Doubling up on sprayers for expanding business

Fair do’s, but the fleet of pink articulated lorries that transcend the roads of the UK and Europe are more than something of an eye-catcher. With almost 50 trucks in their arsenal, Robinsons of Worcester is a highly reputable transport company who’s roots are settled firmly in farming and their business model is focussed on absolute quality. With approximately 1750 acres of self-owned and contract farms in the fold, the business of NJ Robinson Ltd, started in 1935 and was a dairy farm milking 170 cows, but changed tack in the late 1990s and used to fatten 75,000 lambs per year.
Since then, as the markets have changed, the Robinson’s have focussed more on arable cropping with the current programme consisting of 1000 acres of winter wheat, 300 acres of OSR, 250 acres of Linseed, 90 acres of winter beans and the rest down to spring barley.

“We’ve always been advocates of paying that little bit more to get the best product on the market, said Edward Robinson, “because that small additional investment reflects the better technology, reliability and performance available and pays you back ten-fold over the life of the machine.”

Edward and his father, David, wanted to upgrade the existing tractor and combine fleet and asked the Tallis Amos Group, the local John Deere dealer in Evesham to provide demonstrators on the farm. They chose TAG because they were impressed with the advanced precision farming equipment, John Deere GreenStar which was available to enhance their farm efficiency. They changed their existing John Deere combine to a T670 with Autotrac, then included John Deere steering systems on the existing tractors, which co-ordinated with the RTK system for his Horsch 6 metre Pronto drill.

“The difference in field performance, efficiency and profitability by using GreenStar has been remarkable, if not phenomenal, commented Edward. “By having the fully integrated system that is looked after by Trevor at TAG, we have found the usability of the system so easy, that it makes our drivers happy because of its simplicity. We just get more work done because of it!”

Since, having demonstrations of equipment on their own land, the Robinsons have added  two new John Deere trailed 732i sprayers to the fleet, as well as the T670 combine and just recently a new 6215R Tractor, with the final tier 4 engine specification.

‘We never had John Deere before, exclaimed Edward, “but when we experienced it’s quality of specification, build and performance in the field, it was obvious how much better the product was compared with other brands. The demonstrations kept reinforcing to us that the John Deere product was the way to go. We’ve also experienced the after-sales service back-up from TAG and it’s absolutely first-class. Skippy, one of TAGs top technicians gets a ten out of ten from me every time. If we get a problem, he’s there, promptly and everything he does is spot on!”

With GreenStar and Autotrac, the Robinsons are able to cover the ground quicker than before, especially when it comes to cropcare, using their trailed John Deere 732i sprayers which have very effective boom suspension and section control.
“People sometimes mock me for the speed I often spray at, chuckled Edward, “it’s often twenty k or more. We use red nozzles all at one hundred litres per hectare and we just push it into the crop, which, I have to say, has never been cleaner, so it’s certainly working. We can cover seventy acres an hour with each machine and up to four hundred and forty acres a day per unit, including travel. The boom suspension is phenomenal and the sprayer takes the punishment without a problem.

So, what’s behind the pink truck syndrome?
“Well, quite simply, we started off with a pink truck to be different, said Edward. “Some of our customers used to call us and comment on how nice they looked, so we started naming the trucks after some of the ladies who complimented us and from there on we’ve developed great customer relationships and people recognise them on the road.
Buying quality products, from people who provide exceptional after-sales service is the reason why we pay a little more for our machinery and our trucks. It’s all about relationships, trust and confidence. It’s kind of the same for Robinsons of Worcester, where we run high quality trucks, providing a high quality service to our customer base and it's why our customers come back to us, time after time” he concluded.