Based in Boherboy, Co Waterford, Hurley Agri Services provides its customers with a quality agricultural contracting service which is second to none around the country’s south east region. Irish Tractor Agri & Plant spoke with Jamie Hurley to discuss the ins and outs of this family venture in the Deise County – from its origins to the overall state of business today.
These past five years have seen Hurley Agri Services grow itself into a well-established and trusted agricultural contractor in the Ardmore region and Jamie Hurley is eager to continue that trend going forward.
He heads up the business alongside his father James, with his uncle Declan and cousin Conor hired in during the busy summer season to help carry out the raking and wrapping of the bales.
Since its inception in 2019, Hurley Agri Services has grown year on year to the point where it now specialises in baling, wrapping, round bale silage, slurry spreading and reseeding services for its customers
Irish Tractor Agri & Plant touched base with Jamie recently to learn more about the progression of his contracting business over the past half-decade and its hopes moving forward.
“My father’s a suckler farmer and I was working for a neighbouring contractor and the opportunity just arose for us to start this business,” he outlined. “We had our own slurry tank at home and the opportunity arose to go drawing bales for another contractor, so I bought my first tractor and went drawing bales for him.
“We had our own baler at home and we were doing outside work and the uncle was hired in to wrap it. So, the business has grown every year since.
“We started out in 2019 drawing bales for a contractor and, in 2020 then, we started doing a bit of baling for him. He retired and I changed the baler up and bought a newer one, and I bought a bale carrier off him too.
“In 2021, it was a wet spring that year and I bought in a new pipe system for umbilical slurry spreading and it’s just grown and grown from there.
“We started with one tractor and there’s three in the yard now, an umbilical system, a fresh enough baler that we bought in 2021 and there’s a new Wilson Bale Transporter that joined the fleet as well this year.”
The fleet of tractors in the yard in Boherboy are made up of two Cases and a John Deere, with all of the company’s machinery maintained to an excellent standard year-round.
In order to carry out the work to a high-quality standard for customers, the machinery needs to be taken care of and Hurley Agri Services ensures to do so with great care.
All of that considered, it’s no surprise to hear that business is thriving at the minute for the company as it moves closer and closer towards its sixth year in existence.
“Business is tipping away. We had a very busy spring with the slurry and, with the way the weather was, we were very busy just trying to get everything done,” said Jamie.
“I can see things kind of staying the way they are in that they won’t be getting any busier. We’re happy enough with the workload that we have there and for things to stay the same”
The work itself sees the Hurleys covering a 15-mile radius from their base in Boherboy for customers in and around Ardmore up to Cappoquin and into Dungarvan.
It’s a customer base which, thankfully, keeps growing for Hurley Agri Services as the good word on the services it provides continues to spread.
So, the burning question is what has been the secret behind the company’s success in the short space of just five years?
How has a small agri contracting start-up grown into what is now a flourishing business that holds a golden reputation amongst its clientele?
For Jamie, so much of it comes down to providing quality services on a consistent basis for customers week in, week out.
“We do the best job we can and, I suppose, customers are happy with the work that we’re doing,” stated the Deise native.
“That should bring back repeat business and, look, we do pick up an odd new job here and there from doing the most professional job we can do. I’m not pushing for new work; if new work comes to me it comes to me.”
The months ahead are set to be busy ones for Hurley Agri Services and its range of services ensures that they’ll be kept going 12 months a year.
As well as his work on the agri contracting end, Jamie helps out his dad on the family farm which is something he’s only happy to do.
It’s an arrangement that has been in place for many years now.
“We’ve around 70 suckler cows on the farm here. We keep a few store cattle as well and my father is the big driver on that,” he said.
“He spends hours and hours on that while I spend more time on the agri contracting but, as the fella says, he helps me out and I help him out when we need it.”
Fantastic to hear.
Hurley Agri Services
Boheryboy,
Grange,
Co Waterford.
Mobile: 087 202 3838
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: /hurleyagriservices
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 12 No 3, September/October 2024
