Farm To Fleet – the Story of Agrihire

From humble beginnings on a Maitland farm to a dynamic enterprise serving clients across multiple states, Agrihire is revolutionising agricultural equipment hire.

IT’S A QUESTION MANY FARMERS may have asked, what do you do with equipment that’s used only once or twice a year?

For Sam and Brahm Osborn, the answer was to start their own hire business.

The Osborns are lucerne hay farmers from Maitland in the NSW Hunter Valley. They purchased their farm 10 years ago and like most farmers, owned machinery and equipment that was used only for seasonal tasks.

“It means you’ve outlayed for an asset that’s not used on a regular basis,” says Sam, “so, that’s where the idea of hiring out our equipment came from.”

After looking around and discovering, no-one else was hiring niche agricultural machinery, they decided it was an avenue they wanted to explore and in June 2023, Agrihire was launched.

At the time, Brahm was working full-time off-farm as the branch manager for the local John Deere dealership. Sam was managing the farm and raising their two young children but had previously worked in administration and recruitment.

It was the perfect combination of experience and expertise to get the business up and running.

They started with a fleet of around 30 pieces of equipment they already owned and the business quickly grew in both scale and ambition.

“Sam got the Agrihire website cracking and all of a sudden, we’ve got gear going all over the country,” says Brahm.

Initially, their target were small hobby farmers — the ‘weekend warriors’ — looking for small tractors and other equipment, however, it’s been commercial, government and council customers where they’ve experienced growth.

“Our ability to react has been our biggest strength,” says Brahm. “We had a council ask for a machine and within two days, we’d purchased the machine, registered it and it was onsite.”

Sam agrees. “We’re in touch with our customers, what they need and what’s coming up,” she says. “That’s allowing us to grow the fleet with our customers in mind.”

Their fleet has now grown to over 80 pieces of equipment, ranging from

specialized hay mowers to a variety of tractors and commercial mowing machines. One of their items is a specialised mower conditioner which cuts, processes and conditions the hay, helping it dry quicker. According to Brahm, it’s been a ‘hot property’ item.

Brahm has also left his job to work full-time in the business. “The business grew a lot faster than we thought it would so that’s given me the ability to jump into the business full-time,” he says.

“I absolutely love working in my own business.”

The Agrihire team is currently small, with a mechanic employed one week per month to service and maintain the equipment. They also rely on a small core group of casual staff. They’re now looking to build their team so they can grow and offer more equipment to their customers.

There are also no plans to relocate the business away from their farm.

“Agrihire complements our farm really well at the moment as we’ve got the ability to tap in from the farm side to help out when we’re under the pump,” says Sam. “

“It’s also given us a different relationship and connection with our customers because once people realise you’re a farmer too, it opens up the relationship straight away.”

With the business located on the farm, their children, Dallas (11) and Talia (9), have taken an active interest in helping out (by washing machinery) and learning about the business.

“The kids are now saving up to buy their own piece of equipment to add to the fleet,” says Sam. “It’s their goal — so they’re very focused on the business, although maybe a little too much!”

While they are relative newcomers to the hire industry, the Osborns have actively sought out support and learning opportunities. They joined the HRIA almost immediately and found that the knowledge and information the association offered was “great for the newbies”.

“Since then, everybody has been extremely approachable,” says Sam. “We attended our first Hire Convention in 2024 and were blown away by the industry.

“Hire is very much about collaboration not competition, which is unlike anything we’ve seen in any other industry.”

Sam has also participated in the HRIA’s Women in Hire professional development program.

“I was nervous going into that being such a small player,” she says. “But I thought I’m just going to give it a crack…and I’m really happy I stepped in. It’s been fantastic.”

It’s been an extraordinary three years for the Osborns, driven primarily by word-of-mouth and while they admit they never expected such demand at the beginning, their adaptability and focus on customer service has paid off.

“Back in 2023, I never dreamed our equipment would be all over Australia,” says Sam. “It was always the long-term goal to grow but to see our machinery on the map in three different states, it’s pretty cool.”

As for the future, with the cost of agricultural machinery and equipment rising, they believe the ag-hire market will only continue to grow.

“Of course, we definitely have ideas for the future to grow the fleet, especially in the niche equipment that people don’t use often but is a game changer for them when they do,” says Sam. “But we’re only two-and-a-half years in and have already experienced significant growth.

“For now, we want to control and plan for our future.”