Specialising in pit silage, slurry spreading, ploughing, sowing, large square baling, zero grazing and digger work, KMAC Agri Services is a one-stop shop for all your agricultural contracting requirements.
Established over 20 years ago by Kevin Meade in Lobinstown, Co. Meath, KMAC Agri Services continues to go from strength to strength by providing an unrivalled service. Kevin has a wide range 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 contractor’s success can be attributed to the knowledge, skill and experience of his staff as well as the quality of his machinery. The Meade team delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
“We pride ourselves on our top-class service and machinery. Complete customer satisfaction is guaranteed,” says Kevin, who has a large and loyal customer-base in Meath and the surrounding counties of Louth and Dublin.
“I was always into machinery and I suppose it was inevitable that I’d get involved in the contracting end of things. I grew up on the family farm. We kept sucklers and my father Colm Snr also did a bit of straw baling. I was always into tractors and bought my first one when I was 18, and built it up from there.
“My father was doing square baling and I started out mowing with a 10ft Kuhn mower. My brother, Colm Jnr, and cousin had started doing bale wrapping around the same time, so we were able to work together. I did that for a while and then got into silage when I brought a JF 1050 trailed harvester and cut around 350-400 acres in my first year at it.”
Kevin has come a long way since then and now cuts approximately 8,000 acres of pit silage per year, and operates a modern fleet of tractors and machinery to cater for most jobs. Originally a Case man, he now runs seven Massey Ferguson tractors which range in years from 2019 to 2021. He still has one Case – a 2002-registered CVX 170 – which he has kept for “sentimental reasons”.
Five of the Masseys are 7726Ss. They are complemented by two 7719S models which were purchased from WBD Farm Machinery in Blake’s Cross, Dublin last year.
“I’ve bought 10 Masseys from WBD since I started dealing with them in 2017,” the agri contractor explains.
“I’ve also traded in three and have bought a good bit of machinery gri off them down the years, including Maschio sowers and disc harrows. They give a good warranty and service pack for 5,000 hours on the tractors. You know where you stand with them.”
Kevin runs a Krone 780 forage harvester which replaced a Krone 580 a couple of years ago. “We actually ran the Krone 580 and a CLAAS Jaguar together for a while before investing in the Krone 780 which is a bigger machine. Having just the one harvester is also more economical and cost-effective. When we need a second one now, we hire it in,” he says.
Kevin invested in a new Krone Big M 450 mower, which enables harvesting large acreage of silage swiftly, in 2019 and a new Volvo 110 loading shovel last year. The Big M replaced Deutz Warrior 7250 and Kverneland 5090 triple-gang butterfly mowers. He also runs a set of Krone 870 butterfly mowers, and new Krone front and back combination mowers, along with three Broughan 24ft tri-axle silage trailers and two Smyth Super Cube tri-axle 20ft x 6ft silage trailers.
Other grass machinery includes a Krone 880 rake, two Krone 1370 50ft rakes, a Krone 13m trailer tedder and krone 9m tedder and a Krone MX 370 silage wagon. In terms of baling equipment, Kevin has a Massey Ferguson 2190 big square baler, a Krone 1290 big square baler and a McHale 998 wrapper. In addition, he has two Broughan 36ft bale trailers and a Red Rock tri-axle low loader for transporting the bales along with a JCB 320 for loading them.
“We make a lot of straw big square bales every year. They’re growing in popularity. We have found that farmers who opt for the big square bales don’t go back to the round ones.”
For slurry, Kevin is well kitted out. He was one of the first contractors in the North Meath area to invest in an umbilical pipe system and is currently running two SlurryKat systems. He also operates a 4,000-gallon Red Rock slurry tanker and two 3,000-gallon Red Rock slurry tankers complete with new Mastek 7.5m and Agquip 9m dribble bars.
When it comes to tillage, the affable Meath man runs a 2 Maschio tillers, and Maschio sowers, two Kuhn 153 reversible ploughs as well as an Overum six-furrow semi-mounted plough. Another piece of kit is a Hitachi 130 excavator which is used for small groundworks and drainage works.
Kevin recently branched into zero grazing and is running two Belair zero grazers that he bought from Tom Shaw Farm Machinery in Birr, Co. Offaly.
There is no such thing as a quiet time for this highly-regarded contractor who will work around the clock and take on extra staff at busy times to keep clients happy. Slurry spreading, ploughing and sowing take precedence in the early part of the year, followed by silage and baling during the summer months. After that comes more slurry spreading, drawing bales and digger work.
All machines are maintained and serviced on a regular basis to avoid downtime, with most of this being carried out in-house. Needless to say, Kevin is concerned about rising costs across the board which are putting many agri contractors to the pin of their collar.
“It’s crazy. Rates are up at least 20% because of huge hikes in fuel and fertilizer costs, not to mention the cost of machinery which people aren’t factoring in. It’s a tough time for the sector, but we just have to keep going and give our customers the best possible service we can.”
No job is too big or too small for Kevin who would like to take this opportunity to thank his customers and suppliers for their continued support as well as his staff for their hard work, dedication and skill.
KMAC Agri Services
Brownstown,
Lobinstown,
Co Meath
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 4, July/August 2022
