GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services Ltd in Mountrath, Co. Laois is a second-generation family business that provides an exceptional service to farmers and private forest owners.
Founded in the late 1990s by Ger Abbott, the company is now fronted by his 26-year-old son George who is eager to keep it on an upward trajectory. George continues to be supported by his father along with his brother Trevor and two full-time staff. The family also runs a small suckler enterprise in tandem with the contracting business.
GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services provides a wide range of services, including pit and baled silage, slurry and dung spreading, lime and fertiliser spreading, crop spraying, hedge-cutting, mulching and digger work, including forestry, drainage and land reclamation. The company recently added another string to its bow in the guise of forestry contracting.
“My father started the business around 1997 or ’98 and I joined him in 2017 after finishing school,” George explains.
“He’s now an owner driver, drawing animal feed and fertiliser out of Waterford and Limerick for Liffey Mills and Goulding’s, but still helps out whenever he can. My brother is also a huge help, especially with the forestry work. We have a small but dedicated team who always go the extra mile for our customers. We’re very lucky to have good staff as they’re hard to come by nowadays. It’s important that you look after them and appreciate what they do.”
Committed to offering superior service and complete customer satisfaction, GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services has an array 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 Laois contracting firm’s longevity and success can be attributed to the knowledge, experience, skill and expertise of its staff as well as the quality of its machinery. George’s highly-skilled and highly-motivated team deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
The young contractor runs an all-New Holland tractor fleet consisting of a T7.245, T7.050, TM.165, 8360 and T5050. He also has two Volvo 140 excavators and a Volvo L60H loader. His silage equipment includes a Strautmann 3601 forage wagon, Kverneland front (3332 FT) and back (4332 CT) mowers, a McHale Fusion 1 integrated bale wrapper and a CLAAS 20600 rake.
George currently has a Kverneland FastBale on trial from Gordon Hegarty & Sons in Kilkenny and has been suitably impressed with its speed and efficiency. The FastBale allows for non-stop baling and wrapping in a fixed chamber baler, saving around 20 seconds for every bale made compared to conventional stop-start systems, equating to daily productivity gains of over 30% in many cases.
“A non-stop baler suits us because you always seem to be racing against the clock and the weather in this business. With the FastBale, you can continue baling without having to stop to release the bale. There’s no clutching or waiting for binding and bale discharge. That makes a big difference time-wise,” he says.
“We make slightly more pit silage than baled silage. I would have a preference for pit silage simply because it’s more straightforward.”
For slurry, GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services operates a Redrock 2,500-gallon tanker with an AgQuip trailing shoe and a Redrock agitator. Other pieces of kit include a Conor 8-tonne rear discharge spreader, a Bredal K85 lime / fertiliser spreader, a Serrat mulcher and shears, which can be rigged up to both diggers, a McConnel Power Arm 60500T hedge cutter, a PF low loader and a JPM dump trailer, both of which are tractor-drawn.
There is no such thing as a quiet time for this highly-regarded contractor who will work around the clock at busy times and take on extra staff if needs be to keep clients happy. All machines are maintained and serviced inhouse to ensure there is no such thing as downtime. For bigger or more complicated repair jobs, George sends his New Hollands to WR Shaw in Tullamore and Volvos to Pat O’Donnell & Co in Dublin.
GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services expanded into timber harvesting last November after purchasing a John Deere 810E forwarder and a John Deere 1070E harvester. The company cuts timber nationwide destined for clients such as GP Wood, Balcas, ECC Timber Products, Murray Timber Group and Coolrain Sawmills.
“When the opportunity to buy two machines off a man who was taking a step back came up, I decided to take it. I saw an opening for a timber harvesting service and it’s been a case of so far, so good. We work for private forest owners and companies across Ireland,” continues George, who has an old head on young shoulders.
The busy contractor retains customers and attracts new ones by providing a top-class, reliable, clean and cost-effective service.
“We’ve built up a very loyal customer-base over the last 25 years. You try to do the best you can to keep them happy. We’re always at the end of the phone for them if they’re looking for us.
“With the agri contracting, we work within a 40-mile radius of Mountrath. For forestry contracting, we cover the 32 counties. No job is too big or too small and we’re constantly striving for improvement and looking to add new services.”
GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services’ quality work hasn’t been compromised by soaring costs. Passionate about agri contracting, George would like to take this opportunity to thank his customers and suppliers for their continued support as well as his hard-working team for their dedication and expertise.
GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services Ltd
Lacca,
Mountrath,
Co. Laois.
Telephone: 087 165 7180
Email: [email protected]
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 13 No 2, Autumn 2025
Featured, GA Agri Plant & Forestry Services
