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Season's Greetings
There is some reasonable proof that Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains in the UK is one of many ‘henges’ built throughout the UK, Europe and Africa. Along with other uses, they helped with predicting the coming of the seasons — people were changing their life-styles from those of hunter gatherers to subsistence farming, and they needed to get crops planted in time for greater reliability of their food supply. Wouldn’t it be good if we had only the weather to contend with, without the influence of global politics, global finance and other occasional challenges such as Ebola? It is however these challenges that get us thinking about how we can improve, fine-tune and hone our skills to beat the odds. So next year we confront what lies ahead and put ourselves to the test: more lessons learned, another year to put down to experience.
On that note the directors, management and staff at Tulloch Farm Machines would like to thank all their customers sincerely for their loyal support, generating what to date has been a very good year. And we wish you all a very merry Christmas and look forward to a prosperous 2015.
What they tell us about their big gear
Rene Van GijsRene Van Gijs of Tokoroa bought an Einbock Pneumaticstar 600 in February 2011. To date it has seeded 2984 hectares. Asked about this investment, Rene said: “It is without doubt the most versatile seeding unit I have ever used. The seeding rate is infinitely adjustable and extremely accurate. It is versatile in that it will sow just about any seed, and from worked paddocks to direct-sow into existing paddocks, either top-up/under-sowing or sprayed out. In fact just over 1000 hectares has gone to direct seeding. Cost of R&M is unbelievably minimal and actual running cost in terms of diesel cost per hectare many times less than any other type of small seed drill on the market.” 
Phil ParryPhil Parry of Mangakino purchased big-ticket items, a Krone Big X 700 and a Swadro 1400 rake in 2012/13. He has this to say about Piako Tractors Morrinsville and Tullochs: “It is a pleasure to work with good people. We all get along pretty well, and we get things sorted quickly if there are any issues.” 
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2014 Grasslands visit a cracker
The 2014 Grasslands trip went off very well. We all arrived back intact and free from any tropical disease. It would be fair to say that the Africa leg was the highlight of the tour. A lot were sceptical and nervous, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience once they hit the African soil. Walking onto the field of Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg is not something many people can claim to have done. An African elephant-back safari and visiting the Victoria Falls — one of the original seven wonders of the world — were definite bucket list items. As always, the Grasslands event was amazing and Krone put on a spectacular display of machinery. The Krone factory visit was as polished as expected and we enjoyed great hospitality over a lunch that included Dr. Bernard Krone in person.
Talking of hospitality, in a totally unexpected gesture Christian Steichele and his family and friends hosted our group to a Bavarian breakfast at their house in Schwabmühlhausen near Munich. It just left us lost for words. That a man and his family would go to such an effort to showcase Bavarian hospitality was amazing. An email to Christian to make arrangements for the intended breakfast attracted the reply: “But we call it the BIG FESTIVAL because it is a really big pleasure to have you here.”
A sincere thank you again to Christian, family (including his grandmother) and friends. Christian came to work in our service department in 2013. He and his family run a contracting business and have recently purchased a Big X 700.
From Munich we travelled north to Nuremberg and had a very interesting tour of the MAN engine factory where they produce the 6-cylinder, V8 and V12 engines for bus, truck, agriculture, pleasure marine, working marine, construction, power generation and railapplications. With over 4000 employees and a production record of 120,000 engines in one year, the plant was very impressive.
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Walking through the tunnel onto the hallowed turf of Ellis Park.
Ron and Jenny Mabey pose for a shot at Grasslands. The gentleman in the cap with his back to the camera is none other than Bernard Krone talking to customers. 
Breakfast at Christian Steichele's 
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Grasslands Tourists
The Grasslands tourists on the grounds of the 5-star Victoria Falls Hotel. In the background is the Victoria Falls road/rail bridge which connects Zimbabwe to Zambia — a bridge that A.J. Hackett started bungee jumping from a few years back. The mist in the background is that from the Victoria Falls which are 1.7km wide, known to the locals as “Musi o tunya” (the smoke that thunders).
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Flight of the angels David Livingstone was quoted as saying when he came upon the falls that he named Victoria Falls: “A site so beautiful that the angels must surely gaze upon them in their flight.”
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MAN factory
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Several visitors from Krone this season
Rouven Ven Hoff and Christian Osthues have come to fine-tune the net replacement film system on Comprima balers. Christian was here for four weeks while Rouven stays until Christmas.
