New Deere forestry machinery and software coming soon

John Deere’s new G-series swing machines, which have never been offered in Australia before, will soon hit the local market catering to forestry customers.

The machines will be available in Australia via RDO Equipment, which has taken over the distribution of John Deere’s construction and forestry equipment in all of Australia, except WA.

“The range of John Deere G Series swing machines, which will come to Australia for the first time, will deliver everything customers expect from John Deere forestry equipment – uptime, reliability, fuel efficiency, durability,” said RDO Equipment Australia General Manager for Sales, Mark Kuhn.

“We’re proud to say customers can walk into a dealership right now and order a swing machine in the form of either harvester, processor or log loader. Our doors are open and we’re ready to go.”

In addition to the G-series swing machines, RDO Equipment is also set to roll out the John Deere TimberManager and TimberMaps fleet management software system across its full forestry range.

According to Kuhn, the software systems will be best in class, allowing for simple mapping of production data over several logging sites for both cut-to-length and tree-length operations.

“The program is already available for wheeled and tracked harvesters and forwarders and will be rolled out across the rest of the John Deere forestry equipment range over the foreseeable future,” he said.

Since taking over the John Deere construction and forestry brand in Australia in May 2019, RDO Equipment has announced its ambitious plans to bring in Deere's full range of construction and forestry machinery into Australia within 12 months.

RDO currently has eight dealerships and has plans to fast track several new dealer locations over the next three years.

The company is working with John Deere to ensure most of its technicians are capstone trained, which means they have completed extensive, high level training with John Deere. In addition, customers will also have access to fast parts supply thanks to the launch of a new John Deere regional distribution centre in Melbourne.

“Right now there’s good export opportunity in hardwood chip and softwood round log, and we expect the market will sit at this pretty sound level for another two to three years,” Kuhn said.

“It’s an exciting time in forestry and we’re really looking forward to building quality partnerships with our customers, whether they have one or two machines or a whole fleet.”