For more than four decades, John O’Brien Agri Plant has been providing an extensive range of unrivalled agricultural contracting services to farmers and producers across South Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare. We visited the company’s well-appointed Rathcoole base and met John to discuss the wide-ranging services offered and the vast fleet of machinery at his disposal.
Clients through the greater Dublin and Leinster regions can depend on John O’Brien Agri Plant for a full range of agri contracting services, covering everything from ploughing, tilling, sewing and drainage to round bale silage, baling, spraying, fertilizer spreading, combining, silage, slurry, hedge cutting and reseeding.
The agri contracting services are complemented by keen commercial plant hire / contracting services provided to a diverse range of clientele, including groundworks on farms or for home renovations or extensions. At the heart of the operation is a fantastic fleet of tractors and associated machinery, ensuring that John and his professional, experienced team can meet client’s precise needs on time every time.
John told me that the work breaks down almost 50:50 between agri contracting and plant hire / digger work: “We provide the full range of agri services, basically anything the farmer might want done, and we also supply stone and topsoil,” he notes. “We have an excellent fleet of tractors here in the yard ranging from 100hp up to 240hp. The average horsepower would be around 170.”
As contracting and plant hire both rely heavily on the availability of quality equipment, constant investment in replenishing and maintaining the fleet guarantees optimal service levels and a host of satisfied customers. “The tractors are all Fendt, New Holland and Deutz,” continues the affable Dub. “We added two new units to the tractor fleet in 2019 – a Fendt and a New Holland. You have to keep them right, keep all the gear good and you are always spending money. If you don’t, you will fall behind.”
Elsewhere in his impressive fleet of machinery, John runs a Claas combine and self-propelled harvester; five and six furrow Kverneland plough; five dump trailers and a range of silage trailers from Broughan (one triaxle and two double axle); a Broughan 28-foot cattle trailer; Broughan bale trailer; McHale Fusion baler and a standard McHale baler with rear-mounted McHale mower; six-metre Lemken power harrow; a range of tankers and two McConnel hedge cutters.
As a farmer himself, running a tillage operation comprising corn, John understands all too well the challenges farmers face and their expectations when it comes to using contractors. Thus, he knows how important it is to have all the gear firing on all cylinders at all times…
“Most of it would be serviced and repaired by the main dealers,” he reveals. “We have good working relationships with Naas Farm Machinery, Lyons & Burton in Kilcock, Farmworks in North Dublin, WR Shaw for New Holland and Kelly’s of Borris for Claas. We get great service from all of those guys and I suppose it works both way – we look after them and they look after us.”
Between agri and plant hire, John is kept busy all year around, even through the winter months, a time of year that was historically challenging for agri contractors. “There’s always plenty of work,” he confirms. “We have everything we need here and are fully self-sufficient, with a full range of diggers from one tonne up to 15 tonnes. We also supply stone and topsoil and do groundworks, site clearance and excavation. In the winter time, we’re kept busy with the diggers – on farms and doing some private work as well on sites. We also sell hay, straw and silage.
“The plant hire is mostly private doing construction-related work on small sites or one-off houses. The excavators and track machines come with an operator but we also offer self-drive hire as well, although obviously with expensive machinery you need to be careful who you give them to. Fortunately, we get a lot of repeat business and you tend to know who you are dealing with.”
Indeed, in the agri contracting side of the business. John is dealing with the second and third generations of families he worked for when he started up as a young contractor in the 1970s. “There are some changes too because a lot of people are renting out land but there are many families that I’ve been working for since the beginning.”
Running a tillage operation and keeping some cattle of his own not only provides a keen insight into the mind of his fellow farmers but it also helps make John O’Brien Agri Plant more financially viable. “You really need to be farming as well because machinery is simply too expensive now to have it sitting around idle. Contracting is a tough game. The cost of machinery has risen substantially but rates have remained the same for the past ten years. In a way, you almost have free machinery there for use on your own land, although obviously you have to put the hours in too. But I believe you need to farm to make it all worthwhile.”
John echoes the sentiments of practically every farmer and contractor on the island when he mentions the weather as one of the main factors he needs to consider on a daily basis: “The first thing you need is the weather. I look at the weather forecast on a regular basis and plan around it. Farmers are watching it, too, and that’s where it’s getting tougher. Weather is definitely the main thing with contracting and farming; if you haven’t got the weather on your side, the job gets harder.
“After that, you just focus on doing what you’re doing to the best of your ability. Give the client what he needs – a quality service at a fair price. But, as I said, it doesn’t matter what machinery you have in your yard … if you haven’t got the weather it’s no use to you. Twenty-eighteen was a good year and things were done very efficiently but it’s been a mixed bag since. The south of Ireland got better weather this year for silage cutting. We had no real problem with silage this year but once the weather broke in June we never got it back again.”
John O’Brien Agri Plant generates direct employment for a team of five on average. “I like to keep it quite simple and don’t want to take on the world,” John concludes. “I’m happy with the machinery we have and to make sure it’s kept in top condition you need good drivers, who can be hard to get. Modern machinery is not only expensive but also requires skill to operate, so you need a good crew – men you can trust to operate the machinery carefully and efficiently.”
Nothing is left to chance at John O’Brien Agri Plant and that’s why the business is still going strong more than four decades since its inception, providing generations of farmers in counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow with a comprehensive range of prompt, professional and reliable solutions.
John O’Brien Agri Plant,
College Lands,
Saggart,
Rathcoole,
County Dublin.
Tel: 01 5255671
Mobile: 087 2549825
Email: [email protected]
Web: agriplanthire.ie
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 9 No 1, January/February 2021
