With forage harvesting being a large part of the business for agricultural contractors, E B Marfell & Son, Monkland, near Leominster, moving up to the very latest technology on the market, has proven to be the right decision. As general agricultural contractors focussing on just about everything except combining and spraying, the business has been established since 2000 and has a reputation for doing the job right. In 2015, the family business invested in a new John Deere 8600 Self-propelled forage harvester from local dealer Tallis Amos Group (TAG) and this has meant that they have broadened their services to easily include maize harvesting.
Anthony Marfell, is the great grandson of Eric Marfell, who started the business back in 1927 and he, and his father Richard have expanded the contract services, operating within 35-40 miles of their base at Upper Wall End Farm. Said Anthony, “We used to run a trailed forage harvester for grass harvest and it worked well, but we wanted to have the capacity to harvest maize crops. There are a lot of farms in the area growing the crop for silage and and also AD plants, but we were missing a trick because we didn’t have the right gear.”
In 2014, Anthony acquired a used 2009 John Deere 7850 self-propelled forage harvester with grass and maize headers, to try it out and make sure it fitted into their system. He bought it from TAG in Leominster and they had gone through the machine and were happy to give it a warranty, even though it had done a lot of work.
“It worked really well throughout the grass harvest this year, added Anthony, “but as were were likely to harvest over two-thousand acres of grass and potential for over one thousand acres of maize, I wanted to be sure to have not only the capacity, but also the reliability. We can’t afford to let customers down through reliability issues.”
TAG had a new demonstration John Deere 8600 Self-propelled forage harvester they were using throughout their territory and it had caused something of a stir because of its massive performance. It has a 625hp engine, 3m grass pick-up and a 10 row Kemper maize header - a perfect combination for a contractor.
“We had a demo of the new eight thousand series forager and it was very impressive. said Anthony. “the difference between the older model and the new is quite significant and makes it so much easier to gain maximum performance. For example, the electronics on the new model mean I can control everything from the operator’s seat. Simple things like sharpening the knives and re-setting the shear bar can all be done automatically from the cab and because it only takes a few minutes, it gets done more often. I’ve noticed a big difference in improved fuel economy, I can sharpen the blades more often, meaning a more efficient cut. So the benefit to my customers is that I can get round to them quicker and do a better job and do it on time.”
Simon Amos, Sales Director at TAG said, “I could see that the new forager would fit well into Anthony’s expansion plans and so I put together a package to take out the old forager and give Anthony our ex-demo machine, together with PowerGard extended warranty. That way, if he were to have a component failure at any time, he would be completely covered for repair and maintenance without it costing him. A forage harvester failure due to ingress of rocks or foreign objects can be expensive, but with Powergard, Anthony has got it all covered. We also have experienced and certified service technicians who have undergone thorough training to look after the forager, so Anthony is in safe hands.””
With the new advanced electronics on the John Deere 8600 self-propelled forage harvester, Anthony Marfell can offer a much more precise service to his customers. Bristling with features such as AutoTrac, Yield-mapping and JD Link, the 8600’s features means Anthony can provide meaningful management data to his customers so they can plan their future requirements.
Commented Anthony, “This autumn we cut around one thousand acres of maize and spot throughput was showing up to three hundred and fifty tonnes per hour. Fuel usage per acre was much better than the old machine and we normally chop at fifteen millimetres for livestock silage, but down to five millimetres for the AD customers. We did about four hundred acres for AD this year, but I see that increasing significantly in the future.
We’ve always worked with TAG because they have an incredibly reliable after-sales service back-up. They sell great products, but above all, they have some great people there who do everything to help us if we ever get a breakdown. I couldn’t wish for a better machine and dealer combination that will help me and my family business to provide the ultimate service to my customer base for the future.” he concluded.
