Maher AGRI Services Contracting in County Kilkenny boasts the experience, expertise, magnificent fleet of machinery and dedicated personnel to provide a high-quality service that’s quite simply second to none. We travelled to Callan and met up with Liam Maher to get the lowdown on this exceptional third-generation family operation.
Possessing all the attributes that are essential to ensure a superb service at all times, Maher AGRI Services Contracting in Callan, County Kilkenny guarantees complete customer satisfaction across a wide range of contracting services. The Maher family has been providing keen contracting solutions to a host of satisfied customers for many years, nay decades, and today they continue to offer a wide range of services that is unrivalled in Leinster.
At the heart of the operation is a superb fleet of machinery, which is updated regularly to ensure optimal performance and preserved in pristine condition at all times. Of course, this machinery would be worthless without the right personnel to operate it and the Mahers have never been found wanting when it comes to professionalism, dedication, competence or experience. These men live for the land.
The third generation of the family – Liam and Sean – have come on board to maintain Maher AGRI’s proud legacy of quality contracting in Kilkenny and beyond and their enthusiasm for farm work is infectious, suggesting that Maher AGRI Services Contracting will remain an integral feature of the agricultural landscape on Noreside for many generations to come.
Reflecting on the genesis and current well-being of the operation, Liam Maher notes: “My grandfather John Maher would have set the business up many years ago. He was the first in the family to offer a contracting service and my father Willie then followed him into contracting. Dad took over the business and myself and Sean are also involved now. The three of us work full time and we’d also bring in a few lads to do seasonal work during the peak season. During the summertime, we could have anything from one to six additional lads involved and we have one man who has been with us for 40-years.
“My mother Joan also does a lot of work on the farm and takes care of the books.”
A wide and varied range of services is provided. Slurry is one of Maher AGRI’s specialities and their rapid and affordable umbilical system is extremely popular across County Kilkenny and much further afield. Other expert services provided include – but are by no means limited to! – silage, tilling, corn cutting, baling and wrapping, and hedge cutting.
As well as contracting, the Mahers also oversee their own farm, so there’s plenty to be doing morning, noon and night, seven days a week, 365 days of the year! Their own dairy farm has 80 head of cows at present, while they also rent an additional 200 acres for tillage in the Kilkenny area. Never a quiet moment, then, and the stunning fleet of tractors and agricultural machinery certainly won’t gather dust…
The fleet in question comprises nine tractors in total – six John Deeres and three New Hollands, the latest addition being a second-hand New Holland purchased in 2013. The Mahers do all the maintenance and servicing themselves as well as minor repair jobs, while local mechanic Mikey Dunphy – who formerly worked in Comerfords Garage (main John Deere dealer) – handles the bigger jobs.
In addition to the nine tractors, Maher AGRI also operate two New Holland combines, a JCB loader, a Claas silage harvester, a baler and McHale wrapper, two slurry tankers, a hedge cutter, four Dooley Bros silage trailers and one Red Rock, a Samson dung spreader and the aforementioned umbilical piping system. They also own and operate a nine-metre specialised lagoon agitator.
All the equipment is maintained in superb nick… “We keep it all in the best condition we possibly can and we have a policy of replacing everything as and when we need to. There’s no place in this business for a machine that isn’t pulling its weight or paying its way,” Liam says.
Long hours are involved, especially for the slurry work, which can require travelling substantial distances. “You could travel for up to three hours in a tractor, from Callan into Kildare or Tipperary,” Liam confirms. “The umbilical system and dribble bar are very popular and you go wherever the work is. The slurry keeps us going all year around. Most of the other work would be all in the Kilkenny area and we’ll be getting a lot busier now coming into the summer with silage and corn etc.”
Once a quality service is provided on time and at a reasonable rate, there’s always a good chance that the customer will call back. Maher AGRI Services Contracting has benefited from a tremendous amount of customer loyalty over the years, with some of the customer base stretching back across three generations.
“There would be families there that my grandfather worked for and we are still working for those families today,” Liam confirms. “It’s all about service. We give a good service and we do good work. We also have good machines that can handle any job. The bottom line is that if you do a good job then generally you will hold onto work.”
Looking to the future, Liam can’t see the Maher family straying too far from the path that has served them so well in the past. “We won’t be giving it up,” he concludes. “As long as there is demand for our work, we will be here to provide a good service. It seems to be going well for the time being at least.
“We’re picking up a bit of new work each year and getting busier. As long as we can stay busy, that’s the main thing. On the domestic front, we’d also hope to go up to 100 or 120 cows and expand the farming end of it too. Myself and my brother intend to stay at home long term, so we’re going to build up the family farm as well.”
With that, Liam Maher proffered a firm handshake and went back to work, alongside brother Sean and dad Willie, maintaining a proud family tradition…
Maher Agri Services
Tullamaine,
Callan,
Co. Kilkenny
Tel: 086 8313560
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 3, April 2015
