BINDOON mixed farmer Kristan Kelly is rapt with his new JCB 8330 Fastrac which was delivered on farm by Boekeman Machinery sales consultant Ben Boekeman and JCB sales representative Craig Tucker just prior to seeding this year.
Mr Kelly said his family, which also has a farm at Kondut, usually purchased "a little bit" from Boekeman Machinery but had purchased "a bit more in recent years" because he was happy with the customer service and support - especially the "excellent backup" the company provided.
Mr Kelly said the JCB Fastrac would be used to pull a chaser bin during harvest as well as to pull a Goldacres sprayer to tackle weeds.
He decided to purchase the JCB after Boekeman Machinery's Ride and Drive Day in March at Wongan Hills.
"The demo' really cemented the idea of purchasing the JCB Fastrac," Mr Kelly said.
This year they seeded 1500 hectares of barley, wheat, canola, lupins and oats in a six to eight week program which was affected by the high rainfall this year.
"We had 100 millimetres in April and May," Mr Kelly said.
The family purchased the farm at Bindoon in 2002.
It normally receives about 600mm average rainfall per year but in the past two years that was a long stretch.
Despite the drier season they had their highest yield last year at about four tonnes per hectare.
While the weather made the soil damp for seeding this year, the JCB managed to operate without getting bogged - even on the hill country.
Farm employee James Howl, Coventry, United Kingdom, said driving the 8330 Fastrac was easy, "especially due to its suspension and comfort".
It was able to travel at a speed of 70 kilometres an hour on the open road and at a width of 2.5 metres it was able to be driven without oversize signs.
He said the 330-350 horsepower provided plenty of pulling capacity and it was especially fancy with its JCB Livelink Telematics which provided up to date information on how fast it was going as well as alerts on fuel usage (which could be individually set depending on what the operator was doing) as well as GPS tracking.
"It's a really handy feature," Mr Howl said.
With seeding done for the year, their Goldacres sprayer was hooked up to the back of the JCB last week as they waited for the rain to stop to spray the radish on the Round-up Ready Canola paddock.