From their Donohill, County Tipperary base, Green Line Agri & Plant Services have been providing customers across the Premier County with unrivaled contracting services for the past 20 years. We caught up with proprietor Darren Leopold to find out more about this exceptional enterprise, which runs a stunning fleet of tractors and machinery to get every job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Wicklow native Darren Leopold started agri contracting in County Tipperary when he was 21 years old. Since Green Line Agri & Plant Services’ inception at Donohill, near Tipperary town, in 1999, the Deutz-powered business has developed into a truly market-leading operation, providing outstanding services to a host of loyal and satisfied customers.
A fleet of five Deutz-Fahr tractors and one Lamborghini is at the heart of the long-running business, supplemented by a wide range of magnificent machines tailored towards ensuring the consistent delivery of excellent silage, slurry and plant hire services.
“I would have been farming at the home place in Arklow and came here originally to serve an apprenticeship before I got working with local contractors,” Darren recounts. “Before long, I decided to go at it by myself.”
It was an inspired move. Green Line Agri & Plant Services was officially born three years later and Darren has never looked back!
The very first tractor Darren purchased in ’99 was a 1995-reg Deutz 616 Agro Prima. He still runs that same tractor today, mostly for raking and spreading slurry. It’s a sweet tractor, with 23,000 hours on it. Still running smoothly, although the Wicklow native admits there’s a little bit of nostalgia attached to it, too…
This year, Darren – whose policy is to source good quality pre-owned tractors – embellished his fleet with the addition of a 2011 Deutz TTV 620 and a 2007 TTV 1160.
Green Line Agri & Plant Services provides a complete baled silage service, from mowing to baling, wrapping and stacking as well as manure spreading, slurry, land reclamation, drainage and all forms of digger and dumper work. Just to ensure he never has a spare moment, Darren also does some relief milking and a little bit of fencing.
His catchment area comprises everywhere within a 15-mile radius of Donohill, encompassing everywhere from Tipperary town to Dundrum and out as far as Cappawhite.
The busy, well-appointed yard houses a large collection of spreaders, slurry tankers, McHale balers, a Hitachi track digger / excavator, six-tonne site dumper, six trailers (including two dump trailers and a low loader) and an array of attachments.
“I’ve been working for a lot of the same people for 20 years and have built the business – and the fleet – up slowly but surely,” says Darren. “I always strive to do exactly what I say I’m going to do. I give the farmer the service he wants when he wants it and at a price that he thinks is right. Once you do that, the chances are good that he’ll come back and do business again.
“The first service that I provided more than 20 years ago was relief milking. In the last few years I have been keeping the milking to a select few original customers and don’t take on any new milking jobs.
“I’ve managed to create a customer base that is sustainable and, as I’ve expanded, I’ve gone back and bought better machinery so that I can improve the service. A one-off customer is no good; you need to be building lasting relationships. With more and more repeat business, you can grow organically and sustainably. You can create a proper customer base, build up your machinery in a sustainable manner and gather momentum, with a steady flow of work.”
This is something Darren has achieved, although any contractor will tell you that it’s never plain sailing: “The problem is that it’s either feast or famine, largely due to the weather. That’s what kills you. If you could tip away every week, with a steady quota of work, that’s ideally what we’d all like, Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get there.
“Things are very unpredictable. You can be rushed off your feet one week, with no end of late hours and then have nothing for days. And there’s only so much power washing and tidying up you can do… It can be frustrating. What you’d like is to be tipping away at a controlled pace all the time, without the massive highs and lows and with neither man nor machine getting worn out.”
This will never happen but Darren has tailored his machinery and range of services in such a way so as to get as close to it as possible, with work most days and steady cash flow coming in…
“Baled silage is our main source of work and income,” he reveals. “Digger work and dumper work were the main thing here from 2003 but by 2007 I had become so sick of the monotony of that and got into the baled silage, which has been our bread and butter since.
“When the crash came in ’09, silage and slurry was all we had really because the digger died both in agri and in construction. We spec’d and upgraded our baling and slurry equipment and kept that side of the business as efficient and economical as possible. That has paid off. Last year, there was a resurgence with the digger work and we’re doing a good bit of that again now into September.”
Darren has a policy of keeping himself overstocked with machinery – all maintained in prime running order – to make sure he can immediately accommodate whatever work comes his way: “There’s a fine line in a very small window of opportunity between having enough to do it and not having enough – that’s why we have two Fusion balers running,” he comments.
“I try to provide a premier service whereby I can get to a lad as soon as he needs me. You simply couldn’t do that with one machine. With two, you can get the work done quicker, more efficiently and get home at a reasonable hour. It’s better for everybody and safer.
“I tend to have more machinery than I need and it’s sitting here waiting for the work. That way, we’re always ready to tackle the work when it comes. It’s structured so that we don’t have to work late into the night and this reduces the risk of accidents happening and keeps everybody happy.
“When you’re contracting, you have a lot of expenditure and overheads, which can be difficult to keep under control,” he concludes. “The way I look at it is that if you can do a bit of work every day, and spend less than you earn, then that’s a good day’s work.”
I think we can all relate to that!
Green Line Agri & Plant Services,
Shanballymore,
Donohill,
County Tipperary.
Tel: 087 2795873
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 7 No 6, November 2019
Green Line Agri & Plant Services
