As renowned agricultural machinery manufacturer Belmac Engineering prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2017, we travelled to the company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Belmont, County Offaly and had a chat with founder / proprietor Michael Gavin about the history and current well-being of this long-established, customer-focused operation.
Belmac Engineering was founded in 1987, initially to produce a range of grass toppers, and has grown steadily over the years, earning a solid reputation nationwide and beyond as an exceptional manufacturer of an array of high-quality agricultural machinery.
The wide range of machinery produced today includes everything from toppers, side spreaders and slurry tankers to agitators, post drivers, swart wilters, diet feeders, trail and shoe systems and grassland management systems (incorporating the Belmac Zero-Grazer).
Three decades on from the humble origins of his self-made business, owner Michael Gavin is pleased with how Belmac Engineering has performed over the years, going from strength to strength by providing farmers and contractors with high-quality and practical solutions.
“I’ve got a living out of it anyway and that’s all you can ask for, really,” he notes. “We keep adding new products to ensure that we have everything a customer could want. Low-emission slurry spreading equipment (which is grant-assisted) is the most recent addition to the range. We started doing them two years ago and they’ve been well received but we still do a lot of regular stuff as well – slurry tankers, vacuum tankers, rotary spreaders and grass toppers, diets feeders etc.
“There’s always a good stock of machinery here but a lot of them are also customised and built to order, depending on the customer’s individual requirements and specifications.”
As well as selling all over the island of Ireland, Michael has also exported machinery to Iceland, Holland and New Zealand. “The UK is my biggest export market, however,” he points out. “I’ve been exporting there for 23 years.”
Belmac Engineering continually invests in updating its production facilities, with the workshop area currently comprising some 17,000 sq ft. Production equipment on hand includes brake presses, guillotines, band saws, a plasma machine, welding plant and painting and finishing booth.
All products are built to the highest possible standards. For example, Belmac slurry tankers – available from 1,150 gallons to 3,000 gallons – are built with implosion rings to give maximum support and come with hydraulic brakes and lights as standard.
Meanwhile, Belmac toppers are ideally suited for cutting grass, forestry work and grass verges. Belmac manufacture a 5’6” semi-offset topper, 5’6” side-mounted topper, seven-foot side-mounted topper and an eight-foot trail topper. The Belmac trailed topper is a fully offset gear-driven machine, offset for working and folded into a neat transport width hydraulically and from the tractor seat. As the machine is fully offset, there is no trampling of the pasture prior to cutting. The absence of belts and pulleys means low maintenance and no adjustments, while the drive lane is totally enclosed by guards for added safety
The Belmac Zero-Grazer is designed to greatly improve farm efficiency, profitability and to reduce costs by promoting better grassland management, which leads to an increased volume of grass for feed (thereby reducing the volume of silage and other foodstuffs required). Available as mechanically- or hydraulically-operated, the Zero-Grazer is specifically designed for Irish conditions and is ideal for spring calving and liquid milk producers.
With thirty years of experience in agricultural machinery design and manufacturing, Michael Gavin knows a thing or two about trouble-shooting: “I’ve seen a lot of the potential problems that machinery can encounter along the way and it’s all about constantly trying to improve the products and make them better. We feel we have a very strong range of machinery here at the minute to serve both the Irish market and to try to break into more export markets. We have customers all over Ireland, from Kerry to Donegal, and nearly all of the machinery is sold directly to the end user.”
How difficult is it to strike that critical balance between price and quality? “We’re quite strong in both,” says the Offaly man. “We have a tight enough operation here and we try to manufacture a good product at the right price. Of course, there are always challenges in this line of business and unforeseeable events to deal with – like, who knows what Brexit is going to bring? The weak sterling certainly isn’t good for us and that’s a scenario that we couldn’t have predicted this time last year.”
Still, from a production and quality point of view, Belmac Engineering is in a very strong position going forward. “We have an excellent manufacturing facility with all the latest modern equipment in place and that’s crucial in this game,” Michael continues. “Continuous investment has stood to us and we are also very lucky with our staff, who are highly skilled and motivated and who have stuck with us. Having said that, there aren’t many young people coming into this line of work in Ireland anymore, which is going to present problems for all domestic machinery manufacturers somewhere down the line.”
Is Michael ever tempted to sell up shop and move to Las Vegas? “Ah, sure I’ll stick at it for another while,” he says. “There’s plenty of competition out there and it’s not an easy business but I’ve plenty of repeat business and I’ve seen a lot of competitors come and go over the years.
“We’re lucky in that we have something for every season and that keeps us busy all year around. We have the grass toppers and grassland management equipment for the summer, for example, and then you have the slurry tankers and agitators and rotary spreaders, etc. for the winter, so demand is fairly steady.”
The buck stops with Michael – who comes from a farming background himself – and there are no third parties involved. “We do everything ourselves in-house from start to finish and we deal directly with customers,” he confirms. “As we are in control of the entire process, we can turn the machinery around very quickly – a day or two for a slurry tanker and six or seven days for a Zero-Grazer. Customised tanks and industrial tanks could take up to a fortnight, but we will always offer customers prompt and cost-effective solutions.”
Belmac Engineering,
Clonbonniff,
Belmont,
County Offaly.
Tel: 090 6457319
Mobile: 086 8255220
Web: belmac.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 9, November/December 2016
