Dairy farm takes on new ag-spec wheeled loader

A family-run dairy farm near Ashford in Kent has placed its trust in Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) and dealer SMT GB with an agricultural specification L70H for tasks including loading grass into its silage clamp.

Established in 2002, PHR Farms owns one of the country’s largest herds, with its 1,500 dairy cows producing around 9.5 million litres of milk annually. To keep the livestock well fed over winter, the business has nine trailers rolling in 14 tonnes of grass for up to 12 hours a day in the summer, so needs a wheel loader to work flat out loading grass into its silage clamp.

Volvo wheel loaders have a strong reputation for reliability, efficiency, and operator comfort – and with an agricultural specification now available for certain models, PHR Farms’ interest was piqued. Volvo dealer SMT GB assessed PHR Farms’ needs and delivered Great Britain’s first ag spec L70H wheeled loader together with a silage clamp attachment.

Agricultural specification Volvo wheeled loaders have a third hydraulic function to support a wide assortment of agricultural attachments. The torque-parallel (TP) linkage system provides high breakout, tilt-in and lifting forces, as well as greater load stability when using these attachments. As part of the agricultural specification, the L70H also has wider agricultural tyres and full coverage mudguards that enable it to access all areas on PHR Farms’ two sites.

So far, the wheeled loader has enabled PHR Farms to increase productivity during demanding silage periods. “There’s a lot of pressure on the machine to do this job, but it’s built for it and just puts up with it. This is our first Volvo wheeled loader and it’s a step up from what we’ve run previously. It’s a great machine and we’re really happy with it,” said PHR Farms co-owner Rob Joules.

PHR Farms has taken out a Level 2 Customer Support Agreement for the L70H, giving the business peace of mind that SMT GB’s skilled mobile technicians will proactively service the machine to maintain uptime at a fixed cost per month.

Commenting on the sale, Dale Nicoll, area sales manager at SMT GB, said: “Every single sale is valuable to us. Whether it’s for one or 10 machines is more of a detail than a determiner of the level of support we provide. For us, it’s also about creating a strong and lasting relationship with our customers and ensuring we provide the right machines and solutions to fit their exact requirements. It’s always satisfying to know that we help our customers do a better job than they could yesterday.”

Visit the SMT GB website to learn more.

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