During the summer months, roads throughout Ireland are swamped with fleets of tractors.

However, the simple fact is that without agricultural contractors, the island of Ireland would come to a standstill as no grass grown or cut would leave cattle without fodder, milk quotas would drop, there would be a shortage of meat meaning prices would go up and so on. The truth is that the economy would effectively come to a standstill.

The role of the agricultural contractor cannot be underestimated and the majority of them provide a wide range of services to a customer base that generally has been with them for many years.

Farming is very much a family affair and generally it is handed down from generation to generation. Modern day farming techniques are a far cry from what used to go on in years gone by.

From a time when everything was hands on, the machinery available these days allows operators to get through at least ten times as much work on a daily basis.

Agricultural Contractors have benefitted greatly from the evolution of technology, but there is one thing that cannot be surpassed and that is experience.

Being able to know what a customer wants and giving them the service that they require cannot only be achieved through a modern fleet of machinery.

Quality of work and getting the job done on time are two traits that agri contractors must abide by and one firm that takes great pride in providing these is Tyrone based T Cassidy & Sons Agri Contracts.

For over 40 years, the Cassidy name has been synonymous with agricultural contracting as Tom Cassidy initially set up the business providing services to his neighbours in Augher. Through a great deal of hard work and adding to the services provided, the customer base grew over the years to what it is today.

Tom is still involved in the business, but the day to day running of the company has fallen to his son Andrew who has managed to continue his father’s ethos of ensuring customer satisfaction.

Committed to providing a top-class service and complete customer satisfaction, T Cassidy & Sons Agri Contracts has an array of machinery to carry out your work quickly and efficiently, providing you with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in your own expensive equipment.

The company’s success can be attributed to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its machinery. Andrew and Tom and their professional team deliver the value and quality farmers expect from the agricultural contracting partner.

Not only is the family run business silage harvesters, but they also do baling, muck spreading, slurry, while the operate two livestock trucks that draw pigs cattle and sheep to local factories.

When we caught up with Andrew, he revealed that they had just finished the first cut of silage and were starting on the second as the weather was mostly with them this year.

“The weather was ok, so we got through the first cut quickly enough, there were a few wet days, but you have to be prepared for them. Time is of the essence during the silage period and it’s a case of all hands on deck during that time,” said Andrew.

The contractor added that during the first cut, the majority of farmers want to silage harvested and not wrapped with Andrew and his team happy to do whatever the customer wants.

“You wouldn’t have much wrapping on the first cut, but there is a lot more done when the second cut comes around. The catchment area that we cover would only be a ten-mile radius, but we would have a lot of customers within that.”

To get through the workload during the summer months, Cassidy’s operate a Claas Jaguar 860 harvester, six Massey tractors and two JCB loaders.

“We would upgrade the fleet on a regular basis too. It is important to do that as the new machinery coming out can produce more than the older stuff.

“We bought a new 7718 this year. We would but all our Masseys from William Bell tractors. We would have a good relationship with them and have been dealing with them for years. My brother actually works there as well, which helps too,” joked Andrew.

Aside from the contracting services provided, the Cassidy family also farm themselves and they have a suckler herd on 140 acres of land.

“We are always kept busy here between the contracting, haulage work and farm, there is always something to be done. There are seven employed here during the peak seasons with many of those lads with us years. It is important to have a reliable work force especially in the summer months and we’re fortunate to have lads that we can rely on.”

T Cassidy & Sons Agri Contracts

Augher,

Co Tyrone

Tel: 077 03343240

Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 7, October/November 2017

T Cassidy & Sons Agri Contracts