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Local farmer Broden Holland had a stellar 2024 Harvest, thanks to the game changing performance of the John Deere X9 1000.
The race to harvest crops is often stressful, involving round-the-clock hours and a constant battle against the weather. The tail-end of the 2024 harvest season saw widespread rain dampen the race for many, halting operations across NSW during crucial times. However, for Broden Holland, a third-generation NSW farmer, the harvest race was won as he managed to strip all his crops before any rain could slow him down. The key difference here – the John Deere X9 1000, the true MVP of harvest.
On a family farm between Young and Grenfell, Broden manages a mixed enterprise, Koolpari Enterprises, alongside his partner Jess and parents, Chris and Kelly. The Holland family has been farming at Koolpari Enterprises since the 1960’s, now spanning across almost 12,000 acres and running a fleet of John Deere equipment. In 2020, the Holland family decided to commit to a fully connected farming system, using John Deere to achieve the highest Precision Ag capabilities. Hutcheon and Pearce supported this upgrade and have held a strong business relationship with Koolpari Enterprises for many years, providing equipment and ongoing service and support through our Temora branch.
In 2023, after attending local demo days, Koolpari Enterprises purchased two John Deere X9 1000’s from us, a decision fuelled by their commitment to connectivity and a philosophy to ‘work smarter, not harder’. The X9’s are the largest John Deere combine on the market, delivering an average of 45% more harvesting capacity across all crop types, with no sacrifice in grain quality, all while using 20% less fuel.
The 2023 harvest showed Broden just how effective these combines are, but it was the 2024 harvest that really proved just how much capacity pays off.
Koolpari’s 2024 cropping operation focused primarily on Canola and Wheat with 4,200 hectares put in. The 2024 harvest season presented several challenges across NSW with a widespread frost damaging lots of crops, significantly reducing yield. Additionally, late rain in December delayed harvesting and decreased the quality of grain and downgraded its market value.
However, in a harvest season where frost and late rain implicated the result for many farmers across NSW, Koolpari Enterprises experienced one of their best harvests yet. “Wheat was out best ever! The whole harvest was one of our best and probably our quickest”, Broden said.
Broden put this difference in outcome down to having two John Deere X9’s operating throughout their harvest, taking a potentially average harvest to an outstanding one. With the Holland’s receiving 250mm of rain right at the end of harvest, there was a pretty narrow window to get their crops off. However, they managed to complete the harvest before the rain, avoiding any shot and sprung wheat due to the consistent capacity and speed of running two X9s.
Despite cutting back from the 24-hour harvest hours to one 8am-midnight shift, last year was still one of their quickest harvests. “In one week, we did 9,500 tonnes of wheat” Broden said, admitting he’d never seen results like this before using the X9.
Averaging 9.7 hectares per hour in the wheat, Broden saw an increase in capacity by nearly 50%, and in the canola, a 40% increase compared to previous harvests without the X9’s. This significant increase in capacity amazed Broden, showing him just how much value this upgrade had unlocked.
“They just don’t stop! I think it was 28 days our whole harvest from start to end.”
In addition to the efficiency achieved from their high capacity, Broden was also impressed with the savings made. Previously, they reached 320 rotor hours a year on each of the S7s and hired a contractor to complete the majority of the canola harvest. Now, Koolpari can complete the entire harvest themselves with two John Deere X9s, reaching just 250 rotor hours on each. This significant reduction in rotor hours is a huge saving for the Holland’s, especially on fuel consumption which Broden believes has reduced by at least 20%.
When it comes to the losses, Broden found that in the wheat, he was maintaining a grain loss of 1%, saying, “No matter what you do you really can’t chuck out more than 2%”.
“The losses pay for themselves pretty quickly anyway”, he added.
And indeed, they did, as the decision to invest in capacity paid dividends, allowing the Holland’s to complete their entire harvest in 28 days, just in time before the heavy rain jeopardised grain quality and profits.
We were stoked to hear such a positive experience from Broden on the X9’s and are eager to continue working with Koolpari Enterprises to enhance their operation.
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