cultureAugust 2017 Edition

PROMOTION: Well done, Lance.

A Word From...

BULLETIN BOARDS

AFGRI Equipment Marketing

CoordinatorTimothy Roberts

Group Service Manager switched on and in gear

AT YOUR SERVICE: G’day Steven.

AFGRI Equipment are delighted to announce the appointment of our new Group Service Manager,

Steven Shakespeare. Steven has vast operational experience at other dealership groups and will work with and support our service managers and technicians to achieve their key performance indicators, develop their workshops and continually provide the best service possible to our customers. Steven will be based out of our AFGRI head office in Middle Swan, and will also work closely with our Human Resource department on developing our AFGRI Equipment apprentice programme.

Wongan Hills’ new Parts Manager fits right in

“With show season almost upon us, we at AFGRI Equipment are looking forward to the events to come. With our staff regular attendees to such events like Mingenew Expo, Dowerin Field Days and Newdegate Field Days, we understand their importance to the local area and the joy they bring to the community. With 14 branches across Western Australia, we now have the opportunity to attend more events than we have ever attended before. This gives us the ability to build our reach and awareness but more importantly, connect with our customers. As always at our events, our friendly staff will be there to greet show-goers and answer any questions they may have. Any event, whether big or small, is as important to us as they are to the local communities they represent and it is important our customers know that as we continue to grow in size, we at, AFGRI Equipment, continue to grow with our local communities. Personally, this will be my first full show season with AFGRI Equipment and I can’t wait to get started!”

Congratulations to our new AFGRI Equipment Wongan Hills Parts Manager, Lance Eastwood. Lance has been with the Wongan Hills branch since 2005. Lance was promoted from his previous role as Parts Interpreter to the new position. We wish Lance good luck and all the best in leading his parts department team.

WELCOME: Perth’s Dollin Knight.

Welcome to AFGRI Equipment Perth’s new Golf and Government Sales Representative, Dollin Knight. A former golf course superintendent, Dollin is trained in all areas of turf management. With over 25 years’ experience in the industry, Dollin initially sold John Deere Golf & Turf equipment in the early 1990s with CJD before spending the past 13 years with T-Quip selling grounds equipment. Throughout his career, Dollin has collected vast experience in working with local and state government authorities as well as contractors

and golf clubs. Dollin will work closely with AFGRI Perth Branch Manager, Paul Beacon and his fellow employees to continue to drive AFGRI Perth forward.

AFGRI Perth’s new Salesman starts in full swing

AFGRI Dally big winners at Bourgault awards

Abig congratulations and commendation to AFGRI Equipment Dalwallinu and

Dalwallinu Sales Representative Ray Trinder for their successful wins from our supplier, Bourgault. The branch won both WA and National Bourgault Branch of the Year for 2016 whilst Ray won both WA and National Bourgault Salesman of the Year for 2016. The awards were presented at a special ceremony held in Albury, New South Wales. AFGRI Dalwallinu Branch Manager Max Kerkmans said the win was greatly appreciated by the Dalwallinu team. “Receiving these awards is fantastic for the branch,” he said. “Bourgault are great to work with and to win is a testament to all the hard work we put in throughout the year.” Ray, who has won the award previously, said he was “surprised to win” but his love for seeding equipment most likely contributed to his award. “I’ve sold many hundreds of Bourgault air carts and the same for seeding bars over the years and plan to do the same for a long time yet,” he said. “Seeding equipment is a passion of mine, hence the efforts to the Bourgault brand.” AFGRI Equipment Operations Director

CELEBRATIONS: Max and Ray receiving the awards from Bourgault’s Kim Russell. Gollie Coetzee congratulated the Dalwallinu team on their fantastic achievements. “Bourgault is a big part of our growth strategy in Western Australia and we have a great market share in the Dalwallinu area,” he said. “These awards confirm what you can achieve with people of excellence and the right people in the right positions. “I would like to congratulate and thank Max, Ray and everyone from the Dalwallinu team for their efforts with our Bourgault franchise.” Bourgault Sales Representative Kim Russell said the Dalwallinu branch deserved the win. “AFGRI Dalwallinu is such a well-run dealership with an excellence of customer support through not only the sales process but also parts and service for Bourgault,” he said. Kim also said it was particularly satisfying to see Ray take out the prize again this year. “Ray Trinder has a long history with Bourgault and has been a strong advocate for the product throughout all the years

