EDITORIAL – Farms & Farm Machinery.
When cattle farming customers wanted a bigger tractor for feeding out, SOTA Tractors did what it does best: developed a product to suit.
Steve Watt, General Manager of SOTA Tractors, smiles at the suggestion that not many companies would go to the trouble of finding a product for which only a few customers had asked. “It’s what we do best,” he shrugs simply. “We have ongoing contact with our customers – before, during and after the sale or service. That’s for several reasons. One is that our customers are often new to farming, so they may not be exactly sure what equipment they need. As we specialise in machinery for small acreage farms, we can help them – starting with talking through what they want to use it for.”
SOTA has customers Australia wide, supplying a range of tractors and implements that are purpose engineered for small acreage farming. “We’ve always been strongly committed to the small acreage market,” Steve says, “we understand the people we serve and take their needs on board. We identified a ‘transition’ customer, typically having a more substantial land holding than the average small acreage and who had specific needs, requiring more firepower and capacity.”
“Several farmers in North Queensland were telling us they needed a tractor that was larger than the 55hp APOLLO, so that was one of the reasons for bringing in the new 85hp tractor. It was a relatively small number of farmers who originally asked, but by using these specific customer’s needs as a guide, we determined that there was a significant number of customers who would be interested in a higher-powered, utility tractor with great lifting capacity, at an ultra keen price.”
Superior 4-in-1 Loader Capacity
Steve says the new 85hp APOLLO 854 is ideal for feeding out cattle where heavy hay bales need to be managed. The APOLLO 854 is ideal for slashing larger acreage and will easily accept a 7 foot heavy duty slasher.
“Our customers have found it’s more powerful – it has a huge safe working load (SWL) of 1200kgs, so think big round bales – yet still has the utility and maneuverability that makes it very useful for larger, small acreage holdings. When we developed the APOLLO 854’s front end loader specification, we were able to retain the 4-in-1 bucket, a popular feature with small-acreage owners. While 4-in-1 buckets generally translate to somewhat reduced payload due to the bucket’s dimensions and weight, the APOLLO 854 had such a heavy, cast iron mass that we were able to retain the 4-in-1 bucket and still provide a huge SWL of 1200kgs. SOTA Tractors was the first company in Australia to offer the 4-in-1 bucket as a standard feature and we were keen to retain that benefit for our customers.”
“As with the entire APOLLO range, SOTA can offer the APOLLO 854 at exceptional value simply because we deal directly with the customer; we’re not a dealer, we are the importer. That means our prices are pared back and are among the most competitively priced in Australia. The APOLLO 854 offers superb value for money and is backed by our highly regarded customer service, so our customers know that they will be fully supported after the sale.”
Written by Samantha Schelling.