| 39 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Westland: Westland Farm Services Production catch-up T Kelly Deeks The catch-up on farm machinery has come at the right time to meet current demand with a high milk payout. For all your trailer needs Proud to be associated with our West Coast agent Westland Farm Services www.elitetrailers.co.nz BAIRD’S BLASTING For all your sandblasting needs. 03 768 9939 47 Jack’s Road, Paroa, Greymouth FarmMachinery • Mining Machinery • Building Steelwork • Car Bodies Devine Engineering "We pride ourselves inour engineering excellence." i l i i i ll . Folding • Cutting • Welding • Machining Fabrication • Maintenance • AluminiumSales Proudly associatedwithWestland FarmServices Hokitika 03 768 7005 www.devine-eng.co.nz Farm machinery supply issues should be all sorted in 12 months’ time, according to West Coast Massey Ferguson dealer Colin Redpath of Westland Farm Services, who says production in Europe is getting back to normal volumes after a slow 24 months, and it’s now the shipping industry that needs to catch up. “We are still on the go-slow,” he says. “A lot of machines come from Europe, and the Covid thing is just about all done there now. But while people were isolating, the European factories were running skeleton crews and factories that normally produced more than 100 tractors a week were down to very small numbers. We got about six to ten months behind and we’re starting to catch up, but still waiting on componentry to come in from all over the world.” The production catch-up has come at the right time to meet current huge demand in New Zealand, with the milk payout the highest it has ever been, and Colin believes it will hit $10 within the next 18 months. Still, interest rates are slowly creeping up, and shipping delays are still seeing six to nine month lead times on machines that would previously have arrived in New Zealand within 12 weeks. Stocks on hand have been completely depleted. Colin says this means he is talking to the cockies about the machinery they are going to need in their business in 12 months’ time, and he is placing indent orders. “A lot of them are doing their yearly budgets so they are open to that sort of discussion, and we can lock their prices in,” he says. “Farmers now seem to be buying on interest rates, and they will go for 0% finance every time.” The second-hand market is looking the best it has ever been, and Westland Farm Services is paying 10% to 15% more for second-hand stock and trade-ins. Westland Farm Services is a five-year-old business based in Hokitika. Colin has worked his way through the agricultural machinery industry from training as a diesel mechanic in Scotland, service manager, then salesman manager, to owning his own dealership on the West Coast since 2017. He applied for the West Coast agency for Massey Ferguson four years ago, having purchased the previous dealer’s workshop, diagnostics plant, and service trucks. “Now we’ve got three mechanics and one apprentice in the workshop, a parts representative, an administrator, myself doing sales and the my wife Kerrianne doing all the health and safety and payroll side of the business.” Westland Farm Machinery services the entire West Coast, and its continued growth now has Colin planning the build of a brand new, purpose built workshop, show room, and parts centre on Hokitika’s main street, Fitzherbert Street. ”Hokitika is where the dairy country is, and it’s right at the centre of the West Coast, four Proud to support Westland Farm Services Hokitika • Grassland Aerator • Soil Aerator/Cultivator • Auto Reset Aerator • Turf Aerator • Mole Plough • Dual Mole Plough • Pre-ripper • Super Ripper • Subsoilers • Super Subsoilers Tipper • Dual • Pipe Laying • Baleage Tow Hitch We Specialise in Phone/Fax: 03 207 1837 www.james-engineering.co.nz hours south to Haast and four hours north to Karamea.” Colin says the Coast is in a significant growth phase, with employment having risen 6% to 7%, and property prices rising 300%. “It’s still the cheapest place to buy land in New Zealand, and a lot of people are moving here from the North Island, or returning to the Coast after spending 10 years in the UK or Europe and coming back for the lifestyle.” After one of the nicest summers the Coast has had in the 22 years Colin has lived there, there are now drought conditions with March the driest on record.
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