Christian (right) and Rouven (centre) in discussion with Alan Bishel, an operator with Hinton Contracting.
Thomas Temmen, a senior technician from the Krone service department paid a brief visit late October to see Big X harvesters.
Julius Hemker, from Legden which is 45 minutes from Spelle, has been revising our 2015 price book due out early in the New Year, as well as doing other work in marketing. Julius has his sights set on a degree in either European Business or Business Psychology. He had recently completed his A Level examinations and was looking for some practical English-speaking experience prior to entering university. His aunt Martina Schultz works for Krone, so he asked if she might have contacts in New Zealand. Inevitably, John Tulloch received a call and, well, here he is. With us for two months until mid-November, Julius will then travel New Zealand until the end of May when he will return home to study.
Julius shares his countrymen’s typical love of the outdoors
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Marco Leying from Krone will install the first ICAN system into a BigPack baler in the South Island in December. The system sends information to your office computer such as location, moisture, weight and numbers.
Max Stapper recently emigrated from Germany to New Zealand and lives with his family in Queenstown. He has been accepted for training with Krone where he will next year start a three-year study programme in mechatronics — the combination of mechanics, electronics and hydraulics.
New building/ Training
Once the parts warehouse was extended, Phase Two of our expansion programme has been undertaken. This includes a board/training room plus four additional offices, much needed as we were running short of space.
The board room was completed just in time for our dealer service training which was run from September 9th. That started with a course similar to what has always been conducted in the past, but the second course, instead of being a repeat as previously, was a more intensive course focusing on BigPack and Comprima balers for more experienced technicians. Delegates were given the opportunity to strip down vital components and delve deeper into control programs for diagnostic and calibration procedures.
The dealer sales training held two weeks beforehand had to be run in a section of the old parts warehouse. The total of 42 delegates split into three two-day courses was a record attendance. We had a slight twist to the training with some role-play conducted with the help of Graeme and John Tulloch. It got the guys thinking and added a touch of humour. The weather turned quite cold and despite efforts to heat the area with patio heaters, the delegates had a first-hand taste of a Wairarapa winter.
Thanks go out to all sales and service personnel who attended.
Our new offices and training/board room are to the left of the brown container.
Service training in the new training/board room
The sales boys brave the cold in the parts warehouse
New website
Our new website is currently being finished and should be up and running by Christmas. It sports a refreshed look, and it is more user-friendly and, for us in the office, more easily updated by people who are not quite as computer-savvy as those who develop websites. This will ensure you get the latest information all the time.
Don’t forget we have our own YouTube channel that can be accessed from our current site or search “tulloch1000” in the YouTube search box. We are also on Facebook for those who wish to follow us and take part in competitions we run from time to time with small prizes on offer.
Product News
Speed Tronic
Einbock have come up with a new version of their E-Tronic electronic controller. Dubbed Speed Tronic, it offers greater versatility and is more user-friendly. It has a more useful controller showing more parameters, and there are several ground-speed pickup options from direct plug into the tractor, radar control or a wheel sensor that does away with cable drive altogether. The official launch of the Speed Tronic is planned for the South Island Field Days in March 2015.6-row fodder beet Oekosem
The first 50cm spacing Oekosem Rotor Strip-Tiller has arrived and we look forward to seeing some results.A thought for the day
Our company slogan is “for technology that works”.
Humankind continues its endeavours to conquer new frontiers, just as Abel Tasman, James Cook and the Maori settlers before them set out to do. Ten years ago, in March 2004, at a cost of US$ 1 billion, a spacecraft was dispatched to land a probe on a piece of space debris, four kilometres in diameter, travelling at 54,000 kilometres per hour and now 482 million kilometres away from us. The craft had to travel 6.5 billion kilometres so it could land the probe. Now for the “technology that works” bit: landing the probe was always going to be difficult because gravity would be about 10,000 times less than here — the 100kg probe weighs 10 grams at its new landing spot. To secure the probe on landing it was to deploy two harpoons into the comet. Unfortunately the harpoons failed to fire because of “technology that did not work” and it bounced twice before it settled down two hours later. Now it is one kilometre from its intended landing zone and in the shadow of a cliff face where it will receive only about two hours of sunlight to charge its batteries instead of the expected six to seven hours. So … we all have our challenges! Tulloch Farm Machines is not going into space! We remain a New Zealand-owned company dedicated to making our technology work in Godzone New Zealand only.
The Philea landing probe, visualised in a far better landing situation than it managed to achieve.
