Neven Granich Ltd has now worked out of Hinuera, near Matamata, for eight years, now employing 20 permanent staff and 15 casuals at the peak of the season.
The firm works between the Kaimais in the east and the Waikato River in the west and from Te Aroha in the north to south of Putaruru.
“We do a full range of cultivation and have seeders and planters for all crops including John Deere 8 and 12 row maize planters,” Granich told Rural News.
The business runs a Krone loader wagon, two Krone round balers and two self-propelled harvesters that can bale round and square silage and hay bales with or without wrapping. “We also have a demand for and we can bale conventional bales,” Granich adds.
They run a JCB and Caterpillar diggers for stacking and rolling grass and maize silage.
John Deere tractor owners are often said to bleed green when cut and Granich is one of these. “At present, I have 17 John Deere tractors from 150hp to 300hp plus other implements with their name on it.”
Granich also bought two truck-and-trailers with stock crates for each and from this has grown a stock cartage business. He now has four trucks permanently on stock cartage plus two more if needed. Six more trucks are on hand for the maize season. “”And we can call on 14 other trucks when required.”
Granich’s most recent purchase is a Krone Big X maize harvester, with a 12 row harvesting head, the only one in New Zealand. It landed just in time for the maize harvesting season starting this week.
The harvester is powered by an 1100hp, 12-cyl MAN diesel motor. It was imported into NZ by Tulloch Machinery, Masterton and sold by Piako Tractors, Morrinsville.
“With the increasing areas of maize grown for supplements for dairy cows we had to get a bigger capacity machine as the harvesting window is not that large.”