Bourgault has operated within Australia,” he said. “If anyone had earnt a life time achievement award for providing seeding and tillage solutions to Bourgault customers, it would be Ray.” Ray, who started selling Bourgault in 1995, said Bourgault have continued to make great quality products. “The Bourgault range of products work very well, have great features, and customers respect the brand because of the durability and whenever an issue arises Bourgault will attend to it instantly and often themselves sorting it out alongside our workshop,” he said. “The product is the best around and I’m proud to sell it... I’d change nothing on my end.” Ray also contributed the win to having worked with the team at Bourgault for a long time and having built great relationships with them. “The Bourgault team are long termers, most 10 years plus,” he said. “It’s great to deal with the same people with trust being built up over many years.” DEMO: Our recent Bourgault trial.

AFGRI Equipment hosted our second annual AFGRI Awards Night on July 29 last month. The event, held at Joondalup Resort and Golf Course, entertained around 130 guests with employees and their partners attending. The awards night began at 6.30pm with formal proceedings commencing at 7pm till around 9.30pm. The evening aimed to acknowledge the hard work and dedication all our employees put in during the last 12 months and highlight the efforts of our top performers. AFGRI Equipment Operations Director Gollie Coetzee said the evening was a great success and expressed the importance of recognising our employees’ hard work. “AFGRI is not a name, it's not the buildings, not the vehicles that we drive, it is the employees that we have and this is why the awards ceremony is so dear to me,” he said. “It’s a night to say thank you to our staff on all their hard work and

BRAGGING RIGHTS: AFGRI Geraldton selected as Branch of the Year.

LOOKING FLASH: The awards night was held at Joondalup Resort.

commitment.” The night’s biggest award, Branch of the Year, went to AFGRI Equipment Geraldton and was collected by all Geraldton staff who attended the awards evening. For sales, Large Ag Salesman of the Year went to Geraldton’s Adam van Aswegen, Small Ag Salesman of the Year went to Boyup Brook’s Greg Ball and Used Equipment Salesman

of the Year went to Dalwallinu’s Ray Trinder. Parts Department of the Year went to Wongan Hills with former Parts Manager, Matt Partington accepting the award whilst Workshop of The Year went to Geraldton with Service Manager, Lee Mowat collecting the award. Parts Interpreter went to Moora’s Thomas Vernon for a second year running, whilst

Gero win big at AFGRI’s night of nights

PARTS DEPARTMENT: Wongan Hills.

Geraldton’s Sharlene Fenner won the inaugural Administrator of the Year award. Technician of the Year was awarded to Geraldton's Guy Isbister. AFGRI Equipment Commercial Director Wessel Oosthuizen commended our staff on their drive and determination to the company. “I’ve seen the growth with individuals, groups and staff after the acquisitions, and this growth and willingness has just been amazing,” he said. “I’ve been humbled by looking at the dedication and the way our staff conduct themselves and from a management point of view, I think it’s great that we can stand in front of a great group of people in our employees and award people of excellence, which I truly believe they are.” Gollie also acknowledged not only the efforts of our employees, but of their partners as well. “We cannot achieve our success without our partners,” he said. “During season, we work long hours, and we often feel the company doesn’t recognise this but I can promise you we do. “We couldn’t become the leaders in our industry, without our employees and their partners.” The evening was

AND THE WINNER IS: The awards were presented by our Directors.

organised by AFGRI Equipment Marketing & Consumer Business Manager Jacques Coetzee and Marketing Coordinator Timothy Roberts. The evening was hosted by Guest Speaker Ian Stephens, an experienced motivational speaker who originally grew up in country Western Australia. Gollie commended our marketing department on “an excellent job” and congratulated Ian for

his role as master of ceremonies for the evening. “The message he gave us was fantastic and was very applicable to what has happened with AFGRI over the last couple of years,” he said. AFGRI Equipment would like to extend thanks to all our staff and congratulate the night’s winners. We are also very excited for next year’s awards and look forward to growing the event further.

