Machinery Ring makes “virtual farming” a reality
Self-professed virtual farmer John Taylor says machinery rings not only provide him with the equipment he needs but also give him local knowledge.
After working as a vegetable production manager John realised he could set up on his own without being a landowner. He established Taylor Grown in his native Perthshire five years ago and today he farms 450 acres of organic carrots, parsnips and swede on rented land around Blairgowrie and in West Norfolk.
No stranger to machinery rings, Taylor Grown joined the Eastern Machinery Ring (EMR) two years ago and joined purchasing group Anglia Farmers two years before that.
I use Scotlands Ring Link for all my needs in Perthshire, says John. In Norfolk, the Eastern Machinery Ring gives me local knowledge which, being new to the area, is really handy. Membership of purchasing group Anglia Farmers, which administers EMR, completes the picture for my farming needs here.
His main EMR demander/supplier relationship is with Chris Nutkins Agricultural Contractors. Chris covers most of Norfolk and parts of Suffolk with a comprehensive range of equipment and labour.
Weve got four John Deere tractors, two Reekie de-stoners, a Grimme de-stoner, a Reekie potato harvester, a deep ridger and a bed-former as well as trailers. We do a lot of de-stoning work, potato lifting, corn carting and carrot carting and grading but we dont plough, drill or spray. Eastern Machinery Ring is good for us and accounts for about 30 per cent of our work.
Based in Briston near Holt, Chris also runs a massive workforce through his employment agency Dial-a-Worker. We have a constant team of 50 people on our books and this peaks to about 200 with much of our workforce coming from Eastern Europe. We have drivers for tractors, forklifts and teleporters as well as general farm workers, grading staff and factory workers. Also, we provide a wide range of services from daffodil picking, sugar beet weeding and wild oat pulling to potato and onion grading. We even have contracts to sand down commercial aeroplanes when the livery needs changing!
After initial introductions, Chris and John work directly with each other with invoicing going through EMR.
Chris, who recently became a member of Anglia Farmers too, has been a supplier through EMR and its predecessor ring for fifteen years. He says it gives him meaningful work quickly and engenders trust. We all work together to make sure the demander gets what he needs. It works for us as suppliers and its great for the demander too it just takes one call to get what he needs to keep farming.
For more information telephone 01603 881810 or log on to www.easternmachineryring.co.uk