McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors is a family-run business operating from Co Roscommon which has always prided itself on its personal touch. Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with Kenneth Harrington recently to learn all about the business that has been offering exceptional levels of service for over three decades.
2020 was another busy year for McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors and the plan for the new year ahead is to try and stay as busy for another 12 months.
For close to four decades now, farmers throughout Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim have been benefiting from the contracting excellence of McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors.
Set-up in 1983 by Roger McHugh alongside his brothers-in-law Johnny and Enda Harrington, the company has grown from strength to strength over the decades to the point where it is amongst the most well-known agri contractors in its region.
Irish Tractor & Agri found out all about this family-run outfit recently from Kenneth Harrington (Johnny’s son), who also filled us in on that state of business at the moment in Kingsland, Co Roscommon.
“Right now, we have five full-time working here and we’d have seven part-time then in the summer,” Kenneth outlined.
“Business has been pretty good this year and the weather has been decent as well, so we can’t complain with how things have gone so far in 2020.”
For many businesses nationwide, this past year brought about unprecedented challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lockdown during the Spring saw many companies having to cease operations for the best part of 10 weeks before reopening on May 18th.
McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors were in the fortunate position to not have been affected by the lockdown and motored on through a busy period, as Kenneth explained:
“No, it didn’t affect us, thankfully. When the first lockdown came the weather was great so we were flat out during it and then we had a very busy summer after that.”
That’s fantastic news to hear for a family operation which has been in existence close to 40 years now.
The fact that business continues to thrive speaks volumes about the work McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors has carried out for its clients down through the years.
At the centre of the business is an excellent fleet of tractors and machinery. It includes 10 tractors which are a mix of New Holland, Case and Landini, with a new T-7200 recently bought from Strokestown.
The company has also added a new John Deere 630 mower to the machinery fleet, as well as a digger from Gaynor Plant Sales in Roscommon, a BAUER slurry pump, a Volvo L70S and a low loader from Agri Machinery Ireland.
The John Deere harvester is the fourth which McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors has purchased in the last two decades.
Of course, all of the equipment is maintained to the highest standard in order to ensure optimal performance. Roger, Johnny and Enda have always overseen much of the maintenance and servicing work themselves, and also use Mike Geraghy in Birr to look after the Case and New Holland tractors.
It’s all to keep up with the demand from clients and McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors has amassed plenty of them over the past 37 years.
Today, the company offers a range of different services to clientele that also serve to keep it busy all year round.
“We do a nice bit of slurry work nowadays and we also do lime spreading and digger work,” said Kenneth.
“I think our customers choose us because we’ve been around for so long at this stage and they know that we’re reliable and provide a good service.
“We’ve been cutting silage in this area for 40 years now and hopefully we can continue to do so for many more years to come.”
Now very much into a second generation, there are five members between the McHugh and Harrington clans working in the business – Roger, Enda, Johnny, Kenneth and Johnny’s son, John.
Like any good contractor, all five hail from farming backgrounds themselves and continue to run their own suckler enterprises, with 70 suckler cows, while Roger McHugh also has Pedigree Charolais to complement the contracting work.
All things considered, there’s certainly enough to keep the people behind McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors busy 12 months a year.
Looking towards 2021, Kenneth himself is optimistic for the year ahead, hinting that a new McHale Fusion could well be added to the machinery fleet somewhere along the way.
The Co Roscommon native is hoping for similar weather to the past year that helped to keep them “flat out” for months at a time.
“We want to just keep going and doing what we’re doing,” he stated plainly.
“We’re always busy when the weather is good and I’ve never seen us run out of work. There’s always something to be doing when we have the weather on our side.”
Like so many family businesses up and down the country, McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors take great pride in what they do.
Coming up on 40 years in business, the company is now at the stage where it is renowned for its personal touch with customers.
Here’s hoping that it continues for many more years to come.
McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors,
Kingsland,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon
Tel: 086 828 8739 / 087 949 9225
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 9 No 1, January/February 2021
McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors
