Customer

Before the rooster crows

Since 1988 Helmut Schorn has been providing agricultural services in southeastern Austria. His machine park continues to grow steadily.

“That would really be great. And maybe another Fortis push-off trailer.”

Helmut Schorn

Helmut Schorn smiles as he strides onto the Lagerhaus grounds in Feldkirchen. There’s a reason for that. His relationship with Lagerhaus, which supplies his Farmtech trailers and John Deere tractors, is going great. As are his machines. Some of them have many thousands of hours behind them, but they still look almost new, thanks to regular maintenance and care. “Ten years ago I bought a used Megafex 1400 universal spreader from Farmtech. It must have 5000 hours under its belt by now,” has says as he recalls his first Farmtech purchase. Only in 2014 did he get his second machine, a Megafex 2200, followed quickly by two more Megafex 1800s plus a DDK 2400 three-axle three-way tipper in 2015.

Agricultural Services

Helmut Schorn has remained a one-man show all these years. “If I need personnel, I get them from the machine association. If there’s a lot of work, that might mean four or five people,” says Schorn of his strategy. He does jobs like liquid and solid manure spreading, all types of feed transport (grain, maize etc.), and pressing and baling silage into round or rectangular bales. In the winter he stays busy spreading grit and salt. Schorn gets up before the rooster crows every morning.

Good relationship

He speaks of his relationship with Farmtech and Lagerhaus in the highest terms. “It’s a great relationship. My workshop manager at Lagerhaus, Eduard Freithofnig is basically a neighbour, and I can reach him day and night. I never need more than 10 minutes in the shop. You can’t do better than that. And thus far, whenever anything has come up Farmtech has always reacted quickly and taken care of any problems. The company has really come a long way in the last few years.”

Fine spread pattern

He has particularly good things to say about the Megafex’ spread pattern when spraying chicken manure on green fields. “It lets me run two spreaders side by side, which is a huge productivity boost,” says Schorn. So in recent years he’s added more machines to his lineup. “Fast reactions are getting more and more important in this business.”

Compost problem

Compost spreading, formerly a major line of work, has been declining. “It’s very difficult to calculate the right amount of fertilizer, especially for big farms,” says Schorn. “In its present form, compost spreading doesn’t have a future.”

Make a wish!

But he still has a wish list for Farmtech. “Spare parts availability needs to get better and faster. I can’t afford machine downtime. A telephone hotline for faster reactions would be the right solution,” he says. “That would really be great. And maybe another Fortis push-off trailer,” he adds with a chuckle.