Agricultural contractors play a massive part in the farming community as their services allow work to be done, without costing farmers huge amounts in having to invest in the machinery necessary to complete these tasks.

For each activity, different machinery is needed and such is the cost of the various equipment that it just wouldn’t make any sense for a farmer to invest in these.

So, all turn to agricultural contractors and the services provided by these allows farmers have the peace of mind in the knowledge that the work will be carried out to the highest standard.

Agricultural contractors are from a farming background and they more than anyone know the importance of getting the work done on time. From spreading slurry, to ploughing, sowing, harvesting, baling, silage and every other areas associated with farming, the time constraints in the industry are some of the most stringent ever seen.

For this month’s edition of Irish Tractor & Agri, we profile a family run Agricultural Contracting business who share with us their experiences of what it takes to be a success in this industry.

Gamble Brothers based in Ballymoney, Co Antrim is run by three brothers Johnny, Ivor and Andrew Gamble who have spent their entire lives involved with the farming community.

The brothers offer a wide range of services to an extensive customer base and these include, slurry and farmyard manure spreading, ploughing, sowing, round baling, silage, hedge cutting and every other task carried out on farms.

Not only that but Gamble Brothers dabble in a little haulage work as well and they have two trucks on the road at present, both involved in sub-contracting work of the renowned haulage firm McBurney Transport.

“We have been operating as Agricultural Contractors for a number of years now. We also farm our own land at home, so we have a good knowledge of the industry and the experience gathered over the years has helped us a lot,” said Johnny.

“A full range of services are provided and during peak times which is during the summer, there would be about 15 employed here, while out of season, there are six lads here full time.”

Johnny revealed that they are kept busy all year round and even in the quiet times, there is still plenty of work to do. “The last month or so would have been quiet enough, but this is when we do a lot of maintenance work on the machinery and ensure that it is in perfect working order ahead of the busier times.

“You can’t be landing in to do a job for a farmer and then breakdown. They will not put up with that if it was happening on a regular basis, but thankfully, it rarely happens to us.

“We would do the majority of maintenance work ourselves, but some is subbed out, while it is important to keep the fleet of machinery fairly fresh, so we try to upgrade as often as possible. There are big outlays in this business and every decision has to be taken with an air of caution.”

Johnny added that they are fortunate to have a loyal customer base, many of who have been giving them their business for many, many years.

“A lot of the custom we have would be repeat. There are some lads there that we would be doing work for the past 20-25 years. They know that we provide a good service and if we didn’t, they wouldn’t be long telling us,” he joked.

“We would operate in a radius of 20 mile around Ballymoney, so that sees us cross the border into Derry for some of our work. We’re fortunate to have such a good customer base and I’d like to thank them for the business that they have given us over the years.”

Gamble Bros have recently returned to spreading slurry following the winter ban that has been in place for the past few years, but Johnny feels that this is an unnecessary legislation.

“There is no logic to the slurry ban over the winter months. It is aimed at preserving the land and not having it destroyed, but who is to say the Spring won’t be wetter than the winter. You just never know with the climate here, so to have a ban just doesn’t make sense.”

Three years ago, in a bid to diversify away from farming in some way, a decision was made to invest in some trucks and Johnny states that Ivor is looking after this side of the business.

“Ivor has the operator’s licence so it was decided that it should be used and it was something to fall back on in the quiet times, but it is going really well now and we do work for McBurneys.”

Johnny concluded that they are pleased with the direction that the business is currently heading and although there are no plans to expand, it was something that they weren’t ruling out altogether.

“Our busy period is starting shortly and we will go where the work is. We are happy with the customer base that we have and even though we are not actively seeking more work, we won’t turn it down if it comes our way. As long as we can continue to provide the level of service that our customers are used too, then there should be no problems at all.”

Gamble Bros
27 Drumlee Road,
Ballymoney,
Co Antrim,
Tel: (028) 27662379

Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 2, March 2015

Agricultural Contractors, Gamble Bros