Rogerson operates Rogerson Farms Ltd in partnership with his father, Graeme. Together they do dairy and drystock farming, breed and train horses, and a variety of contracting – earthworks, effluent ponds, drilling, spraying and transport.
Rogerson five years ago bought a Fendt 716, then last year leased four Fendts for a large stopbank project for Environment Waikato. The job was at Mercer and took five months, building up and realigning an old stopbank and reforming its camber to less steep.
The Fendts are two 820s, a 924 and an 818. He also ran three diggers and two bulldozers on the job.
The Fendts did well, he says. "With the Vario transmission they are easy to operate and fuel efficient. We were spending $40,000 a month on diesel with all the machinery we used on that job; it would have been more but for the Fendts."
To rebuild the stopbank they needed tractors with at least 160hp. They were used to pull trailers full of clay from a burrow pit, and had to travel up to 4km off-road on swampy land.
"We wanted that horsepower for the trailers we had. With tractors around 200hp it meant we had a good power-to-weight ratio," Rogerson says. "The Fendts are brilliant. They did everything we wanted. We trained three new guys up, and they quickly got the gist of driving them. They really rated them.
"We also had two other tractors with gearboxes on the job but no one wanted to drive them. They say you will never go back to a gearbox once you've been on the Vario."
Rogerson says the Vario is the single biggest feature of Fendt tractors.
"Being able to programme in the flow rates, engine revs and oil for the valves to operate the rams on the trailers is great. It makes it easy for the guys to drive. They're a nice, quiet, comfortable tractor to drive and the cab suspension system works very well."
His interest in Fendt developed after he met a German man whose father sold and serviced them.
"He always raved about them. I went to Europe in 1992 and looked around the factory. It opened my mind to what was out there. Even way back then Fendt was always ahead of the field. They're an innovator and there are lots of little things that are better."
His own Fendt 716 does a variety of jobs in the contracting operation: pulling a 14,000 L slurry tanker, two big dump trailers, and cultivation and seeding implements including an aerator, subsoiler and drill.
The tractor has had very few problems in the five years he's owned it.
Tel. 0272 708 027
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