Harvester Case Study: Wayne Beevers Ltd

Lincolnshire contractor Wayne Beevers started offering a harvesting service for the 2024 beet campaign and just one season on he upgraded to a younger fully-refurbished VERVAET 17-T supplied by Rileys.

Based at Alford, Wayne’s business carries out general contracting as well as offering agricultural engineering support to local farms.
“I’d always had vintage and classic tractors, and when I bought a Ford 8730 in 2012 I started doing some contract drilling for a friend,” explains Wayne. “I traded it in for an MF 6499 to run a baler over the summer, and things progressed from there.

“More recently a friend who was planning to grow some fodder beet inspired the idea of buying a beet harvester, and I was initially looking for a machine to lift just 70 acres,” recalls Wayne. “But after a chance conversation and a local contractor scaling back I suddenly had three customers and 500 acres to lift, but no machine. I’d already sought advice from Matt Carse at Rileys, and a deal was done for a 2005 Vervaet 17-T direct from a farm. It turned out to need quite a lot of work, but Rileys went above and beyond to make the situation workable.

“I lifted 550 acres and wanted to update the harvester for this year,” he continues. “There was nothing wrong with the old machine, but I wanted to increase output. Rileys had a 2014 machine, which looked nice but was too much of a step up, and a 2009 Vervaet 17-T which would be fully refurbished through their workshop.

“Looking through the appraisal list, it was going to be a nearly new machine,” he adds. “With a new ring trace, rebuilt tank floor and chains, a reskinned topper, some new share driver motors, all new turbines and more, plus some paintwork.

“The deal was done, and this new machine has basically doubled my output, it’s exactly what I hoped it would be,” concludes Wayne. “Rileys have been fantastic to deal with every step of the way and done a great job of the harvester. Driving it is a pleasure, and on a nice day it doesn’t even feel like you’re at work.”

For more info on rebuilt harvesters call Matt Carse on 07825 631377.