82 | nzdairy RURAL SERVICES » McGregors Farm Services Growing the solutions side of the business McGregors offers a solution-based service, more than just product and systems sales for milk production. Tracey Edwardes Daniel Peake of McGregors Farm Services recognises that farming can be challenging, so he’s growing the solutions side of the business. Bought up on a drystock farm in Cambridge, Daniel was a rural electrician as a teenager, interested in a career outdoors. Then after returning from a four-year stint overseas, he worked for three years with milking machines and water pumps until ‘wanting to do his own thing’ led to buying McGregors, from Peter and Leanne in December 2017. “The business has continued grow. We are agents for DeLaval, our milking machine supplier, who recently awarded us the Waihi area, so we’ll be looking after clients from Putauru to the Bombays - mainly the Piako and Morrinsville district. We’re always on the road, with our main Morrinsville retail shop services swimming pool clients, water pumps filtration, and all our farm consumable products “My wife Aimee was brought up on a dairy farm just out of Cambridge where she spent many weekends relief milking, now with our three young daughters. Her days are consumed running around after them. Most of our 14 staff - installers, technicians, sales and accounts - hail from dairy farms and the rural sector.” McGregors offers a solution-based service, more than just product and systems sales for milk production. “We where the first dealer in the country to sell and install the De Laval Rotary E300, parlor including the teat-spraying robot (TSR). It’s those little achievements that challenge us, doing things no one else has. Often there’s no manual, so we get to showcase our skills and think outside the box. “We integrate with our customer’s businesses by helping them out and forging valuable relationships. We like to invest in our clients by giving support - when they need us, they need us now! “Also helping with a preventative maintenance programme avoids those breakdowns, which we can get a lot of, so we’re good at identifying them. We know what will fail on the farm, and when. We can optimise ideas through our knowledge and experience working on so many farms - be it technological or simple improvements. “For example, by watching the cow cupping, we can share our advice. Maybe its to install cup removers with a milk-flow sensor. Over-milking creates problems for cows. It could be an automatic draft system to assist in improving in calf rates coupled with some exciting new wearables tech, even down to automating the calf feeding process to improve weening times and weights. It’s great to see improvements working when farmers adapt the technology.” Daniel and Aimee also do their bit for the environment with an exciting initiative, unique to the industry, soon available to their clients. “We’ve just made an agreement with a rubberware recycling company. We sell milking liners and other rubber products for the cowshed, so we’re offering to take the warn-out rubber items away to recycle.” The couple are both 40-years-old. When they took over, Daniel was the youngest De Laval dealer In the country. “My team is young, and we train one or two apprentices each year. Not a lot of youth comes through the industry. I can’t understand why, as it’s such a cool sector. Maclon is pleased to support McGregors Farm Services and proud to be a supplier of high quality water reticulation products. www.maclon.co.nz COMPLETE IT SYSTEM PROVIDERS. Servicing small and medium businesses across New Zealand Proudly supporting McGregors Farm Services Managed IT Services Internet Connectivity Phone Lines & 0800 Managed IP Phone Systems 07 848 1845 support@kiss.co.nz www.kiss.co.nz We get to work outside everyday, meet amazing people, and get to see a lot of the country. “My team understand the struggles and stresses of farming. Sometimes our job is simply to listen, farmers often just need someone to talk to, and feel heard.”
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