New Zealand dairy farmer chose a Hustler Combi feedout wagon for its durability and low maintenance

Peter King bought a new Hustler Combi RX178 at the beginning of winter. He loves the versatility of the wagon, able to feed out all types of feed, from bales to fodder beet to maize silage. He has “no regrets at all, purely because of the job it does, the robustness of it.”

Peter King’s dairy farm is located in Burnham, near the city of Christchurch, on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand, in the Selwyn District. Canterbury is of great significance to New Zealand’s agricultural production, with approximately 20% of its farmland. The region consists of a diverse mix of intensive dairy, sheep and beef and cropping operations on the plains, to extensive sheep and beef farms on high country.

The farm consists of a milking platform of 190 hectares where 650 cows are milked every day. Peter also runs a 150-hectare run-off block located about 15 minutes away.

Peter has been using Hustler gear for more than 25 years. He still owns an older Chainless bale feeder generation, the CH2000. He has been very happy with the quality of his Hustler machines, “absolutely no problems with them all, they’ve fed out thousands of bales of hay for us,” Peter explained.

“Absolutely no problems with them all, they’ve fed out thousands of bales of hay for us.”

Peter bought a Hustler Combi RX178 feedout wagon at the beginning of the season through his local Hustler accredited dealer FarmChief Machinery Christchurch.

Before settling on the Hustler wagon, Peter did his homework and “looked pretty extensively at all the wagons on the market.” He decided to buy the Hustler because he “loved the simplicity of it.”

A big advantage of the Hustler Combi wagon range is its versatility compared to other types of wagons. The Combi range feeds out literally every supplementary type of feed, including all bale types, shapes and sizes and any type of loose feed that can be loaded including fine chop silage, fodder beet, maize silage, root crops, vegetables and more.

“It’s got less moving parts, it just seems more idiot-proof to me and couldn’t be happier.”

“One of the great features of the RX178 is the curved bottom on the feedout chute. You don’t lose any fodder beet or anything down onto the ground,” Peter said. The Hustler feedpad kit comes now standard on all the next Combi wagon models of the range. “The benefit of that being is your wheels are not running it over and pushing it into the ground, it’s all fed out where you wanted it fed out,” Peter continued.

Because Peter has been running Hustler gear for so many years, he was confident that his Combi RX178 won’t let him down when he needs it the most – which is crucial in the winter months when so many cows rely on the farm’s machinery to be fed.

“We’ve run Hustler gear for years and I like the quality of the build.”

Peter bought a Hustler for its durability and low maintenance. “They seem to be strong, very robust and it’s just purely showing up in the maintenance. We have very little maintenance,” he said.

The Hustler Combi wagons are designed to optimise their longevity and every single detail have been well thought-through to achieve this goal. Here are a few examples of clever design elements (all coming standard on all models):

• The cable and hose tracks are built into the design to protect them from the possibility of damage.
• The central greasing station helps to access difficult grease points, such as the axle
• The driveshafts are entirely covered to eliminate feed material from wrapping around the shafts.
• The internally ported rams eliminate hose failures and downtime.
• The integrated hose holder have been re-designed to minimise the possibility of hoses chaffing and downtime. 
• The single set of elevator spillage fans have been rationalised to reduce the number of fans, eliminating 14 wearing parts from the design!

“We would never look anywhere else.”

Peter explained that the price wasn’t the only criteria for him because you always get what you pay for. The built quality of the Combi RX178 being absolutely superior, it was worth discarding the cheapest options and make the investment in the long run.

“The RX178 most certainly wasn’t the cheapest wagon we looked at on the market. I have no regrets at all purely because of the job it does, the robustness of it and I’m pleased I made the investment. We would never look anywhere else,” Peter concluded.

Do you want to know more about Hustler’s Combi ranges? Contact us today, you’ll be glad you did!