Kelly Engineering managing director Shane Kelly.
AMERICA'S farm machinery industry is so big there are few
places around the world where its all-conquering brands are not at work -
which makes the achievements of South Australia's Kelly family all the
more remarkable.
Rural America has become a premium marketplace for Kelly Engineering's disc mulch chain rig, made and exported from rural Booleroo Centre (population 600) in SA's southern Flinders Ranges.
In six years Kelly Engineering has generated more than $47 million from its exports to the US, and more recently has also expanded sales to Canada and Central America.
In fact, the farm-based manufacturing business now sells almost three times as many of its lightweight, quick tillage units in the US than it does in Australia.
North America's farm machinery market is no place for the faint-hearted but the Kelly disc chain has literally cultivated itself a loyal following, initially breaking ground in the southern rice market.
After being spotted by a marketing agent at the big Tulare farm machinery expo in California in 2006, the gear was introduced to distributors in Arkansas where ricegrowers seized on the opportunity to use the shallow cultivating rig to break up stubble and smooth out wheel ruts and depressions in their irrigation fields.
As drought raged across much of eastern Australia the surging US interest proved timely for the company because domestic sales of the newly-developed disc chain had initially struggled to catch on.
One Arkansas dealership alone was soon selling more disc chain rigs every year than Kelly's entire network of Australian distributors.
"Getting into the export market was a big risk, but conditions were a bit slow here and the disc chain struck a chord with those who tried it in the US," said managing director, Shane Kelly.
US sales quickly spread to other rice producing States such as Mississippi, Louisiana, then caught on in the corn and soybean growing Midwest where farmers discovered it was a handy pre-season stubble management and seed bed preparation tool.
Mr Kelly said the shallow tandem off-set discing action in the top few centimetres of soil proved ideal for breaking open topsoils in spring to allow the ground to dry out and warm up after winter's cold, wet and snowy conditions.
The rig's light footprint on wet ground enabled farmers across North America's rice, corn, soybean wheat and canola industries to speed up pre-plant preparation and planting timeliness, and improve the uniformity of their previously cloddy seedbeds.
Mr Kelly said anecdotal reports from farmers in Canada and the US quoted subsequent yield increases of up to 10 per cent - a figure also recently noted by some NSW farmers using Kelly disc chains for light pre-sowing residue incorporation and weed control work.
The mulch chain uses heavy chain links attached to a diamond-shaped rig, each fitted with slightly concaved discs which dig up newly established weeds, break down crop residue and leave an even soil bed.
Ironically before taking the disc chain to the US (where more than 1000 have sold) it had never been tested in the Australian rice sector, but now has attracted southern NSW irrigator interest while also gaining broader acceptance among southern Australian winter croppers.
Mr Kelly said increasingly the mulch chain's appeal in Australia was among farmers wanting low-cost cultivation alternatives to spraying weeds so they could reduce herbicide resistence risks.
"That integrated weed control concept has just started to be talked about in the US, too," said Mr Kelly.
"Even though America's got big herbicide resistance problems, Australian farmers (particularly in WA and northern NSW and southern Queensland) are already using the disc chain as a light mechanical tillage option instead of sprays," he said.
"We may be pretty much a single product business, but it's a product that's had a big evolution in the past decade, starting in stubble management and progressing to be a primary tillage tool and even a planter (for poppies).
"It's introduced an acceptable mechanical tillage option to the no-till environment - retaining no-till's stubble management and soil improvement benefits while providing low-cost, integrated weed management solutions."
"I like to think our product does more than just promote agricultural sustainability, but also provides a sustainable base for employment for a rural community in South Australia," the managing director of the company founded by his farmer father Peter in 1987.
Still based on the family farm, Kelly Engineering now employs 40 people after recently expanding its workshops to meet growing export and domestic orders.
However, some rigs sold in North America are assembled onto locally made frames by their importers.
Sales growth in Canada via a Saskatchewan distributor have now been followed up by exports to Cost Rica and interest from Brazil.
Kelly Engineering began as a sideline to the family's graingrowing enterprise, originally making harvest pick-up fronts for field pea crops, then diversifying into prickle chain harrows.
Founder Peter Kelly and his wife Audrey still own the business in partnership with son Shane and his wife Joanne, whose own son Toby has also joined the operation.
