Operating out of Redhills in County Cavan, Harefort Ltd. offers a professional and dependable dead animal collection service. We met up with Colm Mulvaney to find out more about the prompt, humane, fully-certified and cost-effective services provided.
For professional, no-nonsense fallen animal collection that offers farmers unbeatable service levels with a minimum of fuss and maximum convenience, Harefort Ltd. – fronted by Colm Mulvaney – ticks all the boxes.
A prompt, personal, affordable and fully-licensed service is offered for the daily collection of dead, sick or injured cattle, sheep or horses across a wide catchment area comprising Cavan and surrounding counties.
Colm goes out of his way to ensure that every animal is treated with the utmost compassion whilst also adhering strictly to all prevailing hygiene, Health & Safety and legislative requirements.
With three decades of experience in the specialist area of dead animal collection, Colm provides a humane and understanding euthanasia service for sick or injured animals, which are put to sleep, collected and disposed of in a professional and fitting manner.
As well as Harefort Ltd., the Cavan man also runs a 60-unit suckler enterprise – so he had plenty to be keeping him busy from one day to the next!
We interrupted his busy schedule to get an insight into the history and current well-being of the business. Having spent some time working in local factories, Colm – who comes from a farming background – started out with a small shed / plant, which he has developed gradually over the years into an excellent, fully-documented and –licensed premises.
Eight counties are covered on a regular basis – Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Donegal, Louth and parts of Meath while Colm – who is assisted in the running of the business by his wife, Regina – has five vehicles on the road … a mixed fleet of Iveco and Isuzu.
The most recent addition to the hard-working, immaculately-maintained fleet is a 131-registration Iveco, which was purchased brand-new four years ago. Featuring a nice clean aluminium body with roll-over cover, it’s fully leak-proof, which is extremely important in this particular line of work.
“When you have trucks with good stainless steel bodies, they should last for up to 15 years,” he states.
We spoke to Colm shortly before Christmas and he admitted that things were pretty hectic at the time: “We’re very busy alright. From now until May would be our busiest time, with a lot of calving etc. taking place.”
How exactly does the service work? “The farmer calls us [contact must be made within 24 hours of the death of the animal] and we then log him into the system and the information is passed onto our drivers. As well as our own team, we also use a few other subcontracted hauliers,” Colm notes. “The animal is taken back to our plant and anything over four years old is BSE-tested. The hide is removed and the waste goes to College Proteins.”
Colm operates a dedicated 40-foot trailer specifically to bring this waste to College Proteins Ltd’s rendering plant in Nobber, County Meath.
Obviously, Health & Safety is paramount in everything Harefort Ltd. does, while compassion and care for animals – be they terminally ill, worn out, injured or dead – is also important. A little bit of consideration goes a long way.
“This is particularly important when it comes to the euthanasia of animals,” Colm continues. “All of our staff do a course in putting down animals and you really have to do it with compassion. That’s a very important factor as the farmer doesn’t want to see his animal suffering, so we make sure to treat every horse, sheep and cow properly.”
The business has been performing well over the past 30 years and Colm has no plans for any radical changes of direction or new departures. Instead, he is going to focus on doing what he does best – providing one of the most dependable fallen animal collection services on the island.
“I’ll just keep going the way I am going,” he confirms. “It’s big enough so I won’t be going around trying to expand the business or anything. I’m happy with the way things are.”
Dead animal collection is something that the Mulvaney family is synonymous with; Colm’s brother Kevin runs K&C Mulvaney, which provides an outstanding service covering the west of Ireland.
Running a herd of 60 sucklers on some 150 acres of land ensures that the Cavan man is never stuck for something to do. “Everything is positive and I can have no complaints,” he concludes. “I’ll just concentrate on continuing to provide the best possible service and making sure that my customers receive the level of care and attention that they deserve.”
Harefort Ltd.,
Kilduff,
Redhills,
County Cavan.
Tel: 049 4338133
Fax: 049 4338932
Mobile: 086 3890479
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 5, July/August 2017
