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Robinson Farms is a family owned and operated custom-hire silage harvesting business covering huge swathes of the US. The company was established by Kevin Robinson in Dexter, New Mexico in 1983. The following year, the family expanded their enterprise into neighbouring states. Currently the fleet covers a huge catchment area of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, Kansas and this year they began working in Washington.
The outfit harvests the entire range of grass and wholecrop silages. This includes wheat, barley, triticale oats, alfalfa and maize. It uses headers to accommodate either direct cutting of whole dry standing crops, maize, or the standard pickup header commonly used in Ireland.
The family provides a complete silage harvesting service including mowing, raking, harvesting, carting, packing (pit/clamp work) and covering of the silage. Eight harvesters work from March until November with two to three harvesters working the off-season cutting alfalfa in Arizona in the winter months.
Robinson Farms charge $6/t to $8/t for the complete harvesting package. Pit covering costs an extra $1/t. \ Ray McEvilly
Area covered
Silage rates in the US are based on tonnes rather than the typical per-acre rate in Ireland. It works out at $6/t to $8/t for the complete harvesting package. Covering of the pit costs an additional $1/t which includes the covering crew coming back in the winter rolling the cover back as required.
In spring, the Robinson family typically harvests about 400,000t of silage. This would equate to 25,000ac to 30,000ac. In a typical season, the fleet harvests around 800,000t of maize silage.
The 620hp John Deere 9620RX fitted with a 20ft blade can push a 30t load in one go. Robinson Farms use three of these. \ Ray McEvilly
On an average year, the contracting business caters for 25 to 30 clients. However, this depends on the season and climatic conditions. The clients are made up of both dairy and beef enterprises. The dairy farmers dominate, with operations varying in size from 1,000 cows to 20,000 cows.
Texas Panhandle
Many of the beef farmers are located in the Panhandle of Texas, with anywhere from 80,000 cattle to enormous feedlots with 120,000 cattle. This is a approximately two and a half to four times the total number of cattle slaughtered in Ireland each week.
The business travels up to 1,600 miles from its base in New Mexico for work. It can take two days to transport the fleet in trucks.
Enormous centre-pivot irrigated crops are commonplace, with both tractors and trucks used to haul the crop away from the harvesters. \ Ray McEvilly
Most impressive machine to date?
The family agrees its most impressive machine over the past decade has been the John Deere 9620RX.
Kolton Robinson, son of owner Kevin, said: “The 9620RX – what a machine. It can out push and out pack any other machine we have had over the years.
“With its 620hp Cummins engine combined with its 42t weight on tracks and a 20ft blade on the front, it won’t be beat for traction or power on the pit. It pushes a full 30t load in one swipe. It’s a very impressive machine to both operate and watch working.”
Most disappointing machine to date?
“Over the years, we have always run John Deere harvesters, but when John Deere went from the 7980 to the 8000 series, the 8800 was a completely different machine. It gave us a lot of trouble including feed rollers breaking, hydraulic pumps falling off and countless oil leaks. I think the 8600 and below were great machines but the 8800 were released too soon. The following year we changed to Claas Jaguar and were very happy.”
Robinson Farms generally change tractors between 1,000 and 1,200 hours. The Fendt and Claas feature among the fleet as well as JCB Fastracs. \ Ray McEvilly
Dealer back up
According to Kolton, dealer backup is massive and this is one of the reasons why the business has such loyalty to John Deere. The business cannot afford any downtime and carries a complete inventory of parts along with employing a full-time mechanic. At any one time, there is an entire flatpack harvester of parts in each of the three service trucks for all eventualities.
To keep the fleet of harvesters and pit tractors as modern as possible, they are updated on a yearly basis with around 1,000 to 1,200 hours on the odometer.
Irish influence
After much Irish influence through staff over the years, the Robinsons began to look at some Irish-built machinery. After visiting Ireland late last year, the family decided to purchase a batch of Irish-built silage trailers. After much deliberation between a number of Irish brands, the family made an agreement with Smyth Trailers in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow. The family purchased 10 custom-specification trailers. These Super Cube trailers are 26ft long, 9ft wide and 9ft high. They hold a massive 62 cubic metres and sit on high-speed axles, which is vital as they will be towed by 70km/h JCB Fastracs.
The fleet
The family runs a substantial fleet of the most modern machinery in the world.
They run eight new Claas Jaguar 980 harvesters. Headers for these harvesters include four 12-row maize heads (Orbis 900), four 10-row heads (Orbis 750), eight 380 pickup heads and two 620 Disco direct-cut heads.
The fleet of John Deere tractors is broken down into three 9620RX four-track machines for the pit, three 9570R John Deere wheeled tractors for the pit, a 6195R and 6175R. Other tractors in the fleet include four Fendt 936s and six JCB 8330 Fastracs.
Harvesting equipment is transported on trucks from their base in New Mexico up to 1,600 miles for the various harvesting jobs. \ Ray McEvilly
Mowing is carried out using two Krone Big M 420s, two sets of Krone butterflies with groupers and four Claas butterflies with groupers. The silage is raked up using four Claas rakes – two liner 3600s and two 4000 machines.
The family owns eight lorries and hires in an additional 70 to 80 articulated lorries. These lorries are used for the transport of machinery, moving grain, and hauling silage.
Along with the massive contracting business, the family also runs a farm in Kansas. This is mainly a grain farm consisting of 7,000 acres. Some machinery on the farm includes an S680 John Deere combine on tracks, a John Deere self-propelled sprayer with a 120ft boom, three John Deere 8370Rs and one 8245R, a 24-row John Deere maize/corn planter, a tracked 30t grain cart, a 50ft John Deere disc harrow and a 50ft field finisher.
Just some of the eight Claas Jaguars, four Fendt 936s and two Krone BiG-M 420s Robinson Farms use.
When the silage cutting is at its peak, the outfit burns a whopping 7,000 gallons of diesel per day – the equivalent of 26,500 litres per day.
When silage is in full swing the business employs between 25 and 30 full-time staff. These staff members consist mainly of Irish and New Zealand workers with a few from the UK also.
There are often opportunities of employment and any interested parties can apply through Robinson Farms Facebook page or website. The firm usually recruits workers around October for work commencing the following April.
A DVD of Robinsons Farms at work was recently put together by employee Eoin Kearney, who goes under the name EK Photography.
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