Rural America has become a premium marketplace for Kelly Engineering's disc mulch chain rig, made and exported from rural Booleroo Centre (population 600) in SA's southern Flinders Ranges.
In six years Kelly Engineering has generated more than $47 million from its exports to the US, and more recently has also expanded sales to Canada and Central America.
In fact, the farm-based manufacturing business now sells almost three times as many of its lightweight, quick tillage units in the US than it does in Australia.
North America's farm machinery market is no place for the faint-hearted but the Kelly disc chain has literally cultivated itself a loyal following, initially breaking ground in the southern rice market.
After being spotted by a marketing agent at the big Tulare farm machinery expo in California in 2006, the gear was introduced to distributors in Arkansas where ricegrowers seized on the opportunity to use the shallow cultivating rig to break up stubble and smooth out wheel ruts and depressions in their irrigation fields.
As drought raged across much of eastern Australia the surging US interest proved timely for the company because domestic sales of the newly-developed disc chain had initially struggled to catch on.
One Arkansas dealership alone was soon selling more disc chain rigs every year than Kelly's entire network of Australian distributors.
"Getting into the export market was a big risk, but conditions were a bit slow here and the disc chain struck a chord with those who tried it in the US," said managing director, Shane Kelly.
US sales quickly spread to other rice producing States such as Mississippi, Louisiana, then caught on in the corn and soybean growing Midwest where farmers discovered it was a handy pre-season stubble management and seed bed preparation tool.
Mr Kelly said the shallow tandem off-set discing action in the top few centimetres of soil proved ideal for breaking open topsoils in spring to allow the ground to dry out and warm up after winter's cold, wet and snowy conditions.
The rig's light footprint on wet ground enabled farmers across North America's rice, corn, soybean wheat and canola industries to speed up pre-plant preparation and planting timeliness, and improve the uniformity of their previously cloddy seedbeds.
Mr Kelly said anecdotal reports from farmers in Canada and the US quoted subsequent yield increases of up to 10 per cent - a figure also recently noted by some NSW farmers using Kelly disc chains for light pre-sowing residue incorporation and weed control work.
The mulch chain uses heavy chain links attached to a diamond-shaped rig, each fitted with slightly concaved discs which dig up newly established weeds, break down crop residue and leave an even soil bed.
Ironically before taking the disc chain to the US (where more than 1000 have sold) it had never been tested in the Australian rice sector, but now has attracted southern NSW irrigator interest while also gaining broader acceptance among southern Australian winter croppers.
Mr Kelly said increasingly the mulch chain's appeal in Australia was among farmers wanting low-cost cultivation alternatives to spraying weeds so they could reduce herbicide resistence risks.
"That integrated weed control concept has just started to be talked about in the US, too," said Mr Kelly.
"Even though America's got big herbicide resistance problems, Australian farmers (particularly in WA and northern NSW and southern Queensland) are already using the disc chain as a light mechanical tillage option instead of sprays," he said.
"We may be pretty much a single product business, but it's a product that's had a big evolution in the past decade, starting in stubble management and progressing to be a primary tillage tool and even a planter (for poppies).
"It's introduced an acceptable mechanical tillage option to the no-till environment - retaining no-till's stubble management and soil improvement benefits while providing low-cost, integrated weed management solutions."
Construction stays local
THE pain caused to exporters by the high Australian dollar has sorely tempted the Kelly family to build the popular disc mulch chain rig in America, but Shane Kelly measures the success in more than just US sales deals."I like to think our product does more than just promote agricultural sustainability, but also provides a sustainable base for employment for a rural community in South Australia," the managing director of the company founded by his farmer father Peter in 1987.
Still based on the family farm, Kelly Engineering now employs 40 people after recently expanding its workshops to meet growing export and domestic orders.
However, some rigs sold in North America are assembled onto locally made frames by their importers.
Sales growth in Canada via a Saskatchewan distributor have now been followed up by exports to Cost Rica and interest from Brazil.
Kelly Engineering began as a sideline to the family's graingrowing enterprise, originally making harvest pick-up fronts for field pea crops, then diversifying into prickle chain harrows.
Founder Peter Kelly and his wife Audrey still own the business in partnership with son Shane and his wife Joanne, whose own son Toby has also joined the operation.
source : theland
No comments:
Post a Comment