Gerry Burke Agri & Plant Hire has earned itself a solid reputation over the past 30 years as a leading outfit in its field out west. Irish Tractor & Agri felt it was time to catch up with the man himself to find out more about the company.
These may be testing times for the farmer but Gerry Burke Agri & Plant Hire in Co Clare are still providing them with a terrific service at a very reasonable cost.
The family run company has been doing so since 1986 and has gained some very loyal customers in the process all throughout the Banner County.
Gerry Burke is Managing Director of the business and gave us a bit of insight into what they do, along with the impressive New Holland fleet they’re operating with.
“We’re based in Tullabrack, Cooraclare, Co Clare and the company would be established over 30 years now,” explained Gerry.
“We’d have seven or eight lads working here for the busy part of the year but there are four right now, my brother Kevin’s also involved. The name of the business is Gerry Burke Agri and Plant Hire.”
The agri contracting end of the business dates back to the days when Gerry’s father did some hedge-cutting.
The family business simply evolved from there and for Gerry himself it’s an occupation he has been in all of his working life.
“My father used to always do a bit of agri work like hedge-cutting and that, so I suppose that’s how I would have got into it,” he said.
“It’s hard work but I enjoy it even though it can be tough at times, especially depending on the weather and you have to be on the ball for your customers.”
The work carried out at Gerry Burke Agri & Plant Hire isn’t agriculturally based entirely.
While they do specialise in many of the aspects of agricultural contracting, they have also been known to carry out work for the Clare County Council on past occasions.
“We specialise in silage cutting, baling and pit silage and I’d also do some site work for the County Council,” Gerry outlined.
“We have machinery here from three to 20 tonnes and we do some slurry spreading as well. This is our third year now since we started with umbilical system for our slurry spreading and we’ve really been concentrating on that since we started it.”
Thus far, things have been running smoothly since the decision to invest in an umbilical system for their spreading, although Gerry openly admits that business overall could be better.
Weather has played its part, as well as farmers getting it tough in general at the current time.
“This year was quiet enough because of the fact that the weather was quite mixed,” he said. “Councils are not doing as much as they used to either, so it is tough – there’s no doubt about that – but you get on with it.
“Right now we’re working on new offices for the council which is keeping us busy. We have two 13-tonne machines down there at it, so we’re focused on that.”
Gerry and co rarely stray outside Clare when it comes to their work, having established a bond with their clientele which stretches back three decades ago when his father was first up and running.
“All the work that we do would be inter-county and down through the years I would have picked up a few very genuine customers,” he pointed out.
“This is a crazy business to be in at times, but you always have to keep your customers satisfied and I think we do that here.”
Why do they choose you first above other competitors?
“I think it’s just because of the confidence that they have in us,” replied the MD.
“We have built up trust with them down through the years and we are known for being very reliable in the work that we do. When we say we’re going to be there at such a time, we’ll be there.”
On the machinery end, Gerry has been putting his trust into New Holland tractors in more recent years.
“We have a variety of different tractors here and a few them would be New Hollands. Last year we bought a 7200 and I’ve two of them now along with 2008 and 2005 Massey Fergusons.
“We have a John Deere as well and the rest are all New Hollands, so there are nine tractors here in total.”
New Holland are a brand that Gerry has grown more fond of lately and has a developed healthy working relationship with his dealer, which sees him travelling all the way to Offaly for a new machine.
“I find them to be better value for money, to be honest,” he said. “We’ve always had different kinds of tractors around here but in the last couple of years I’ve been buying New Hollands and have had no problems.
“We’ve a good relationship with our New Holland dealer up in Tullamore, Billy Shaw, and it’s a far enough trek to travel but he gives us good deals on our tractors.”
McHale is another globally recognised brand that Gerry Burke Agri & Plant Hire have put their trust in, along with Hitachi diggers.
“We’ve McHale balers that we’d be very happy with – two of them are Fusions and another would be a standard baler,” Gerry stated.
“On diggers, I’d be going with Hitachi and we’d be inclined to do some digger work, especially during the winter. Altogether there are four Hitachis here.”
With 2017 just around the corner, the focus for this time of year for Gerry Burke Agri & Plant Hire will be to get their diggers ready for the winter season.
“Ground work will be the biggest thing for me now for the second-half of the year, so hopefully we can stay busy at that,” Gerry concluded.
Gerry Burke Agri & Plant Hire
Tullabrack,
Cooraclare,
Kilrush,
Co. Clare
Tel: 087-2584414
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 2, March 2017
