Farmcare chooses John Deere tractors

Farmcare, Britain's largest commercial farmer, has signed a preferred supplier agreement with John Deere for the supply of all their tractor requirements to its farming businesses throughout the country.

farmcare, part of the Co-operative Group, manages more than 85,000 acres on over 50 farms located from north east Scotland to south east England. These are owned by both the Group and private landowners, with the main enterprises including arable crops, vegetables and potatoes.

The agreement covers the full range of John Deere wheeled and tracked agricultural tractors and includes John Deere's PowerGard repair and maintenance plan, which allows farmcare to budget precisely for the full operating costs of the machines over their full working life.

PowerGard covers all repair costs that are not caused by accident, abuse, overload or neglect. All components are covered, except tyres and tracks, however large or small the repair, and machines are fully maintained by the local supplying dealer.

"As an established business, with financial security and economies of scale, we have the ability to invest in the latest machinery and techniques," says Ian Taylor, farmcare's head of commercial operations. "We regularly test the latest equipment on the market and review our on-farm experience to ensure we are getting the best out of each asset.

"Quality is the key objective for all crop production on the farms we manage, and meeting high quality specifications requires sound investment in dedicated machinery, specialist growing expertise and forward planning. We chose John Deere for a number of reasons, not least product performance and reliability, efficient parts and service support, and good residual values.

"John Deere's PowerGard plan means that we can cost our machinery effectively - operating costs are looked at over the total life of the machines, which makes John Deere equipment good value for the investment."