In a rush and need to hire gear or find a contractor quickly?
Give Dillon at Broadacre Contracting a call on 0439 300 380.
He can send an instant alert to the Broadacre verified contractors.
Whoever is available will call you instantly. It takes you 2 minutes, and your phone will ring.
Simple as that.
If you have time and are not in the paddock, or not watching a front build up, feel free to make an account on the Broadacre Contracting website and do it yourself by going to My Account > New Tender Post > Post the job.
An instant alert will be sent out.
Make sure you come back to enjoy this yarn though.
Dillon and the videography team from Broadacre Contracting are back on the road, this time pulling up at the main workshop of BB Harvesting.
We caught up with Glenn and the boys back in Episode 2, but with an operation this size, there is always more ground to cover and more gear to look at.
Donald is a massive agricultural hub in the Victorian wheatbelt, and having a base here means BB Harvesting is perfectly positioned to push up to areas like the Darling Downs through to South Australia.
The great Aussie east coast.
In this yarn, we are going to run through how they manage 21 headers, why they do all their own mechanical work in-house, and how a professional capability statement is changing the way they lock in contracts with growers.
So before we dive in, if you are a grower needing a hand with your harvest program, or a contractor wanting to build your reputation in the cropping sector and attract better clients, give Dillon a buzz on 0439 300 380 from 6am to 9pm.
We would love to have a yarn. The fella can and loves to talk.
Welcome Dillon and Will.
This is BB Harvesting’s main base in Donald, and the workshop is reasonably new.
They built it to be an all-weather setup, so the team is out of the rain in winter and out of the sun in summer.
It gives them the ability to park three or four machines in the workshop at a time for their pre-seasons.
The maintenance programme is heavy, working off about 100 hours of maintenance per machine per pre-season.
It is a very thorough program, and BB Harvesting conducts it all in-house.
They do not use dealerships for their maintenance.
They have three full-time mechanics round the clock and a couple of subbies that come in to help make sure they are ready for the season ahead.
Because BB Harvesting is a family business, they are pretty lucky with the structure.
One of the directors is a mechanic, his brother is a mechanic who subbies to the business, and Glenn is a mechanic himself.
They also have another fully qualified mechanic with two apprentices under him.
They are trying to bring that knowledge through to the next generation while maintaining top-tier quality mechanics.
When people ask me about getting into the contracting game, I always tell them: before you go and start buying gear, if you have not already, go and spend a few years as a diesel mechanic.
If you can fix your own gear, that is the key to success as a contractor moving forward.
The reason being is harvest moves quick.
You are expected to move quick, and everything and everyone is moving quick.
A day at harvest equals three normal days, and the reason why is because of the risk.
It takes one front to come through to lose the crop, so once it is on, it is on.
It is coming off, and there is no stopping until it does.
So if you are a contractor and do not know how to diagnose or where to look when you have a breakdown, and you are relying on dealers or an outside mechanic, your breakdown on their level is nowhere near as important as it is to you and your customer, the grower.
I feel like I am talking sense, but I hope you understand what I am saying here because I feel it is incredibly important.
Anyway, moving on from my dribble of wisdom.
To see BB Harvesting have such a knowledgeable and skilled maintenance team on such a massive scale is pretty impressive, and obviously requires a big investment like their new shed.
What also stands out to us at Broadacre Contracting is the 100-hour pre-season maintenance per machine.
When a contractor takes that much pride in doing the job in-house and does not just rely on the dealership, it means less downtime in the paddock.
When the rotors are spinning, everyone is making money.
If a breakdown does happen, these boys have the exact knowledge to fix it right there.
James and Lee Burke are the directors, and they started the company back in 2010 with just one 9750 header.
Through pure hard work in those early years, they built up their knowledge and reputation and slowly added to their capabilities.
From 2010 to now, BB Harvesting has grown to 21 headers, which goes to show the sort of people they are and the culture they bring.
The boys still drive headers, they still maintain them, and they are not afraid to do the hard yards with the team.
You do not grow a business from a single header to 21 machines in 15-odd years by accident.
That only happens when you have a good reputation, you are delivering a dead-set premium service, and you are maintaining those long-term relationships well.
That sort of growth tells you there is a system behind the business.
It is not just more gear for the sake of more gear.
It is gear backed by people, maintenance, relationships, logistics, safety and the ability to keep moving through a long east coast harvest run.
BB Harvesting is still a family-owned business at its core.
Glenn’s favourite bit of kit in the workshop is not the most expensive or flashy one.
It is something sentimental to the family and the business: Uncle Don’s truck.
It is an old Mercedes-Benz they bought off James and Lee’s uncle’s farm at his clearance sale when he passed away.
