Time is money for Goulburn Valley farmers, with crops being sown or harvested on time the difference between making or losing money in a season.
So when something goes wrong with the equipment a farmer relies on, it’s essential they can get servicing and spare parts organised at short notice so they can get back in the paddock.
“When there’s breakdowns and that sort of thing we will have your parts overnight,” O’Connors Shepparton service manager Gareth Tyler said.
The O’Connors network operates across different climate zones, stocking everything a farmer could need — and only a phone call away.
“We can move techs around, we can move equipment around, we can move parts around to suit the seasons,” sales manager Tim Edgar said.
“We've got vehicles travelling between dealerships every day of the week during harvest that just continually runs until harvest is finished — not only harvest up north, but it’s still running when harvest is running down south.
“I don't think there'll be anyone in Australia that runs harvest support like we do with parts.”
O’Connors has been around for a long time, and the sheer amount of technical knowledge within the group means the staff on the ground know exactly what to do to get farm machinery back online.
“Ninety per cent of our work is field service,” Mr Tyler said.
“We go to the customer's house, or right to where the tractors or the combine has broken down, and we fix it on the farms.
“The guys who go out have well-equipped service utes, so they can handle whatever is thrown at them on the day.”
Technicians can come out any time between 8.30am and 5pm. But the O’Connors crew can, and will, attend an after hours emergency — rain, hail or shine.
And if the O’Connors staff start a job, they work until it’s done.
“Things don't always go right, and you can't help that. It just is what it is,” Shepparton branch manager Brendan O’Connor said.
“That’s what we want to be known for — that when it does go wrong, we're in there, making sure we're trying to get it right and keep the customers running.
“Farmers are looking for service, availability and back-up.
“But generally, service and back-up is the biggest thing. And that's the relationships that gets built at dealership level.
“If we can't fix it [locally], there'll be someone in our dealership network somewhere that will know how.”