Nine-year-old Jack recently went on the Talley’s pea run, and got to see how the peas are harvested, how they are transported, and what happens at the factory.

I went with my friend’s grandad, Greg, to do the Talley’s pea run in a 2018 R480 Scania.

We went down to a farm in Rakaia for the pea harvest. We worked with a harvester, a John Deere tractor towing a chaser bin, and some other Scania trucks. It was muddy!

The harvester picks up the whole plant and shreds it through until it’s just the peas – the rest comes out the back and lands in the paddock. The harvester drops the peas into the chaser bin and then the John Deere takes them to one of the trucks. The John Deere gets very close up to the truck and then the hydraulics push the chaser bin up to drop the peas into the back of the truck. Then the load of peas is ready to go to the factory.

Next, we headed down to the Talley’s factory. At the weighbridge, we got weighed, then a computer records which truck we were in, what we were carrying and who was the driver.

Greg backed up and tipped the load of peas into the hopper ready to go into the factory and be bagged up to be sold in shops in New Zealand and around the world.

Finally, we washed the dusty and muddy truck. Today was a great day in the Scania R480. I would love to do it again.