Nick and Hoss, the Directors, grew up on the family farm at Lowcliffe. Both brothers spent many hours on the tractors & combine harvesters after school and during the holidays.
After leaving school both brothers took up employment in the Civil Construction Industry working for a number of contractors on a variety of jobs from small farm development to contracts like the Upper Waitaki.
The experience gained during this period gave Yeatman Brothers the skills edge over many other contractors. They learned the importance of scheduled maintenance, proper repair, and operational procedures in gaining long economic life from expensive equipment.

During the 1980’s the farming recession hit hard. Nick and Hoss returned to the family farm to assist in this difficult period. The farm required a lot of work to turn it around, with no funds available for remuneration to compensate this, Nick and Hoss began contracting on a part-time basis.

By 1986 demand for work had warranted setting up Yeatman Brothers. At this time they offered ploughing, cultivation, drilling, mower conditioner, chopping, carting, stacking of silage and cartage of hay and straw.

The mower conditioner was one of  the first machines of this type used by a contractor in Mid Canterbury. They also purchased a new John Deere 3760 pull type forage harvester. T

People have often said “Yeatman Brothers can only see green”. When purchasing new equipment, the number one criteria is. How good the service provided by the company  selling the machine? John Deere sell parts and provide services for machinery 30 years & older. That’s older than a lot of machinery manufacturers have been in business.

It takes skill, dedication, perseverance, careful long term planning and management to remain at the top and independent in a very competitive industry. Yeatman Brothers recognise these attributes and aspire to them.
As Nick and Hoss started Yeatman Brothers with the money they had in their pockets, one of the greatest challenges they faced was meeting work demand with limited capital for more machinery. In 1988 once again the skills they learned in working for other contractors came to the fore. Over a period of 12 months they purchased 2 larger tractors that had experienced transmission failure. Both these machines were purchased and commissioned at a fraction of their replacement value.

A service growing in demand was maize silage processing, another first was the fitting of kernel processors to their pull type choppers. Yeatmans were involved in early trial work in Mid Canterbury and much of their work was used as a gauge by many farm consultants and seed companies.
With the addition of a second chopper in 1988 Yeatman Brothers had doubled their silage capacity, but demand was still outstripping capacity and in early’89 they began shift working. The early ‘90’s saw the dairy boom well under way in Mid Canterbury and conversion work was beginning to play a large roll in keeping staff busy during the off season.

1991 Yeatman Brothers had a fleet of 4 trucks, 8 tractors, 2 pull type choppers, 3 moco’s, 2 ploughs, 2 discs, a chisel plough, conventional & direct drills and there were 6 full time workers.

In 1993 Yeatman Brothers purchased their first self-propelled forage harvester. This was the first of it’s kind in NZ with 400hp on tap, it was also the most expensive machine John Deere had sold in NZ at that time. Another NZ first was the six row rotary kemper header purchased for harvesting maize and whole crop.

In 1994 Yeatman Brothers acquired a contract for spent grain from New Zealand Breweries in Christchurch. This contract got Yeatman Brothers involved in the feed industry. This involvement increased Yeatman’s awareness of quality feed and was a great insight into our silage clients requirements.

In the late ‘90’s Yeatman Brothers were covering around 4000Ha of grass silage per season. More first’s in equipment were the adoption of front and rear mower conditioners to increase mowing capacity. This lead to considerable involvement with the John Deere Company on research and development on a number of silage harvesting machines. The NZ summer added another testing season to the Northern Hemisphere manufacturers program, enabling them to get prototypes into production sooner.
Another lesson learned was the importance of silage compaction and the ability of the stacking machinery. At this time Yeatman Brothers were using 14 Ton 200hp tractors. Machines still heavier and more powerful than other competitors today.

1998 Yeatman Brothers formed a limited company, purchased another self-propelled harvester. Growth in the maize silage demand was met by the purchase of an 8 row maize planter. Next season Yeatman Brothers Ltd added another maize planter in conjunction, operated 10 tractors, 9 trucks, 2 self-propelled choppers, 3 front & rear mowers, 2 single mowers, 4 ploughs, 2 sets of discs, a chisel plough, 2 maxi-tills, rippers, rollers and a host of support plant to keep men and equipment working.

In 2000 Yeatman Brothers Ltd purchased ‘Nigel Marcon Contracting’ and entered the earthmoving business. This enabled Yeatman Brothers Ltd to offer a contracting service for land development and conversion work. Often in the past cultivation for a conversion job was delayed because digging contractor had not arrived to take out the trees or divert waterways. Now YBL was able to properly plan and schedule work for clients wanting the most economic job done in the shortest time frame.
Up until 2001 YBL growth and development was driven by demand for their services. Incoming competition from other contractors entering the silage business and the loss of the NZ Brewery contract caused YBL to take a good look at their operation. Management and the way it was done was completely overhauled, YBL engaged in ‘Summit Systems Ltd’ to assist in the training and re-training of staff for better work place practices. The company then engaged ‘Magnus Marketing’ and conducted a market survey to establish what direction it would take in the future.

It was decided to concentrate on quality of service rather than quantity. By raising standards YBL reduced competition by suppling specialised quality work to customers that required it. YBL was able to step back from the lowest quote, most work to make it pay, tread mill and concentrate on prioritising our strengths and weaknesses. Re-training and re-assignment of staff and rationalisation of resources resulted in major reductions in cost, a benefit we have passed on to our clients.

Today YBL is committed to providing top quality and service to its customers. We invest heavily in new technologies and training to facilitate this goal and see it as a viable alternative to a financially binding machinery replacement programme preferred by many of our competitors.