Customer Story
CNH Industrial Capital supports farmers in all seasons
When the weather failed him and the rain disappeared, David McGennisken of Manooka Farms was glad to know CNH Industrial Capital wouldn’t do the same. Like every farmer, David McGennisken knows you’ve got to roll with the punches. And like every farmer, he’s stoically taken more than a few and stayed standing – from the droughts many other Victorian farmers have also endured through to the tragic accidental death of his brother and business partner, Robert, in 2010.
Manooka Farms
Starting in 1974 with sheep before going cropping, and growing continually ever since, Manooka Farms, located near Horsham in western Victoria, has always been a McGennisken family operation and was taken over by David and Robert in 2000. Now run with David and Sharon, Robert’s wife, as co-directors, the 3,300-odd hectare Manooka operation produces barley, canola, wheat, beans, lentils, peas, oaten hay and vetch hay and brings in livestock to eat out the remnants of crops until the time comes to sell the stock and put the new crops in.
“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 explained. “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 100,000 kilometres a year.”
A dedicated Case IH man since Manooka Farms acquired its first header almost 30 years ago, the business now relies on many Case IH machines, purchased through local Horsham Case IH dealer O’Connors Farm Machinery, to support its operations.
“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 recounted. “Yes…we’ve definitely got red!”
Along with the performance of all his ‘red gear’, David is also pleased with the support Manooka Farms has received from CNH Industrial Capital over the decades – and specifically through recent droughts.
“CNH Industrial Capital has been good about that…really good…I’ve had no hassles at all with them,” David said.
“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 nearly 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 one and a half million dollars a year to put our crops in, so that hurts. It’s very good knowing that in the background we have CNH Industrial Capital saying that as long as you’ve got a certain amount of equity in the machines, we can work it out,” David stated.
“To me, it means I can sleep easier at night because you’re not stressing out that you’ve got to go back to the bank and drag your feet in the door and put your hand out and they’re going say you’ve got to sell something…it’s not like that. 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.”
As happy as he has always been the relationship with his Case IH dealer, O’Connors Farm Machinery, and CHN Industrial Capital, it wasn’t until his brother Robert passed away that David realised how deep that relationship truly went.
“The year of Robert’s accident, they stepped up and actually lent us a brand new header to do our harvest and that was absolutely fantastic of them,” David recalled. “For what they did for us, well, words can’t express our gratitude.”
About CNH Industrial and Case IH
CNH Industrial Capital has offered equipment finance to the Australian market since 1979 and has a proud heritage of strong ties with the agricultural community.
Having worked closely with Australian farmers for nearly 40 years, CNH Industrial Capital understands the need for flexible financial solutions and collaborates with every customer to understand their unique goals, challenges and outlook on the future and tailor financial packages that meet their business needs and circumstances.
Case IH, in addition to supporting farmers across the nation with industry-leading machines and service, is also proud to support Beyond Blue in their invaluable work fighting anxiety and depression in rural communities across the country.
Case IH Media Release – 17/01/2017