In business for over 100 years, Chambers Agri Contracts Ltd is one of the largest contractors in the northern half of the country. From its base in Latton, Co. Monaghan, the family-run operation covers a wide area comprising counties Monaghan, Cavan, Louth, Meath and north county Dublin.
Chambers Agri Contracts Ltd has come a long way since Samuel Chambers started out with a humble horse threshing machine over a century ago. Samuel’s grandson Richard now runs the business along with his sons Ivan and Gary, and wife Rosemary, who looks after the administration and bookkeeping end of things. Richard and Rosemary’s two daughters Rachel and Donna also help out in the office and on the farm respectively.
The Chambers offer an extensive range of services, including silage cutting, ploughing, reseeding, crop sowing and management together with harvesting, hedge and tree cutting, lime spreading, fertiliser spreading and excavation / drainage work. “Even though we have a slurry spreader, slurry spreading and baling are about the only things we don’t do,” Richard explains.
Committed to providing a top-class service and complete customer satisfaction, Chambers Agri Contracts Ltd 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 company’s success can be attributed to the knowledge, experience, skill and expertise of its staff, which varies from seven to 15 depending on the time of year, as well as the quality of its machinery. Richard, Ivan, Gary and their highly-skilled team deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
“We have built up a large and loyal customer-base over the years by providing them with a top-class service,” Richard says.
“A lot of them are grain farmers in the Louth, Meath and north Dublin areas. Two of our biggest grain customers are Bellingham and Greenmount Farms. Other good customers include Kelly Grains and Hickey Brothers in Ardee, McKeen Farms in Duleek and Michael McGuinness in Bellewstown. Closer to home, in Monaghan and Cavan, most of our customers are beef or dairy farmers. We also carry out a lot of lime spreading on contract for Roadstone in Meath and Dublin, and have a contract with the ESB for hedge and timber cutting as well.
“We plant about 4,500 acres of winter and spring crops every year. These include wheat, barley, oats, beans and oilseed rape.”
The Chambers run a fleet of 13 tractors – five Fendts, five New Holland and three John Deere. The Fendts are a 722, 724, 926, 930 and a new 939. The New Holland models are a T7250, 7060, TM155 and two 8560s. Completing the impressive fleet are three John Deere 6930s.
Other plant / equipment operated by the company include a Class Jaguar 870 self-propelled harvester for silage and whole crop; a new 50ft Claas rake; a 30ft Claas rake; a Volvo loading shovel; four Kane grain trailers; two Redrock trailers for silage and grain; a selection of excavators and dumpers; a JCB teleporter used for loading lime; two Bredal lime spreaders.
Two Claas combine harvesters (a tracked Lexion 770T rotary with 30ft head and a 4WD Lexion 660 straw walker with 25ft head); four Kverneland ploughs (a seven-furrow trailed variable width, a six-furrow mounted variable width and two five-furrow ES85 mounted variable widths); a 4m Lemken drill with HE-VA packer roller on front; a 6m Horsch Joker disc harrow with applicator; a 6m Kuhn Accord drill which has covered a massive 130,000 acres since it was purchased in 2000; a state-of-the-art McConnel hedge cutter with variable forward reach armset and telescopic and swivel head, which is the first of its kind in Ireland; two Moffat sawheads (one of which is used exclusively for ESB work); an excavator mulching head that is attached to a Hitachi 130 digger; six-row Samco and Kverneland maize sowers; an eight-row Kemper maize header.
One of the most impressive pieces of machinery used by the Chambers is a Horsch 6m combined grain and fertilised drill which they purchased last year from Kelly’s of Borris in Carlow for €90,000 plus VAT. Powered by the massive Fendt 939 which was also purchased last year from Flynn’s of Mullingar for €223,000 plus VAT, it is an awesome sight in action.
Asked why they chose a combined grain and fertilised drill over a standard drill, Ivan Chambers replied: “In the past few seasons, a few of our bigger customers asked us if we could offer a combined grain and fertiliser option. There are certain advantages to being able to offer such a service; fewer passes are required as you drop the grain and fert at the same time, meaning less compaction; faster uptake of nutrients by the plant; and the ability to sow in a narrower window of suitable weather as you get two jobs done in one pass.”
All machines are maintained and serviced regularly to avoid breakdowns and downtime. There is no such thing as a quiet time for this highly-regarded contractor who will work around the clock during peak times to keep clients happy.
“You have to be on the ball in this game. We work 24/7, if there’s rain on the way, we’ll work during the night to get the job done. You have to be true to your word. If you say you’ll do something tomorrow, you have to mean it. This is a competitive business and you have to give the customers what they want. We retain customers and attract new ones by offering a professional, reliable, clean and value-for-money service,” Richard continues.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their continued support. We also like to thank Leinster Farm Machinery in Duleek, Flynn’s of Mullingar, Hanlon Machinery in Dundalk, Meath Farm Machinery in Navan and the other main dealers we deal with for the excellent back-up service they provide.”
Chambers Agri Contracts Ltd
Drumod,
Latton,
Castleblayney,
Co. Monaghan.
Telephone: 042 9669187
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 8, December 2017/January 2018
