Specialising in precision chop pit silage, as well as providing a comprehensive range of other solutions including, straw baling and slurry speading, KMAC Agri Services is one of Meath’s premier agricultural contractors. We caught up with founder Kevin Meade at his Lobinstown base to find out more about his stunning fleet of machinery and the outstanding services provided.
For almost two decades, Kevin Meade has been offering exceptional contracting services to farmers across Meath and into neighbouring Louth and Dublin. Known far and wide for his ability to deliver unrivalled precision chop silage solutions using a Claas Jaguar 860 self-propelled harvester, 2015 model.” Kevin can get the job done quickly, efficiently and ultra-competitively.
Add in the vast range of other services provided – wagon pit silage; mowing, tedding, raking big square baling; slurry spreading and ploughing and sowing – and it’s not too difficult to see why KMAC Agri Services has been going from strength to strength since its inception almost a score of years ago.
Kevin was a young man when he ventured down the agri contracting path. Indeed, he’s still a young man so there’s little sign of his energy levels, enthusiasm and commitment to customer satisfaction diminishing. I interrupted his busy schedule on a beautiful summer’s evening in mid-May and asked was he enjoying the good weather. “It’s great. We have to make the most of it while it’s here,” he replied. In Ireland, weather is one thing we can’t depend upon.
However, farmers in the Royal County know they can count on KMAC Agri Services to look after their silage, slurry, baling, ploughing and sowing needs. “I was always into machinery and I suppose it was inevitable that I’d get involved in the contracting end of things,” says Kevin, reflecting on the genesis of his top-class operation. “I grew up on a family farm. We kept suckers and my father also did a bit of straw and baling. I was always interested in the tractors and I bought my first one 18 years ago, and built it up from there.
“My father [Colm Snr] was doing square baling and I started out doing mowing with the tractor and a ten-foot Kuhn mower. My brother [Colm Jnr] and cousin had started doing wrapping around the same time, so we were able to work together.
“I did that for a while and then got into silage. I started doing pit silage about eleven years ago.” Kevin bought a 1050 JF trailed harvester that year and did around 350-400 acres.
Today, KMAC’s four busiest areas are precision-chop silage; slurry; baling straw and ploughing and sowing. Kevin was one of the first contractors in the area to invest in an umbilical pipe system and he runs a couple of them now. “I’m running four square balers, including the two Krone 1290 pre-chops, which finely chop the straw. I was the first one in Ireland to buy one of those and there are still only three in the country at the moment. They’re in big demand with the farmers – no one else can chop the straw the way we can.
“They save the farmer time when mixing in the diet feeder. We got in ahead of the pack in providing this service four or five years ago and it’s one of the best moves we’ve made. We bought the first of those Krone high-speed balers in 2012 and added the second one last year; they bring us a lot of work.”
The superb square balers are very much at home in a truly striking fleet of machinery. For slurry, KMAC operates two umbilical pipe systems, comprising a twelve-metre dribble bar and nine-metre dribble bar with 4km of piping. Kevin also runs a 3,000-gallon Redrock tanker and a 2,500-gallon Hi Spec tanker. For slurry, he teams up with a couple of other local contractors, to provide the best-possible service.
For silage, Kevin has a vast array of equipment, including a 30-foot Kverneland 5090 triple-gang butterfly mower and a set of Krone 20-foot mowers, front and back. “In 2016, I bought a 50-foot Krone rake and I added a 30-foot Krone rake this year,” he continues. “I also have a 30-foot tedder for shaking it out and for lifting I have a Claas Jaguar 860 self-propelled harvester,
Kevin also runs two Redrock trailers – one 18ft and one 20ft – as well as a 20ft Broughan. Wagon silage: we use a new-generation Krone ZX 470 forage wagon for bringing in the grass, which is one of the biggest sold in Ireland, and we also have a Volvo L60H loader.” Also Kevin hires in other contactors with additional machines to help carry out the silage work.
The tractors are a sight to behold, none more so than the magnificent 2015 black-edition Deutz Warrior 7250, which is genuinely one of a kind – an absolute stunner. Kevin also runs an array of Case CVXs, from 2002-reg to 2009. These include a 2002 CVX 170 – the first one he bought – and an ’02 CS 130 as well as an ’05 1190, ‘07 195, ‘07 1195, 08 195 and an ’09 195.
By providing such a wide range of services, Kevin is busy pretty much all year around. December is really the only quiet month, so – as well as serving all the equipment – he gets an opportunity to wind down and spend some quality time with his family. As for the challenges facing a contractor in 2017, he notes:
“Weather is obviously one of the biggest ones and there’s not much you can do about that. If you have good weather, then you’d have an easy time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out like that but the machinery we have is well capable of doing a lot of work fast and to a high standard, which is exactly what the farmer wants. We have a lot of dairy men around us here and we look after them as best we can and get a lot of repeat business from them, which is obviously important.
“Our aim is to be reliable and it’s all about teamwork and having a good workforce because the last thing a farmer wants to see is a lad coming in and not doing the job properly. They need you to be reliable and we have great staff here to ensure that.”
Full-time work is generated for five men out of the yard all year around as well as subcontract work to some local contractors and two or three casual labourers during the summer.
Complementing the professional labour, the superb fleet is very much at the heart of KMAC Agri Services. Needless to say, the tractors and machinery are maintained in immaculate condition to ensure optimal performance. “We do most of the maintenance in-house but the fact that the majority of the machinery is three-four-years-old or fresher keeps our maintenance payments down,” says Kevin.
“So you have finance payments instead of maintenance payments and you keep upgrading and improving your equipment because you simply can’t afford a breakdown. It’s a two-way relationship: the farmer needs the contractor as much as we need him, and we’re going to continue to make sure he’s looked after properly.”
KMAC Agri Services
Brownstown,
Lobinstown,
Navan,
County Meath.
Tel: 086 8594980 / 087 6709264
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 5, July/August 2017
