CONTRACTING » T L & A J Adams Contracting
NZ Dairy
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Changing times: Tractors and a baler (upper left) from the T L & A J Adams Contracting fleet of the 1960s, Les and Alison Adams (above) in front of a modern-day tractor, while a late-model Case tractor and silage wagon (left) do their business.
Firm stands test of time Belinda Carter When Les Adams formed T L Adams Contracting in Makarau in 1949, the machinery he had to work with was a lot smaller than today’s models “Everything today is bigger. For example, 60-horsepower tractors with no cab are now 120hp with cabs,” his wife, Alison Adams, says. She married Les and moved to the farm at Huapai in 1957, and has run the contracting business since Les retired from the businsess about three years ago. Haymaking for the local area was very much a community event with the farmers helping out. “It was like a social occasion and many lifetime friendships were formed, “Alison says. “After a hard day’s work, the guys would come back to the workshop to do maintenance while the wives were home milking the cows. “The local hall was the centre of the community and was where the majority of the work was organised.”
The local hall was the centre of the community and was where the majority of the work was organised. In the 1970s, the business started doing bulk silage, which it still does, plus round and squarebale silage as those technologies came along. “Les got up to four conventional balers working each summer; now they don’t do a lot of the conventionals,” says Alison. “With the advancement of technology, it also became easier to feed out hay and silage. Larger areas can also be done more quickly now.”
Demand for direct drilling up • From page 2 than a sheep and beef farmer doing a couple of thousand conventional bales a year. They are pretty big farms too.’’ The geography of the land the company operates in is predominately rolling to steep, which requires large tractors with good capability on hills. Philip Parry Contracting Ltd operates a fleet of about 15 German manufactured Fendt tractors ranging from 140 to 300 horsepower. “We think they are pretty much the Rolls Royce of tractors. They are highly specced technology wise – they’re very fuel efficient, they’re fast, they’re powerful and comfortable.’’ The company’s staff love the tractors for their high-tech features as well as “all the comforts of home’’, including cooler-units in the cabs for food and drinks. The firm’s 18 staff includes a full-time tractor technician to service the fleet, and temporary staff from the United Kingdom, Scotland and Ireland are employed during the peak season from October to February. Philip Parry says the demand for direct drilling is increasing as its advantages become better understood. Fodder beet is also a growth area with a total of 250 hectares contracted, for the first time, this year. A spreading service was added two years ago
Philip Parry Contracting operates a fleet of 15 German-manufactured Fendt tractors. and includes dairy muck spreading, burnt lime, chicken manure and vermicast which is sourced from MyNOKE, a large-scale worm farm at Tokoroa. Philip expects an increase in regulatory requirements for spreading organic matter – and, he says, the company is already measuring and recording its application per hectare.
Basically Adams Contracting does mostly tractor-based agri work, but less of this is for dairy farmers as lifestyle blocks replace the farms. The business covers the area from Glorit in the north, to Taupaki in the south, roughly 50 kilometres out west of Auckland. November through to March is the busy period and additional staff are taken on to handle the work. As well as running the contracting business, the Adams family has a farm near Helensville, which Les’s parents bought in 1915 and cleared, premachinery days, by hand. Nowadays, son Graeme milks 120 dairy cows on 90 hectares through a 10-a-side herringbone milking shed. He also runs more beef these days and has leased a farm up the back. However, the property’s days as a traditional, family dairy farm may be numbered. Auckland has come out to meet the farm – the motorway is just seven or eight minutes away – and all the neighbours live on lifestyle blocks. There are a lot more houses in the area than there used to be.
Colin’s Agriservices Ltd Tractor & machinery service & repair 1345 Kahikatea Flat Road RD1 Kaukapakapa 0871 021906361 | agriservices@ihug.co.nz
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