Uncle Don now tows header fronts up and down the East Coast.
It has a bit of character, a lot of meaning, and it is a bloody reliable old workhorse.
What I absolutely love here is the story about Uncle Don’s truck.
In this industry, we can get pretty caught up in having the newest, shiniest gear.
But at the end of the day, reliable gear is what gets the job done.
Holding onto that family history means so much more.
It shows the roots of BB Harvesting are firmly planted in family values, and that translates directly to how they treat their clients.
Harvest is all about consistency, and it is a long season.
BB Harvesting runs from October through to the end of January across the stretch of the east coast from the Darling Downs, even up to Emerald, QLD, down to South Australia.
Doing all that and across the spread, the team sticks to 14-hour days, six days on and one off.
Safety is absolutely key, and everyone wants everyone to go home safe every night.
To keep morale high, BB Harvesting generally runs their own cooks at every big job.
Keeping everyone fed, healthy and happy is a massive part of the culture.
When everyone is having a good time, the harvest just goes smoothly, and the team really enjoys it.
From a professional side, BB Harvesting now has a capability statement they send out.
It outlines everything from how they started, their safety culture, machine capability, chaser bins, trucks and maintenance.
They want to be aligned with the farms they work for.
They do not want to work with someone they are not aligned with, especially regarding safety.
I have said over the years that I have spent a fair few years in the quarry sector.
Not the mining sector, but somewhat similar.
Ag is so far behind the other industries when it comes to compliance and safety requirements.
Now I am not going to sit here and bang on about safety.
I know the subject can get proper touchy, but my point of view is this.
In one sector safety is somewhat normal, meaning pre-starts, compliance checks and 10-hour site breaks.
In another sector, people think it is crazy and are so surprised these exist.
But moving on from that, it is just good to see businesses like BB Harvesting adopting capability statements.
Having nothing and doing nothing is good when things are good, no issue at all. But when things go bad, things go proper upshit creek.
That is why this sort of professional setup matters.
It shows growers that the contractor has thought about the job before the job even starts.
You can view BB Harvesting’s equipment and service details on the Broadacre Contracting website.
If you want to put out an instant alert looking for a contractor, post a job through Broadacre tenders.
If you want to have a yarn about finding a reliable contractor, or you want to get your own contracting business out there, give Dillon a call on 0439 300 380 from 6am to 9pm.
At Broadacre Contracting, we want to become an advocate and trusted partner to the agriculture sector.
We showcase contractors who align with our core values of Respect, Reliability and Responsibility.
BB Harvesting is the type of operation worth showing because there is real scale, real structure and real professionalism sitting behind the gear.
It is not just 21 headers.
It is the workshop, the mechanics, the family story, the old Mercedes, the safety culture, the cooks, the capability statement and the systems that keep the whole thing moving.
That is the story behind the gear, and that is exactly why Talking Gear Tuesday exists.
If you are a contractor running quality gear and want to feature on Talking Gear Tuesday, or you want to get verified on the Broadacre Contracting directory, give Dillon a call.
Call Dillon on 0439 300 380 from 6am to 9pm.
These resources may help growers and contractors watch the episode, view BB Harvesting, post a job or understand more about Broadacre Contracting’s harvest contractor network.
If you are a grower looking for harvesting contractors across the Darling Downs, East Coast, Victoria, South Australia or anywhere in between, Broadacre Contracting gives you a clearer place to start.
View BB Harvesting, post a tender, or watch more Talking Gear Tuesday episodes to see how we showcase the people behind the gear.
BB Harvesting is a large-scale family-owned harvest contracting business based in Donald, Victoria. The business services growers across the East Coast and wider cropping regions, including Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
In this Talking Gear Tuesday episode, Glenn talks about BB Harvesting running across the east coast harvest stretch, from the Darling Downs and even up to Emerald, QLD, down through to South Australia depending on the season and program.
In this episode, BB Harvesting talks about growing from one John Deere 9750 header in 2010 through to a 21-header operation.
BB Harvesting does maintenance in-house because harvest moves quickly and downtime matters. Their workshop, mechanics and pre-season maintenance programme help keep machines ready and reduce reliance on outside repairs.
A capability statement is a professional document that explains a contractor’s business, safety culture, machinery, chaser bins, trucks, maintenance systems and overall capacity. It helps growers understand whether the contractor is aligned with their operation.
You can browse harvest listings, view contractors like BB Harvesting, or post a tender on Broadacre Contracting so verified contractors can see the job and contact you directly.
Talking Gear Tuesday is Broadacre Contracting’s video series where we sit down with growers, contractors and ag operators to yarn about gear, businesses, risks, lessons and the real stories behind Australian agriculture.
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