busy summer period – including running her own Speckle Park stud – and Sam joins her in the winter months when “they both get muddy”. While Sam usually employs one other full-time person and two part-timers, with three-four tractors going at any time, at the moment he is “flying solo”, and will look to hire someone after the winter period. Proud to be Local supporting Locals
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