Guthrie AgWork
A family-owned technology-enabled fleet of machines in Southern Manawatu
In 2018, Guthrie Agwork secured a large tender based on their technology-enabled fleet of machines and a one-stop shop approach that covers ground prep to harvesting. Today, these approaches remain core to this greatly expanded, family-owned and operated business in Southern Manawatu that provides services for silage harvesting, cropping and excavation.
In 2005, Andrew Guthrie wasn’t trying to build an empire. He was a dairy farmer with an eye for opportunity and a willingness to say yes when something interesting came along. His days were already full, but when a local agriservices contractor needed a hand with hauling sileage, Andrew stepped in. That small decision planted a seed.
At the time, Andrew had a young farm worker with ambition but limited means. Seeing potential, Andrew did something bold—he purchased machinery to help the worker start his own contracting business. But farming, like life, doesn’t always follow a neat plan. When the worker admitted he wasn’t ready for the responsibility, Andrew was left standing in the yard, staring at a growing line of equipment – he knew he had to make it work.
In the early days of Guthrie Agwork, the contracting work sat quietly alongside the farm. Andrew ran it with just one worker, often in the background of his main operation. They focused on cultivation and the growing and harvesting of grass and maize silage, doing steady, reliable work for nearby dairy farms.
As his own sons Chris and Bevan grew and took more and more interest in the business, he made the call to his boys, “If you want to do this, let’s get going”.
In 2015 Andrew stepped into a background director role, and Chris and Bevan Guthrie took on the day-to-day management. From there, Guthrie Agwork didn’t just grow—it accelerated.
The brothers expanded their services to cover the full cropping cycle: cultivation, planting, harvesting, and even excavation work like drain cleaning, farm track maintenance, and earthworks. They also continued and grew the grass and maize sileage supply by leasing land and sharecropping with others. They weren’t just contractors anymore; they were problem-solvers for dairy farmers who needed reliability across multiple stages of the job.
A pivotal growth moment came when they secured a major tender for several Pamū (Landcorp Farming) farms. It was a turning point, not just because of the size of the contract, but because of what it represented. Guthrie Agwork had edged out competitors by offering something different: a fully integrated service backed by modern, technology-driven equipment. Where other operations required multiple contractors to handle different stages, Chris and Bevan could do it all—and do it with precision.
Central to that advantage was their John Deere forage harvester, a machine that did far more than chop crops. Equipped with the advanced onboard technology ‘HarvestLab’, it could measure dry matter, protein, starch, and moisture in real time as it worked through a paddock. So, instead of relying on rough estimates, farmers receive accurate data about their feed—information that directly impacts how they plan and manage their feed budgets.
For Chris, one of the most powerful features was the yield mapping, “It shows exactly where paddocks perform best. Farmers can see where to put more fertiliser, where to adjust. It’s incredibly accurate if you keep it calibrated.”
Alongside that, GPS technology transformed how the team operated. Machines moved across paddocks with minimal overlap, saving time and costs while reducing operator fatigue. The system also allowed the brothers to monitor their fleet remotely—tracking progress, checking in on workers, and even receiving alerts if something wasn’t right, like an overheating engine.
For a business that could have a dozen machines running at once during peak season, that kind of oversight wasn’t just helpful—it was essential.
Yet for all the technology, some things remained firmly old-school. Maintenance, for example. While they chose gear based on support services, gear maintenance is predominantly carried out by Andrew in their workshop. Alongside a few trusted staff, he keeps the fleet in top condition. For the business that was non-negotiable. Good gear, well-maintained, doesn’t just improve efficiency; it attracts good workers and keeps them. In an industry where skilled operators are worth their weight in gold, that mattered.
Today, Guthrie Agwork employs between 12 and 16 people, depending on the season. Their fleet has grown to include multiple tractors, balers, diggers, and loaders—each one playing a role in a tightly run operation that can handle everything from seeding to stacking silage.
Despite the growth, Chris and Bevan haven’t drifted into purely managerial roles. They still spend plenty of time in the cab, doing the work alongside their team. Office duties –quoting, invoicing, rostering – are shared between them, balanced carefully so that each still gets time on the machines they love and there’s always someone available to meet with clients.
It’s a partnership that works. Each brother manages his own group of clients, building relationships in his own way. They joke that some of the older, more “hardcore” clients still call Andrew directly, out of habit as much as loyalty. But increasingly, a new generation of farmers is picking up the phone to call Chris and Bevan.
When asked about the future, the brothers don’t talk about rapid expansion or chasing scale for its own sake. They’ve grown quickly in recent years, and for now, their focus is simpler: keep the gear fresh, keep the quality high, and keep delivering for their clients.