Celebrating 35 years in business, Jim Ryan Contracting Services Ltd provides a professional agricultural contracting service. From humble beginnings, the company has grown into one of the largest and most respected of its kind in south Tipperary.
Jim Ryan, along with his wife Therese, set up the business in Clerihan, Co. Tipperary in 1980 to cater for the needs of local farmers. They have since been joined by their sons Kieran and Morgan. The family business employs six full-time staff and two part-time. Fergus Doyle is the longest-serving staff member, having been involved since the beginning. Another long-time staff member, Ned Lonigan, retired last Christmas, and his son Eamon is now following in his footsteps.
Committed to providing a quality service and total customer satisfaction, Jim Ryan Contracting Services Ltd offers a complete agri contracting service, including silage cutting, grain harvesting, slurry spreading, baling, bale wrapping, ploughing, reseeding, hedge cutting, excavation and drainage. The company also has a wide range of trailers to draw bales and grain, while they also run track machines, carrying out excavations, drainage and roadways throughout the year.
Jim, who is also engaged in tillage farming, cuts approximately 1,000 acres of corn and 1,700 acres of pit silage every year. In addition, he makes about 30,000 bales of silage, hay, straw and haylage.
Jim has an array of state-of-the-art 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 knowledge, skill and experience of his staff, combined with ongoing investment in new equipment, have helped to make him the number one agri contractor in south Tipperary. Jim Ryan Contracting Services delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
“We offer the full service when it comes to silage, baling and grain,” the affable contractor says.
“We cut, bale, wrap, draw and stack the bales. We also have six or seven grain trailers. We can look after all your hay, silage and grain requirements from start to finish.”
Jim runs a fleet of 10 tractors, including six New Holland, two Massey Ferguson, one Fendt and one John Deere. Four of the New Hollands are 680s, while the other two are T7235 and T7260. The Massey models are 2620 and 2626, the Fendt is an 828 and the John Deere a 6930. The tractors were mostly purchased from Meehan & Slattery in Cashel, but also from WR Shaw in Tullamore and Kehoe Brothers in Wexford. The two Masseys are the latest additions to the fleet, having been bought new from Kehoe Brothers last year and earlier this year.
Other plant / equipment includes Claas Lexion 550 and 650 combine harvesters with 22-feet cutting bars, three Pottinger silage wagons – purchased from Suirway Farm Machinery in Carrick-on-Suir – a JCB 426 loading shovel, JCB TM320S and TM300 loaders, a Bredal fertiliser spreader with GPS system, two Welger 245 round-balers, two McHale bale wrappers, a new Welger Tornado baler / wrapper – purchased from Rossmore Engineering in Cashel – a Massey Ferguson 70×80 baler for haylage, a new Krone 90×120 baler, Horsch and Amazone seed drills, Kuhn and Kverneland ploughs, a five-metre Pottinger disc harrow, Claas and Pottinger rakes, Lely and Pottinger tetters, a McConnel hedge cutter, two dumpers, a 14t Doosan track machine, a Bateman crop sprayer, one Abbey and two Major slurry spreaders and umbilical system.
All machines are maintained and serviced regularly by local mechanic Robert Fitzgerald to avoid breakdowns and downtime. Jim buys his spare parts from Abbey Machinery in Clerihan and Clonmel Machinery. He also spreads fertiliser for Star Fuels, Glanbia and Brett Brothers.
The family-run business has certainly come a long way over the past 35 years. When Jim started in the agri contracting business, his fleet comprised two Ford (7600 and 7840) tractors, a New Holland 376 square baler and a New Holland 1550 combine harvester.
In August 2014, a huge fire destroyed Jim’s workshop and some of his machinery. He recalls: “It was a terrible thing to happen. It took four units of Clonmel fire brigade to bring the blaze under control. The fire caused a lot of damage, but thankfully the machinery that was damaged was insured and FBD looked after us very well. Farmers give out about high insurance premiums sometimes, but we would have been in big trouble if we weren’t insured.”
There is no such thing as a quiet time of the year for this agri contractor. In the early months, the focus is on slurry and fertiliser spreading, and sowing. The silage season, which typically runs from May to September, is a particularly busy period for the Ryan team who will work around the clock to get the job done. The grain harvest then takes precedence, following by more slurry spreading and hedge cutting.
Jim Ryan Contracting Services boasts a large and loyal customer-base within a 20-mile radius of his Clerihan base, which is located four miles from Clonmel.
“We have a lot of good customers who have stuck with us through thick and thin. Our goal has always been to provide them with a top-class, reliable and affordable service. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support down through the years,” he says.
Jim is involved in Clerihan GAA, a club he helped to reform in 2003 after it had ceased to exist in 1968. Since reforming, the club has gone from strength to strength in both hurling and football. The club plays its home games in the new Clerihan Community Field, which was developed at a cost of €1.3 million.
Jim Ryan Contracting Services Ltd
Knockeevan,
Clerihan,
Clonmel,
Co. Tipperary.
Telephone: 952 6135113
Mobile: 087 2586115
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 9, October 2015
