This year’s summer has made life very difficult for farmers and agricultural contractors to get their work done as wet conditions make it virtually impossible to carry out their duties.
It can be a frustrating time for everyone involved in the farming community, but for S O’Rawe & Sons Plant Hire, it’s just a case of getting on with things.
This business based in Ballycastle, Co Antrim was established by Stephen O’Rawe in 1997, who despite having no farming background decided to go into agricultural contracting.
These days, Stephen is joined in the business by his three sons Stephen and Ciaran who are both full time and Ryan who is still in college.
S O’Rawe & Sons Plant Hire provide a wide range of services to a large customer base from providing services in agricultural contracting to plant hire work.
“Basically, anything involving a tractor and trailer and we will do it,” said Stephen. “We cover all aspects of agricultural contracting, excavator works as well as tractor and trailer works,” said Stephen.
“I had been working for a plant hire company for about 12 years and I decided I wanted to start my own business, so I bought a tractor and started off doing a bit of slurry. As I built up the machinery, so too did the range of services that we provide.
“Slurry spreading would be a big part of our business and we have a slurry buggy for that. We upgrade the machinery on a regular basis and recently bought a New Holland T6080 from Sean McGill Tractors. We would do some maintenance work ourselves, but generally the machinery goes back to the dealer that we bought them from.
“The oldest tractor we have is a New Holland 8360 which is 15 years old and has 13,000hrs on it, but is still running perfectly.”
The O’Rawe’s do some silage work as well as other services for farmers, while in the plant hire end of the business, they have a wide range of diggers (3), dump trailers (2) and other accessories.
“We would do a lot of work for two builders mainly, A McHenry Construction and Shane McNeill Construction, while we have just started a job in Coleraine for a new client.
“We go where the work is, but the contracting is generally local enough. My son Stephen is on the digger the whole time, while Ciaran looks after the agri side of the business. We are generally busy all year round with one thing or another.
“I’d like to thank all our customers for their support over the years and hopefully we can continue working together for many years to come.”
S O’Rawe & Sons Plant Hire
25 Torr Road,
Ballyvoy,
Ballycastle,
Co Antrim.
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 7, August 2015
