47 tonne J&M X-Tended Reach Grain Cart at Farm Progress in Boone, Iowa.
The Universal Farming Services story with J&M Manufacturing began more than 16 years ago — and a long way from home.
After more than six years of the Millennium Drought had taken its toll on farming in northern Victoria, the Chirnside family made the bold decision to pack their machinery into shipping containers and establish a farming operation in southern Ukraine.
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While farming there in late 2009, in a region now under Russian occupation, Louis Chirnside attended the Kyiv Agricultural Show.
It was there that he came across the first J&M chaser bin ever exported outside the United States.
He immediately loved the simplicity of the machine, particularly J&M’s gravity-flow design, which eliminated the need for a cross auger.
It was simple, practical engineering that made sense from a farmer’s point of view.
That chance encounter in Ukraine led Universal Farming Services to become the J&M dealer for Australia and New Zealand in 2010.
Sixteen years later, we are still importing and supporting J&M equipment, with approximately 190 J&M chaser bins now working across every state in Australia.
J&M Manufacturing, based in Fort Recovery, Ohio, in the heart of the American Midwest, has continued to develop its range while retaining the practical, heavy-duty engineering that first caught our attention all those years ago.
As farmers ourselves, that remains important to us. We don’t just sell the equipment — we use J&M bins in our own harvest operation and understand what Australian growers expect from machinery when harvest is in full swing.
This year we returned to the Midwest, visiting J&M and attending the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, to see the company’s latest generation of products firsthand.
We are particularly excited about the new 1,732-bushel, approximately 47-tonne tandem-steer grain cart, which we plan to bring to Australia in 2027.
With its tandem steering, structural design and latest technology, we believe it will be one of the most structurally and technologically advanced grain carts available to Australian growers.
From a drought-driven move from northern Victoria to southern Ukraine, to a chance discovery in Kyiv, J&M’s home in Ohio and now nearly 190 machines working across Australia, it has been an incredible 16-year partnership — and we’re excited about what comes next.
Come and see Universal Farming Services and J&M at Site 1520.
31 tonne J&M Gravity Cart in action Quambatook, Victoria.
