This is collaboration at its best. The landowner has an excellent workforce but he wants the latest equipment to enhance his potato planting operation yet he cannot justify the capital investment. Enter the Eastern Machinery Ring (EMR).

As a member of EMR, Andrew Hay of Cauldwell Farms, Holbeach St Matthews has access to the new John Deere 8345 RT Crawler courtesy of Rob Jones TractorHire based in Shrewsbury. The whole affair is handled by EMR’s general manager Philip Brown.

“This is a fantastic piece of machinery,” says Andrew Hay. “I’m aiming to improve performance per acre to reduce my costs per acre. To do this I need to make the most of the latest equipment like this crawler but I could never justify an outlay of around £200,000 to buy so hiring it is the best solution.

“Philip Brown of EMR has organised it all for us which takes the hassle factor away from me. He’s sourced the equipment, negotiated an acceptable rate and ensured that the tractor is at our disposal to meet our planting schedule for our Maris Piper crop.”

On the frontline, his driver cannot fault the new crawler.

“It’s the best piece of equipment I’ve ever used,” enthuses David Wetherell, who works full-time for Cauldwell Farms. “It’s really good in terms of visibility, comfort, quietness and the controls are fantastic. I don’t want to see it go.”

Carrying out the cultivating, David is operating ahead of his colleagues Barrie Russell on bed forming and Nigel Fines on planting. Seeing all three working in tandem across the reclaimed grade one Fenland soil is an impressive sight.

Equally impressive is David’s ability to cultivate a straight line without using the crawler’s GreenStar Ready satellite navigation.

“The sat nav is beneficial for some operations,” says Rob Jones, eponymous owner of Rob Jones Tractor Hire. “But the real benefit is the CVT gear as opposed to power shift transmission. It gives more control, speed and power to the ground.”

EMR/ Cauldwell Case Study

At the moment, Rob has four of these new crawlers out on hire and plans to buy two more for the autumn. Overall he has 25 tractors out on hire through EMR.

“I set up my business three years ago and EMR is pivotal in our success. We do a lot of work with the ring and it gives us an excellent route to market. The jobs are good and security of payment via direct debit is a huge plus point.”

As a collaborator, EMR offers an extensive range of services between suppliers and demanders.

“We co-ordinate around 360 services sourcing equipment and labour from all over the country,” explains EMR general manager Philip Brown. “Apart from traditional agricultural work we can arrange anything from rodent control to building concrete roadways. Our database is interactive and supplies real time information about what is available so we can react to member needs very quickly. Currently we’re meeting demands at a rate of more than 95%.”

EMR covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire. Not distracted by commodity trading or other add-ons, it is a dedicated machinery ring working for its members as a pro-active service rather than a reactionary ‘fire engine service’. Benefits go way beyond the considerable reduction in overheads.

Annual membership costs £85 plus a one-off joining cost of a £20 share in the ring.

Based within Anglia Farmers at Honingham Thorpe, the general manager is Philip Brown who can be contacted on 01603 881810 or visit www.easternmachineryring.co.uk