Operating for 70 years, Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd continues to serve the needs of farmers all throughout the midlands and west of Ireland. Irish Tractor & Agri heard more about the family-run concern from one of its three directors, John Kennedy recently.
Business is good right now at Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd and the plan for brothers John, Pat and William is to keep things that way right through to 2021.
The company operates from Ballyforan on the Roscommon-Galway border, offering its customers a comprehensive agri contracting service which includes silage cutting, round baling, slurry spreading, ploughing, reseeding and plant hire.
It was first established by Tom Kennedy back in 1950 and run nowadays by his grandsons John Jnr and Tom Jnr.
They are joined in the business by 10 full-time staff, depending on what season it is.
A 1956 Major, which was the first tractor ever purchased by Tom Kennedy, continues to take pride of place in the yard, having been restored to its former glory by his grandsons a few years back.
Today the Kennedys operate with 13 tractors from their yard in Coolatubber and, according to John, 2020 has been a mixed bag for the company so far.
“It has been a hard enough year in that everything has either been very busy or completely dead,” he outlined.
“A lot of it is to do with the weather too, especially with the baling. We do about 50,000 bales annually and cut around 2,500 acres of silage.”
Since ‘Day One’, Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors has been committed to providing an unrivalled service and complete customer satisfaction.
The company has a wide range of machinery to carry out your work quickly and efficiently, providing you with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in your own expensive equipment.
To date, its success has been down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its equipment. The family business delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
This year the Kennedys added a new CLAAS Arion 660 to their fleet, as well as a CLAAS 2800 rake.
Out of the 13 tractors in the company’s fleet, nine of them are of the CLAAS brand.
“We’ve stuck with CLAAS down through the years and I suppose a lot of is down to the dealer we have near us here,”
“We go to Quigley’s Garage in Ballinasloe for our machines and we’ve always found them very reliable and their service brilliant.”
As it stands, Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors is operating with nine CLAAS tractors in its fleet; five 650s, a 620, 640, 660 and an 830. There are also two Massey Fergusons (7620 and 7496), a New Holland 7250 and a John Deere 6810 which has been going strong since 1999.
They’ve also added a Claas 860 Harvester and one Krone 420 Big M to the fleet.
All of the company’s machines are upgraded on a regular basis to avoid breakdowns and downtime, with the tractors usually being sent to Quigley’s Garage for servicing and maintenance.
The Kennedys are busy all year round with their agricultural contracting business. In the early part of the year, the focus is very much on slurry spreading.
The silage and baling season gets underway in May and runs until September. This is a particularly hectic time for the family who will work around the clock to keep their clients happy.
It’s followed in the autumn by more slurry spreading.
A second umbilical system was added this year, along with a second nurse tank, in order to keep up with customer demand.
The umbilical application system has many advantages over traditional tanker-based application methods, the main ones being it empties slurry tanks and lagoons much faster, reduces / eliminates soil compaction and reduces fuel consumption as the contractor is not constantly travelling from the yard to the field.
The Kennedys’ umbilical systems seem to be in high demand ever winter, especially when flooding hits the area.
One thing that is for sure is that the company’s customers always come first.
As John himself puts it, “we are there whenever they want us and we never let them down”.
For decades now, Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd has had a large and loyal customer-base within a 15-mile radius of Ballyforan.
“Our catchment area is from Ballinasloe across to Athlone and up to Roscommon town. We cover mainly cover Roscommon and Galway,” explained John.
He concluded by thanking those customers for their continued support:
“Some of them have been with us for 50 years. They have stayed loyal to us because we offer a professional, reliable and clean service at a competitive price. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their business and look forward to working for and with them for many more years to come.”
For all your agriculture contracting needs in the midlands and west, look no further than Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd.
Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd
Coolatubber,
Ballyforan,
Ballinasloe,
Co. Roscommon.
Telephone: 087 6222172 (John Jnr)
086 0678221 (Tom Jnr)
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 8 No 4, December 2020
