MyDealer:
What started as a ‘ma and pa’ business in 1985 went on to become the largest John Deere forestry equipment fleet in Australia. Merrett Logging, a family-owned harvesting and haulage business with deep roots in sustainable forestry, are proud to produce timber and timber products to their local industries in South Australia.
Forging the Merrett name
Now-renowned names in forestry, it didn’t take long before founders Snow and Pat welcomed their family into the fold, with sons John, Adam and Stuart starting as operators in the late 90s, before John and Adam took on the maintenance and haulage logistics sides of the business (respectively).
“We’re a predominantly cut-to-length operation, working about 1,000,000 tonnes of timber per year.” explains John. “We provide a full service in forestry, so day to day there’s a lot of moving parts and stringent daily requirements that have to be accurate.”
All together the Merrett Logging team is now made up of over 100 employees, including truck drivers, operators, maintenance and management staff, with almost as many pieces of equipment. Their impressive fleet has amassed 35 trucks and a total of 50 John Deere machines (a mixture of tracked harvesters, wheeled harvesters and forwarders) with another on the way, and a variety of other equipment.
Investing in forestry’s best tech
The relationship with John Deere started early, with the team originally running Timberjack machines until John Deere bought Timberjack in December 2000.
“When John Deere took over Timberjack it was a natural transition for us,” says John, “we could see Deere’s appetite to be strong in forestry.”
Being as far advanced as possible with machine technology is a necessity for the Merrett team, which is where John Deere equipment goes above and beyond with its precision forestry technologies, including TimberManager, TimberMatic Maps and Intelligent Boom Control (IBC).
“We record information from each machine daily that’s sent to our customers, including GPS points for each piece of timber. At the end of the day when our operators end their shifts, with the telematics that we’ve invested in with John Deere, the machine data pings to the Cloud, giving us access to send it via TimberManager to relevant customers, including daily production rates and timber stock sitting on the roadside.”
“We also use TimberMatic Maps which allows us to put georeference overlays into the machines, which is again sent to the Cloud, then received by our operators who can view the overlay and toggle between their operating screen and the operation map – they can see the entire block they’re working on, any exclusion zones, including flora and fauna, trial areas, and Aboriginal Heritage sites, all in real time so they can navigate around those areas. It’s pretty amazing.”
“From the operator’s point of view, they can see all the timber products that have been laid out; what is behind the harvesters and what the forwarder has shifted; and they can talk to each other via the Cloud, allowing the forwarder to see what the harvester’s cut, and the harvester to see where the forwarder is and where it’s moving.”
“Then, from the office, we can see what stock’s in the bush, both in front of the forwarder and on the ground, and what’s on the roadside ready to be picked up.”
Making training the next operator a breeze
With a team of operators in the bush on a daily basis, ease of equipment training is another important factor that comes into keeping the business running smoothly. That’s where John Deere’s IBC has come into play. The Merrett’s became the proud owners of the first forwarder with IBC in Australia back in 2017.
“IBC has been really good for us – it’s making it easier to teach learner-operators because it’s more intuitive with how you move the boom to the timber, especially in the forwarders. It’s a great tool because instead of having to try and operate three functions at once, it’s more like doing one function and the boom responds. There’s less that the operator has to do to get the same result.”
“We can teach a new operator very quickly on a forwarder now, and it makes it a lot easier for someone who’s got no experience to get up to speed.”
The ultimate comfort
The cabins of John Deere forestry machines are the undisputable frontrunners in the sector thanks to their rotating and levelling abilities, increasing work efficiency and improving ergonomics. The automatic levelling function allows the operator to sit upright even when the machine is on uneven terrain, so their body is always in a comfortable position.
“Operator comfort is extremely important in a job like this, and when you think about 90% of the injuries in forestry being related to the neck and back because of operators having to twist and contort so much, the rotating cabin following the boom means that they don’t have to wrench their neck around to see what’s happening.”
It’s these features promoting safety, plus all the little things that make John Deere forestry equipment the first choice for Merrett Logging.
“The machine cabins are the operator’s offices, so it’s the little things like having a mini fridge for their drinks to stay cool in Summer, a mini pie warmer for a hot meal in Winter, and the solar blinds to stop the sun glare from coming in – these machines are pretty well up there for comfort and luxury for the operator.”
A relationship only getting ‘stronger and stronger’
The Merrett team have had a long-standing relationship with their local sales professional, Jason at RDO Equipment in South Australia, spanning more than 20 years.
“We’ve known Jason since he sold us our first machine in the early 2000s. His attention to detail and satisfaction is pretty damn up there, and he follows through with everything – there’s nothing that’s ever too hard.”
As Jason began his career with RDO following the dealership’s launch in Australia in 2019, the relationship with the Merrett’s naturally formed to include all of their local RDO team, as well as the team at SE Forest & Hydraulic Centre – a partnership that, over decades, worked out to be an invaluable match for the Merrett family.
“The support we’ve received in combination from RDO and Craig at SE Forest & Hydraulic Centre over the last couple of decades has been second to none – it’s a perfect partnership for us.”
As all dealer-customer relationships go, it’s no secret that it’s the aftersales service that keeps a customer coming back.
“The salesman will sell you the first machine, but it’s the product, service, care and productivity that will sell the rest of the fleet. That’s why we’ve stuck by RDO, as well as to keep a rational fleet in regards to the parts and servicing of those products.”
“The rest of the team are great too. Whether it be product support or parts and servicing, they listen to what we suggest – whether that be more parts coverage, product support or technical assistance – and they do everything they can to make that happen.”
“We’re really lucky and fortunate that they’ve got a strong team of people there that we’ve known for a long time, and their customer satisfaction is pretty high up there.”
“RDO’s only gotten stronger and stronger since they started here.”
“We’re very loyal John Deere customers and that’s because of the relationship we’ve had with our local dealership and the results we get, and we can’t see that changing.”
