The Leahy family is well-known and respected in the Riverina region – not only as growers but as reliable contract harvesters. Based out of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, they service an area that spans from the south of Wagga Wagga up to Roma in Queensland through their business EJ & GM Leahy Contracting.
As a key part of their business is in contract harvesting, they assemble, service and repair all their harvest machinery themselves. As such, they rely on the expertise of their local BSC branch for essential componentry.
“The Leahy family has been in business for a long time and have a longstanding relationship with our branch,” explains NSW Agriculture Business Development Manager, Mitch Chaffer of BSC Wagga Wagga. “As they make their own harvesters fit-for-purpose, they require high quality cutting components, which we are able to supply to them.”
Gerard Leahy, one of the owners of EJ & GM Leahy Contracting, elaborates on why BSC is a preferred supply partner for his family business.
“A lot of the parts I buy from Mitch are for our contract harvesting business as we do all our repairs and servicing ourselves,” says Gerard. “We have shopped around for parts a lot and found BSC to be highly competitive on price. We basically run all our machines with BSC products.”
As the company services its headers about four to five times a year, this translates to significant cost savings.
“We use four headers for contracting and four for harvesting our own farmland,” explains Gerard. “When you factor in the number of times you buy parts for each of these machines, it adds up to a lot.”
The Leahy family farms and harvests chickpeas, wheat, fava beans, barley, canola and lentils.
“We’re a family owned and operated business. During harvest season we employ more contractors to manage the work because it’s obviously our busiest time. We hire about a dozen people,” expands Gerard. “And we farm about 6,000 hectares of our own land in Wagga Wagga.”
Among the parts that BSC provides to the Leahy family is Webb cutting parts.
“In particular, we require a knife for the header front that cuts the crop,” expands Gerard. “This is a replaceable part that you need to replace every few years. It’s also a necessary part – you can’t harvest without it. The Webb knife is a good quality part that works well for us.”
According to Mitch, the Webb cutting range is popular among Australian farmers because the products are specifically manufactured for high-wear and are
more durable compared with others on the market.
“Webb is a US-based company that we have a strong relationship with. Their products are sought-after by Australian businesses such as the Leahy family because of their high quality,” Mitch explains. “The range includes high carbon knife sections, complete knife assemblies and Knife Guards for harvesting equipment – in our experience, customers always return to purchase more products from the Webb range.”
Moreover, Mitch says that Webb’s Double knife drive Complete Assemblies and Mower-Conditioner Blades are among the most coveted of products that BSC Wagga Wagga sells to farmers.
“Webb also make great replacement parts for some of the leading machinery brands on the market such as John Deere, MacDon, New Holland and Case International,” he adds. “Because the Webb brand is so well-regarded, this also makes them a popular choice.”
To summarise, Mitch points out that part of BSC’s mission is to keep farmers in motion.
“We strive to provide the best service and quality parts that we can,” he says. “Keeping family businesses such as EJ & GM Leahy Contracting in motion is at the core of what we do.”
