Located in the lush Riverina region of New South Wales, Baker Farm is a third generation farm producer that also offer contract farming services, feedlot facilities, freight, and storage of grain, hay and machinery. The wholly-owned and operated Australian family business comprises Baker Farm, Baker Grain and Baker Transport and has been located in Howlong, NSW, since 1989.
Maintenance Manager Andrew Stiler is responsible for the upkeep of all the farm machinery in addition to the transportation fleet at Baker Farm.
“I look after the maintenance and repair of seven K200 Kenworth trucks, a couple of front-end loaders and a 409 Kenworth,” he describes. “I also look after the farming and planting machinery, which includes three brand new headers, three new Krone balers, air seeders, and pivot irrigators – pretty much all the machinery on the farm.”
As the farm is one of the largest in its region, the maintenance on all the equipment, in addition to the trucks is a comprehensive job – particularly in harvest season, which generally falls at the end of the year. Which is why the automated Alemlube Lubrication System was implemented a year ago to resolve maintenance issues and breakdowns on the trucks.
“We installed the Alemlube Lubrication System to help us with our maintenance regime because it gives us much less downtime, and it’s very efficient to have all of the greases on our trucks,” explains Andrew. “The regular greasing with the Alemlube greasers saves a lot of time and money in repairs. The parts generally don’t wear out as often [with this system in place].”
Glenn Foster, Sales Representative at BSC Wodonga has been working with Baker Farm for 10 years. The branch supplies the farm with header parts and various machinery components. It is through this working relationship that the Alemlube Lubrication System was facilitated.
“They were having trouble with the lubrication on their trucks, and managing this with the regularity it requires,” says Glenn. “It was clear they needed an automated system to avoid maintenance issues and prevent breakdowns. We worked together with Alemlube to provide them with a solution that works well for their specific needs.”
That solution came in the form of the Alemlube Lubrication System. Darrell Date, Alemlube Business Development Manager – Lubrication Systems NSW/ACT, was approached by the BSC Wodonga branch to outline the solution plan with the Director of Baker Farm, Peter Baker.
“After discussing with the customer, they opted to take one system initially and then added more – they now have six systems altogether,” explains Darrell. “This was achieved with a standard Alemlube Lubrication System for the trucks, covering 28 grease points.”
In a nutshell, the Alemlube Lubrication System provides a prescribed amount of grease at a prescribed amount
of time to multiple grease points while the machines
are in action.
“Getting the grease into all grease points while the machine is working reduces downtime and maintenance,” Darrell says. “It not only reduces the amount of downtime needed for repairs, but reduces the costs that come with the wear and tear on parts. Importantly, it is significantly cheaper than having to pull machinery apart at frequent intervals. For example, a kingpin can cost a lot of money to pull apart and grease and the truck might be two days off the road.”
According to Darrell, customers such as Baker Farm are fast realising the long-term rewards of putting in an automated lubrication system.
“The automated lubrication system was once upon a time viewed as an accessory, but it’s becoming accepted as a necessity,” he points out. “The volume of lubrication systems that we’ve fit over a period of 12 months is quite extensive – it’s at the point now that customers are seeing the savings and benefits quite quickly and achieving their ROI in just a few years. And within that timeframe, they are also covered by the Alemlube three year warranty.”
To summarise, Darrell notes how the relationship with BSC and Alemlube is bringing benefit to end customers such as Baker Farm.
“We have a fantastic working relationship with BSC! Motion Asia Pacific is one of Alemlube’s national distributors in regards to the lubrication solutions and other products,” he enthuses. “The Alemlube Lubrication Systems has developed a lot over the last 12 months and I’ve spent time with many of the BSC crew, such as those working with the Baker Farms, and they’re very professional and capable at what they do. This ultimately helps the customer achieve their goals with the ongoing maintenance of their fleet and farming machinery.”
