Wolland’s 50 years of serving the rural community

Jamie, Christine and Maurice Wolland are Wolland Contracting Ltd, based in Pahiatua, marking 50 years this year.

Times have changed since Wolland Contracting first started in the 1970s.

Gone are the days of working out in the paddocks for hours, with compliance and health and safety taking up a good portion of Maurice and Christine Wolland’s days.

But the red tape is just one of the many changes the family business has seen in the 50 years it’s been going.

The emphasis in the business is on the family supporting each other, with three of the couple’s children, Gareth, Bevin and Rosie, lending a hand when they’re able and Jamie working as operations manager and looking after the day-to-day stuff.

“We couldn’t do it without them,” says Christine, adding that she and Maurice feel very lucky to have had the support of their children and grandchildren through the years.

They are also very thankful for the loyal staff members they have had over the years: Damian, Robert, Austin, Nigel and Geoff, to name a few.

It was 1968 when Maurice left college and started off milking cows.

Then his parents suggested that he and his brother use their tractor and baler and they began baling hay for the neighbours.

Six years later, Maurice bought out his brother’s share of their contracting business for $5000.

So began the Tararua District company now known as Wolland Contracting.

Maurice started with a Ford 5000 tractor, roughly around 40hp, which according to some information, is a mid-range tractor, and bought a new baler.

By then he was getting work doing double-chop silage and agricultural work.

Being in more demand, a year later, Maurice sold the Ford tractor and bought a Case 970, which had 90hp.

At that time, it cost him $15,000 – these days it would cost around 10 times that.

The Case was something of a novelty in Pahiatua, being the first big tractor in the area, but with the greater power, it gave them more capability to do the big jobs.

“You’ve got to have the best gear,” Christine says.

Then in 1976, Maurice bought an International 1086, with 150hp, as a second tractor and took on a fulltime driver.

With an opening to do silage for local farms, Maurice bought a fine chop harvester. He also invested in a mower conditioner for mowing silage.

Finding the International was getting too expensive to run, due to troubles with the gearbox, in 1983, he decided to sell the 1086 and bought a John Deere 4440.

“We’ve stuck with the John Deere ever since,” Maurice says.

Wolland Contracting Ltd has had a number of different machines over the years which has led to greater efficiency in their work. Maurice, son Jamie and Christine Wolland are marking 50 years in Pahīatua this year.

That was pretty much the beginning of getting the bigger gear, he says.

Balage

Wolland Contracting started off with conventional balers and would run two balers for a time but then they bought a John Deere round baler. This went well for three years but some farmers preferred the conventional bales because of handling and the Wollands decided to invest in the New Holland big square baler.

“That was a game changer,” they say, adding that it meant less manpower.

In their first season, they were able to produce 10,000 of those big bales.

Silage

At first they started with the double chop then moved to a fine chop, running the big forage harvester.

They were using subcontractors to cart silage, but then decided to buy silage trailers with moving floors and expand their own fleet of trucks in later years.

The agricultural machinery side of the business had a bit of a revamp when they bought bigger machines in their 22nd season, allowing them to spend less time in the paddocks.

Maurice has seen a lot of changes in the past 50 years, especially in the size and capability of machinery, and in terms of computerisation and GPS capability.

The changes in technology has allowed them more versatility in terms of the services they can offer, including cultivation, grass and silage, hay and balage, trucking and other services.

Maurice is always on hand to lend his expertise on cropping, harvesting and supplement requirements.

While the changes in compliance and health and safety requirements have seen other contracting businesses finding it all a bit much, Maurice, Christine and their family are still committed to doing their best to fulfil the needs of the rural community they are proud to live in, for as long as they can.