For over 30 years A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors has developed an excellent reputation for providing its customers in the West of Ireland with a top class agri contracting service. We at Irish Tractor & Agri spoke to John Joe Walsh who informed and outlined how this exceptional family run business has now stretched in to its third generation.
A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors was set up over 60 years ago by Andy Walsh and from then the business has gone from strength to strength with a fleet of nine tractors to keep up with the demand of its clientele all year round covering a wide area of Mayo, Galway and Roscommon farmers.
Andy’s son John Joe has been immersed in the family business all of his working life and explained the ins and outs of the company.
“We are based in Turin, Kilmaine, County Mayo and the business would have originated with my father 60 years ago,” John Joe explained.
“A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors started as a company in 1987 and now there is three generations of the family in this business with my son Sean which is the latest Walsh to join the crew at A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors and as we approach summer I will need all the help I can get.”
The summer season is fast approaching and as always A & JJ Walsh Agri Contactors who is based in Kilmaine, County Mayo is getting well prepared for whatever is going to be thrown their way over the next couple of months.
By early May, it will be all shoulders to the wheel as the needs of our clients will have to be satisfied especially as the long evenings will be in full swing.
Silage, Baling and Re-Seeding are the main jobs which will be covered from May to September and as such A & JJ Walsh Agri have to employ more people to cope with the serious demand of their clients. Staff numbers change from time to time especially in the summer. It normally is three in the winter with anything up to 10 people in the summer.
“Although we have to employ people it is still very much a family business as my father Andy got the business set up and he still is very much involved in the running of it. My brother Padraic is also involved with myself and my son Sean so it’s a three generation set up.
“Summer time is the most hectic time of the year and as such we have to employ more people to cope with the demands of our customers which could lead up to an extra 10 lads being employed during the summer as all our tractors would be working.
“We like to provide a good fast and efficient service to our customers at all times and the key to that is to be able to meet each and every demand our customers expect of us with the minimum of delay. “Most people think when the summer season is over we would be quite but its busy all year round with other services been provided.”
As well as having the contracting business, A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors also have a family farm to run which keeps us busy all year round.
At the moment, they are farming about 350 acres which is combined of owned and rented land. They also have 65 suckler cows and beef cattle along with that.
From the beginning of the year in the agri contracting end, sees the slurry season starting which moves on very quickly to fertiliser spreading, lime spreading, ploughing and re-seeding.
Then, as the summer season approaches, its pit silage and round bales of silage with slurry active again after the silage is cut. Re-seeding starts again from July to September. Lime spreading, digger work and hedge cutting also keeps the work going all year round.
Three family members have come on board with Andy and business has continued to be very good as A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors have very loyal customers who have been with them since Andy was on his own. They provide an array of services for their entire client’s contracting needs.
John Joe explained: “We cover over a 30 mile radius and a lot of our customers would have been dealing with my father when he was on his own. I suppose the reason why customers continue to choose us before other contractors is that we provide good quality service in the fastest possible time and we are grateful for their business.
“As such, we are always thinking of how to provide and improve our services to our customers, therefore our brains never go to sleep, they are always active and thinking of more opportunities of how to improve on our service.
“Range and quality are two excellent traits to possess for any agri contracting outfit and they are part of the reason why A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors has unearthed such a glowing reputation for itself.”
Add to the top class fleet which they are operating with and you would understand why this company has now entered its third generation of agri contracting.
The prognosis and likelihood of this company given its current form will see A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors entering its fourth generation somewhere down the line and growing and swelling its fleet numbers along the way.
For now, however, the Walsh family is happy to be operating a fleet of nine tractors with three new inclusions recently.
John Joe added: “It’s continuously progressing and we are updating it every year. We have nine tractors at the moment and three of those would be Claas Tractors which we bought on stream last year. We also updated our New Holland forage harvester recently and have two McHale Fushion Balers so we are happy at what we have at the moment here.”
Overall it seems that A & JJ Walsh Agri Contractors clients are quite content as well John Joe.
A&JJ Walsh Agri Contractors
Turin,
Kilmaine,
Co Mayo
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 3, April/May 2017
