Narrow axle and low-profile configuration tractor enables easy access in polytunnels
Tasmania’s Mountford Berries has turned to John Deere to find efficiencies in its operations, investing in a specialty tractor to navigate the tight confines of its polytunnels.
The Mackinnon family has been farming Monford for six generations, beginning with livestock and over time adding irrigation into the mix to grow vegetable crops, poppies, and high-value seed crops.
Mountford Berries manager Roly Mackinnon said the family started growing berries 12 years ago to further diversify the business.
“There was a company looking to expand its berry-growing operations into Tasmania to take advantage of supplying fruit into the summer window, so we sort of jumped in headfirst,” he said.
What began as four hectares of strawberries in 2014, has steadily grown to 34ha under polytunnels, and they now produce strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.
“We started as an in-ground production system, and we’ve moved to a fully hydroponic system,” Mackinnon said.
“Being hydroponic means we’re able to replace the growing medium every year or every couple of years, which helps us with our disease and pest management, and gives us the ability to grow high-yielding crops year on year.”
It’s not without its challenges though.
“The supply of fertiliser, our growing medium and plants as well – all these areas are facing challenges,” Mackinnon said.
“We’re a highly intensive labour system, and we’re a pretty high-cost system as well. The cost of everything goes up every year and we have to find ways to negate that and get more efficient with what we do.”
One of the ways they’ve been able to find efficiencies is through investing in a John Deere 5105ML Specialty Tractor, featuring a narrow axle and low profile cab.
Purpose-built for high value crop operations such as orchards and vineyards, the 1.6-metre width of the narrow axle configuration means the 5 Series tractor can be used by more growers.
“The width of the tractor is really important to us, because it needs to fit up the rows,” said Mackinnon.
“We’re putting a lot into growing the crop, so we don’t want to ruin that every time we drive a tractor up a row by knocking berries around with the tyres.”
The advanced technology available with the tractor has also provided value.
“The software that comes with the tractor and the systems behind it are going to be very advantageous to us,” said Mackinnon.
“We have quite manual systems at the moment using paper and pen to do all of our record keeping and documentation, especially when we’re talking about spraying, so it’s really interesting and exciting to know there’s ways we can do that all integrated in the John Deere Operations Center.
“It will make life easier and more accurate and traceable for our suppliers, it’ll make life easier for our operators, and it can streamline what we do and make everything simpler.”
