MyDealer:
John, Jermaine and Hamish of the Williams family have been using John Deere machinery on their dairy farm, and through their agri contracting business for years, so when RDO Equipment opened in Launceston, they were keen to work with their local John Deere dealer to see what new machines they could add to their fleet.
“We have 13 John Deere tractors working on the farm, as well as some John Deere ADTs and dozers, so we definitely love the brand and the way their machines work,” Jermaine says.
Alongside the family farm, Jermaine oversees J&M Williams, an agri contracting business which services farms across north-east Tasmania.
“Dad started the contracting business to help optimise use of the machinery we were running on farm, and we’ve kept it going for all these years,” Jermaine says.
“We do a lot of work with the local water irrigation companies, so anything from irrigation installations, putting pivots up to trenching for pipes and water troughs. We also do some domestic earthworks in the area – waste and material clean ups and working on farm developments.”
Jermaine says the contracting business was due to upgrade its excavator and saw RDO Equipment was now servicing their local area, and wanted to look into their range.
“I guess it was a bit of a gamble as they were new to Australia, and we hadn’t seen much of these excavators before. But we’ve always had John Deere tractors on farm, and we’ve always had a great experience with their dealers with back up and support, so we knew what to expect from RDO Equipment.”
This led the family to purchasing the first E140 excavator on Australian shores, and they haven’t been disappointed with the versatility of the machine for their jobs.
“The hydraulics have been a standout, along with the cab. It’s really spacious and has great visibility for our operators. It’s also easy to access for servicing, meaning little downtime for us,” Jermaine says.
The nearly 14-tonne E140 excavator has a digging depth of nearly six metres, and net power of 84kW. The cab has an easy-to-read touchscreen monitor which provides quick access to machine settings and diagnostics, and the wide-open ground-level access and grouped service points make it fast and easy to perform daily checks.
“RDO Equipment has been exactly what we’ve wanted from a dealer. They’re honest and timely, which we really value in our partners, I never need to chase them on anything. If we have any issues, they’ll handle it straight away.”
Want to find out more about RDO Equipment’s range of John Deere excavators? Head to RDOequipment.com.au/excavators/
