2007 John Deere Forestry Press Releases

John Martin, John Deere Forestry Consultant, and Bill Britt, Territory Manager, JDE Equipment, presented Crawford with the gold key in front of one of his 748H skidders, which was on display at the show. They also presented him with a commemorative plaque, as well as plaques he can mount on each of his skidders.

In April, Crawford participated in a customer Fly In where he had a chance to visit the Dubuque and Davenport factories to observe how his machines were made firsthand. “It was really interesting,” said Crawford. “I’d like to go back and see it all again in slow motion. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and informative.”

Located in Hillman, Michigan, Crawford Forest Products is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Primary Power International. The company supplies energy wood for the Hillman Power Company and surrounding wood-fire power plants. It also provides total tree harvesting for a full line of logs, including grade logs, as well as processing wood chips and flail chips.

Crawford believes the new Deere machines will allow him to achieve the same amount of productivity as before, but with fewer machines and operators. The machines’ superior fuel efficiency will also help Crawford reduce daily operating costs.

"In today’s market, one of the biggest things that is killing us is fuel prices," he says. "The direct drive transmission on the skidders should save us 10 to 15 percent on fuel, and that’s major dollars. Plus the 748Hs are larger, which gives us more volume per drag, so our cost per ton will be better at the end of the day."

Another key reason Crawford decided to switch to Deere is its unsurpassed reliability and dealer support. "Downtime is another killer," says Crawford. "We spoke with a number of other producers, and we’ve heard nothing but good things about JDE service and support. John Deere and their dealer network are very committed to keeping us up and running."