SMALL AG SALESMAN: Greg Ball.

SPEEDBALL: Speaker Ian Stephens.

ADMINISTRATOR: Sharlene Fenner.

Insights for crop planning at The Liebe Group Field Walk

AFGRI JD golf comp tees up bright futureOn July 18, AFGRI Equipment hosted the inaugural AFGRI John Deere Golf Championship, the first of its kind in Western Australia. The event, held at Joondalup Resort and Golf Course, invited a selection of teams from local golf clubs to compete and experience some of our latest John Deere Golf & Turf equipment up-close. On the day, 13 teams competed with around 45 players in total. Tee-off was at 12 noon with all players eager to get under way. The day’s winners were Kwinana Golf Club, with a close battle for second with Gosnells Golf Club as overall runner-up, followed closely by Melville Golf Club in third. The awards were presented by AFGRI Equipment Marketing and Consumer Business Manager Jacques Coetzee and AFGRI Equipment Perth Branch Manager Paul Beacon. The event was also attended by John Deere Territory Manager Jared Hayes and John Deere Golf & Turf Specialist Lachlan Margetts. Jacques said

the event was a fantastic success. “The championship was well-received and the first of many more to come,” he said. “I would like to thank all of those who participated and helped make the day the success that it was.” Jacques also commented on the quality playing conditions at Joondalup Resort. “The resort’s hospitality and the way they helped bring everything

together was excellent,” he said. “I think everyone on the day would have agreed the course was in superb condition... hats off to their ground staff.” The day also provided the opportunity to display some of our latest John Deere Golf & Turf equipment which included a John Deere 7700A fairway mower, 9009A rough mower, 2500E greens mower and 1200A bunker rake.

WINNERS: Presented by AFGRI’s Jacques Coetzee and Paul Beacon.

On July 20, AFGRI Equipment attended The Liebe Group’s Post-Seeding Field Walk. The event, which had more than 50 people attend, was to give farmers an update on the more than 100 trials The Liebe Group have been conducting around the state. Such trials included testing with different crop types, agronomy updates as well as different fertilizers and chemical tests. Unfortunately, the day was met with poor weather, so the event was held in an old shearing shed. However, with the limited rainfall in the Dalwallinu region, the rainy

weather was greeted with open arms by all. The day also featured a panel discussion on dry season planning for 2017 as well as a research and development group session where attendees would break off into smaller groups and discuss future ideas for crop planning. The information from these discussions was collected by The Liebe Group and will be used to construct and aide in future trials. AFGRI Equipment Dalwallinu Sales Representative Andrew Wallace said the day was very informative and was very glad to be a part of it.SHED TALK: After bad weather.

food across the course with our fleet of John Deere Gators,” he said. Brad also said the wind up after the golf was a great chance to reminisce on the day’s golf. “After the golf, the Carnamah Golf Club provided dinner where plenty of stories were told,” he said. “As the night went on, the stories got more elaborate and the golf shots got better.”

number of years,” he said. “We appreciate them supporting the local community… It was great to see all their staff in a more social environment and a great day was had by all.” Brad said all his staff at AFGRI Equipment Carnamah were involved. “We were either involved as players, generally making the others look good, or provided drinks and

Another great day of golf, this time hosted by AFGRI Carnamah. AFGRI

Equipment sponsored the Mixed Ambrose Open Day at Carnamah Golf Club last month. The day started at 11.30am with tee off at 12.30pm, with 24 teams of three taking part. All teams played 18 holes with the last golfers finishing around 5.30pm that evening. The day’s winning team consisted of Brad Hirsch, Josh Hirsch and Gavin Broun whilst the runner-ups were the team of Darren Tremlett, Peter Smallwood and Tim Braun. AFGRI Equipment Carnamah Branch Manager Brad Forrester said the event was the most successful AFGRI mid-week golf event they have held so far and look forward to growing it even further next year. Carnamah Golf Club Captain Hayden Rayner said it was a brilliant day, with numbers exceeding expectations. “AFGRI have been sponsoring the golf club for a

Community key for Carnamah golf day

GROUP PHOTO: The golfing event had over 70 players on the day.

