Three generations in, Megaw Contracts in Poyntzpass continues to go from strength to strength, combining decades of knowhow and a magnificent fleet of machinery to deliver unrivalled agricultural contracting services to farmers in counties Armagh and Down.
Straddling the Armagh / Down border, Megaw Contracts is a long-established, one-of-a-kind, family-run agri contracting enterprise that has been providing a comprehensive range of top-class contracting services to a large and loyal customer base for more than half a century.
The genesis of this business – which has evolved organically into one of Northern Ireland’s premier agri contracting outfits – dates back to the establishment of Ivan Megaw & Son in 1985, but Ivan’s father John had also provided keen contracting services to local farmers in and around the scenic village of Poyntzpass for many years prior to that.
Today, Megaw Contracts is overseen by Ivan’s son, Willie, and the same enthusiasm, energy, passion, strong work ethic and can-do attitude that has epitomised the family business since Day One remains very much to the fore.
Boasting the machinery and manpower to serve customers’ every need, Megaw Contracts – who have doubled in size over the past ten years on the back of consistently delivering outstanding, prompt, value-added services – remained as busy as ever in 2024:
“It was another really busy year,” Willie confirmed when we briefly interrupted his schedule for an update. “We added maize planting and harvesting to our services in 2024. We harvested around 450ac of maize. We bought a second–hand four row drill off Samco and I picked up a second hand John Deere eight row maize head in one of Cheffins auctions in England.
Megaw Contracts operates on of Northern Ireland’s largest and most impressive contracting fleets, comprising a multitude of fresh, modern and immaculately maintained tractors and machinery.
The tractor count at the time of writing was 13, predominantly John Deere (which has traditionally been the Megaws’ preferred workhorse for many years) but also including a few Fendts and a New Holland purchased brand-new last year from Burkes of Cornascriebe in Portadown. There are also two new John Deere tractors due to arrive in Spring 2025 which have been purchased from Johnston Giplin & Co, a 6M 180 and a 6R 155.
Born and raised into a farming and contracting environment, Willie possesses vast experience of all elements of contracting and loves nothing more than being hands-on, although he confesses that these days he doesn’t get out in the fields as frequently as he’d ideally like due to the massive demands of running the business and also managing a farming enterprise comprising of a couple of hundred head of beef cattle and around 500 acres of cereal.
“I don’t get out a lot anymore myself but I do like to fill the gaps here and there any time I’m needed. If we’re a man down or the pressure is on, I will jump in and I certainly enjoy it,” he confirms. “I’m very lucky to have a great team here with me at the minute and they are all great lads – between ten and twelve full time and a few of them have been with us for a long time.”
Megaw Contracts has developed lasting relationships with local farmers along the Armagh / Down county border and rarely have to travel far for work. “All our work is in Armagh and Down because we are situated right on the border,” says Willie.
“We travel a bit with the beet harvester but generally we don’t travel too far for silage. Ninety per cent of our grass is within a ten-mile radius of our yard and we don’t need to go any further than that. We do have a few smaller jobs up to 20 miles away – with customers who have been with us for a long time, so we keep those going too.
“With the combines and beet harvesting, you could be travelling up to 30 miles from home but the vast majority of the silage and slurry is within ten miles of the yard, which is great, because there’s no money in driving the roads…”
To ensure the consistent delivery of unbeatable agricultural contracting services, Willie invests heavily in a stunning array of machinery. It doesn’t come cheap but being overstocked with a surplus of machinery is the best way to ensure that every possible eventuality is covered:
“The key is to be completely overstocked,” he points out. “This might sound strange but you have to have more than you think you’ll need, to make sure you have all the equipment to get every job done. So you buy extra machines and are overstocked. It realistically shouldn’t take as much as it does, but if you need to get jobs done quickly in a short window then you have to have the horsepower to accommodate additional work. Basically, you operate at overcapacity. We have the capacity to get a lot more done than we are doing most weeks but you need it all…”
Looking ahead to the 2025 calendar year, Willie predicts another busy year for Megaw Contracts in what he describes as difficult times for the farming community in Northern Ireland: “For us, I’d say it will probably be much the same as last year. Boys in the North were very disheartened with the budget.
“Only for getting good money for straw last year, the whole thing would have been a disaster. The livestock sector is good and prices for milk and beef are decent, and that’s keeping everybody going, but inputs are way up right across the board.
“A lot of farmers are fed up and they are cautious at the minute. If milk and beef prices weren’t as good, you’d be hearing a lot more about it!”
Megaw Contracts,
Druminargle House,
Poyntzpass,
County Armagh.
Tel: 0044 7736 004234
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ivanmegawandsonltd
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 13 No 1, Spring 2025
