Tairua Rural Contracting

Broadgate Harvesting was started by Matthew Reed in 2004, from small beginnings with an advertisement in the Malvern News. Matthew, 27 at the time, started out with a Class Dominator 48 and a 1460 Axial Flow and harvested 300 acres of mainly cereal harvest. He doubled the harvest area in his second year and the business has continued to grow, branching out into harvesting high-value hybrid radish seed crops with clients including Ashburton company Smith Seeds. Matthew says the Axial Flow combines, with their gentle threshing ability, reliability and ease of operation, are ideal for speciality seeds and minimise seed damage. The company operates three of these specialist combines. Two-thirds of the area they worked last year was in cereal harvest and the rest was in various specialty seed crops including radish, pak choi, carrots, beet and chrysanthemum. Matthew's passion for harvesting stems from his farming childhood.