Archive, Industry News

Case IH and CNH help Manooka Farms through tough times

Manooka Farms owner David McGennisken credits CNH Industrial Capital and Case IH for helping him through hard times such as severe droughts and the death of his brother and business partner Robert.

The McGennisken family have operated Manooka Farms since establishing it in 1974. Originally a sheep farm, it now produces barley, canola, wheat, beans, lentils, peas, oaten hay and vetch hay, before livestock are brought in to eat the remnants.

“We put beans in Heinz cans, we put beans on the back of saddlebacks and camels in Saudi Arabia, we’re putting lamb on Russian plates and lamb in America and lamb in our local Woolworths,” David says.

“We also do a lot of feedlots and dairy farmers, and I’ve got my own B-doubles so we do a bit of haulage – about 100,000km a year.”

For almost 30 years, Manooka has been primarily running on Case IH machinery and equipment.

“We’ve got a lot of red gear – a couple of big headers, a Steiger, a Magnum, a couple of Maxxums and a Patriot,” David says. “Yes, we’ve definitely got red!”

Since Robert passed away due to an accident, David has run the 3,300-or-so hectare farm with Robert’s wife, Sharon.

As co-directors, David and Sharon have been able to keep the operation carrying on through tough times with assistance from CNH Industrial Capital.

“It takes the stress out of farming, knowing you have a company behind you that understands the nature of your business and will actually work with you to find a good solution,” David says.

 “CNH Industrial Capital has been good about that. I’ve had no hassles at all with them.

“They are very good in the sense they understand we’ve had two droughts in a row… last year was just a shocker, a real shocker – in a lot of areas we didn’t strip anything.

“And the year before that, it kidded us. It was a real get-up-the-tree job and when you get near to the top they chop it down.

“Basically it started off quite wet and we put the fertiliser on and were looking for a good average season; we got to about the first week of July and it just stopped raining – it’s got to rain here until October and our crops were dead by September.

“We’ve had two shockers in a row and in our little business – we’re not that big – it costs us probably about $1.5 million a year to put our crops in, so that hurts.”

As happy as he has always been with the relationship with his Case IH dealer, O’Connors Farm Machinery, and CHN Industrial Capital, it wasn’t until Robert passed away that David realised how important the extra support really was.

“The year of Robert’s accident, they stepped up and actually lent us a brand new header to do our harvest; that was absolutely fantastic of them,” he says. “For what they did for us, well, words can’t express our gratitude.”

CNH Industrial Capital has offered equipment finance to the Australian market since 1979, while Case IH supports Beyond Blue in its vital work fighting anxiety and depression in rural communities across the country.

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