Gavin Dal Broi runs Broidal Contracting near Griffith, Australia, a family farm where he's worked with John Deere Financial for equipment financing. He talks about the challenges of farming in Australia and why reliable machinery and financial support matter to keeping the operation going.
When I was about six years old. You know how your parents, when you go to school they say, what do you want to do when you grow up? Well, I actually had a little thing that was stuck on our fridge and I still have it stuck on our fridge. I want to help my dad. So it was whatever my dad did, I wanted to help him. But it's something that I always wanted to do, spend as much time with my dad as I could. So that's why I fell in love with agriculture. We're based 40km west of Griffith Warawiji. We're a family farm operation focused on irrigated cotton, corn and cereals. So we farm with my family. My mother and father that first bought the farm back in 1983 and my wife Claire. We've also got three boys that are still at school, but hopefully one of them might come on the farm at some stage. I first heard of John Deere Financial about 10 years ago when we bought our second John Deere tractor. They were extremely easy to deal with. Their applications were really simple and we've dealt with them since then with all our new gear. They're separate from John Deere but they're still intertwined with John Deere. It's one big family, but they also support the dealers and the growers themselves. They've helped us through hard times and in good, so they've just been great. There's been the odd time where payments have had to be delayed for a certain period of time. I know some people there during droughts and floods have had other dealings where there's been suspended repayment periods. But they're just there to talk. If you just talk to them, they'll help you out. So working with John Dee Financial because they've got boots on the ground, they know farmers, they know what we're dealing with, they know the machinery that we're using. So John D Financial guys come here and we meet them, shake hands. So when we do have the phone call about new purchase or an issue that we might have, we've got a relationship. So John Deere Financial makes our farming operation more efficient by having just a one stop shop. So compared to other financial entities that you might have going through a broker, you might be spreading financial assets over multiple banks. Whereas with John Deere Financial we can just have that conversation once. Being a farmer in Australia at the moment is really challenging. We can rely on that machine to work day and night and we have John Deere backing behind us that gives us support to then make sure this machinery runs as efficiently as it can. Our relationship with John Dee Financial has grown a lot in the last probably five years since our fleet has grown in John Deere machinery. They've been really good with giving us certain limits that we go to. They've met that as well. Into the future. So I see us and John Deere Financial going ahead. Leaps abounds. When you're working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, you wouldn't do it unless you love it. So it's just built in us.
