Coming up on 30 years in business, William Lee Agri in Co Fermanagh continues to provide the full range of services in farming and agriculture. Irish Tractor & Agri spoke to the man himself about his extensive Massey Ferguson fleet as well as the services they have to offer.
They do things right in Bellanaleck. That’s the impression you get from native William Lee when you speak to him about farming up there and what his business has to offer people immersed in the agriculture industry.
William Lee Agri has been operating since 1987, with much of its work being focussed in and around Co Fermanagh, where William had built a strong customer base thanks to the reliable and wide range of service that he provides to farmers in the Erne County.
“We’re based in Bellanaleck, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh,” William explained. “We’re established 28 years and we’ve three full-time staff, plus five part-time.
“I’m the owner of the company and my brother Raymond works on the farm here, which is 200 acres.”
Take into account the fact that William and his brother milk 160 cows on that farm and you can understand just how busy they are all year round. By adding his agri business into the mix, you are talking 12 months a year when you look at the list of services provided.
According to William, they do “everything” when it comes to agri.
“We do everything,” he confirmed. “We cut silage, do round baling, slurry, reseeding, digger work, hedge cutting and spread lime. If it’s to do with agri, then we probably do it.”
To be precise, the services list for William Lee Agri reads as follows: Grass/silage cutting, Round baling, Slurry spreading (umbilical/tankers), Ploughing, Reseeding, Muck spreading, Digging, Hedge cutting, Dump trailer hire, Teleporter/shovel hire and Tractor and driver hire.
With so much on offer, it’s hard to believe William when he says business is actually slow at this point in time. However, many in the agricultural sector are paddling on the same boat given the damp weather this past summer which has left silage cutters playing catch up all season.
“It’s very quiet at the minute actually,” he said. “The weather and the milk prices are a big factor in that. Lamb prices as well. The weather this summer has been very harsh on farmers, I must say. Hopefully it’ll improve but the summer is practically gone now anyway so maybe we’ll have a good autumn.”
For the most part, William and his staff take an all hands on deck approach each summer but this year has been different. He anticipates that things are set to pick up again very soon though, with services to suit all seasons for their customers.
“We are fairly busy all year round here,” he pointed out. “We’ve a lot of digger work which keeps us busy throughout the winter and then the summers are usually a hectic time for us, with cutting and spreading and things like that.”
William has an extensive fleet in order to take on the colossal annual work load. His first choice of tractor has always been the Massey Ferguson brand, which is understandable when you listen to him boast about their reliability
““You could say that I was just a farmer’s son and grew up on a dairy farm but my father had always used Massy Fergusons,” he said.
“I guess I grew up driving them and stuck with them when the time came to take on the business myself. At the moment all of my tractors are Massey Ferguson bar one John Deere. We have a good few here; 6280, a 6840, a 5480, a 6405, a 6499 and a 5470. The latest one that we bought was a 2015 7616 and it has been going great for us.
“My father always had faith in the Massy Ferguson brand and that’s why I chose them. They are an absolutely reliable brand and I buy them off William Bells in Five Mile Town here beside me.”
Again, with William Lee Agri you have to read down the list to get an idea of how much work silage their cutting, bales their baling, slurry their spreading etc.
With regards to Massey Fergusons the list is as follows: a 2004 6490, a 2005 6480, a 2005 6480, a 2008 6480, a 2002 6280, a 2002 4255, a 1997 399, a 1986 690, a 20157616 and a Harvester. The one John Deere tractor at the farm is a 6850.
William has two loaders; a 2003 Redrock TM300 and a 2005 Wieldmann 1460, and one excavator which is a 2006 Cat 414CL. With regards to machinery the list stretches long, with four furrow kuhn reversible plough, 3m heavy duty power harrow with 3m air seeder for one pass cultivation, 6m Einbuch grass seeder, Vicon 10 foot 6 inch trailed mower conditioner, Vicon 10 foot 6, inch rear mounted mower conditioner, Vicon 10 foot front mounted mower, 30 foot Kuhn rake.
Two Kane 15 foot silage trailers on 550 tyres, 2 Donnelly 13 and 14 foot silage trailers on 550 tyres Johnston 14 foot cattle/silage trailer make up the trailers that William has at his farm.
As regards balers, there’s no expense spared as William has invested in the following; a McHale Fusion round baler wrapper combo, Vicon 135 round baler, Vicon round bale wrapper, Slurry Kat umnilical slurry system with Doda pump, Redrock 2000 gallon recessed wheel tanker, Redrock 1600 gallon recessed wheel tanker, Abbey 9 ton multi spreader, 2 Redrock slurry pumps (high flow/ super flow), Spearhead hedge cutter and a Mixtech twin tub diet feeder.
With so much machinery at his disposal, it’s little wonder why William’s customers come to him first and you can expect the list to grow next year as he continues invest/back the success of his business.
William Lee
Bellanaleck
Enniskillen
Co. Fermanagh
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 2, February 2016