AFGRI Equipment have installed a new John Deere StarfireTM RTK tower at East

Warradarge – West Coorow in the Carnamah region. The new installation complements the 48 other towers we have in the North of Western Australia as well as the 21 towers in the South of the state. Together, we now have 70 towers across WA. The RTK network provides 2.5cm (1-inch) accuracy and repeatability pass to pass. In other words, the technology provides farmers the ability to enhance the positional accuracy of their equipment’s GPS signal to yield increased repeatability, which is important

for controlled traffic farming. AFGRI Equipment Integrated Solutions Manager Uys Lourens said our growing RTK network would benefit our customers. “Extending our network of RTK towers, allows us to offer better service to our customers and continue to meet their changing agricultural needs,” he said. Uys also confirmed another tower was likely to be installed in the next few weeks. “We will be looking for further expansion shortly, with a new tower, planned for the Lake Grace area, in an advanced stage,” he said. Further tower expansions are also being investigated whilst we also plan to fit modems to

New RTK tower adds to rapidly expanding network

RTK: For increased repeatability.

our existing RTK towers to better service and maintain network transmission coverage.

READY TO TEE OFF: Players eager to get started at Watheroo Golf Club.

Great chance to appraise at Dally’s Ride and Drive Day

SHOWCASE: Opportunity to view some of our seeding equipment in use.

AFGRI Equipment had another busy month of demostrations all across

the state. One of the highlights of the demos this month was AFGRI Equipment Dalwallinu’s Ride and Drive Day. The demonstration, held on July 27, allowed farmers in the local area to observe some of our latest equipment in action. The event, which ran from 12pm to 5pm, took place on Kevin and Michael Sawyer’s paddock. AFGRI Equipment would like to extend thanks to the Sawyers for allowing us to conduct the demonstrations in their paddock and for being great hosts. Demostration equipment used included a John Deere 9570RT, R4045 sprayer and 8 Series tractor as well as a Manitou MLT 735 telehandler. The day also featured

a John Deere 9420 tractor with a Bourgault 6455 tow-between & 40ft Equalizer seeder bar. Some

light refreshements and catering were also provided to guests during the demonstrations.

Time well spent golfing in Watheroo and Wongan HillsSome great days of golf last month at the North Eastern Golf competition. The event, held on July 15 was hosted by the Watheroo Golf Club in the Shire of Moora. The competition was held over two days with 42 players taking part on the first day and 34 players on the second day. Tee off on the first day was at 12 noon whilst on the second day, it was a 9am start for all players. Watheroo Golf Club’s David Glover was winner of the Open Championship while Gary Reed was winner of the Closed Championship. Watheroo Golf Club’s own, Adam Millsteed and Jaden Glover were gross winners for the Saturday whilst Kalannie Golf Club’s Mark Waters and Alan Dodd were runner-ups for net score. Kalannie Golf Club’s Joe Angel and Bruce Sanderson, were

winners of the four ball best ball on the Saturday. AFGRI Moora Sales Representative Marc Jones said both days went well and were a big hit with the players. Light refreshments were served after each day of the event, to celebrate the day’s golf and to have a yarn among players. Another notable day of golf was the Wongan Hills Golf Open, known as the Jenkin and Hermon Cup, held

last month. The event, held at Wongan Hills Golf Course, was successful with around 40 players attending the Sunday and around 120 players in total over the weekend. Tee off was at 9.30am with the day’s golf finishing around 5pm. Our own, Ben Milton and Brendan Barratt were winner and runner-up on the day respectively, while gross winner of the day was local, Steve Lord.