Operating out of Duleek in County Meath, McMahon Agri Services offers a comprehensive range of professional agricultural contracting services. We met up with Kieran McMahon to discuss the history and current well-being of this impressive family operation.
McMahon Agri Services crosses the generations, as Kieran McMahon reveals. “My father James would have started the business up and he is still the boss. I work alongside him now and it’s a father-and-son operation, while my own son Brandon is also involved – he’s in his final year at school and is interested in joining us full time.
“Dad had worked for the Claas dealership in Drogheda and then in the late ‘seventies and early ‘eighties he started doing small square bales and silage cutting. Myself and my brothers became more and more involved and my father also started at the lorry work as well, with a low loader doing breakdowns and drawing cattle feed. We’re also farming ourselves, so we’re kept busy.”
A wide array of contracting services is provided to a large number of long-standing, satisfied customers. This includes silage cutting; digger work, site clearance, drainage etc.; ploughing, tilling, sowing; slurry spreading; farmyard manure spreading, baling; dump trailer hire; and grass reseeding as well as roadway repairs for farmers during the winter time.
At the heart of the varied Scatternagh, Duleek operation is a fantastic fleet of tractors and machinery. Tractor-wise, a mixed fleet is utilised. “We own two Fords, one John Deere and three Masseys and then hire in additional tractors for the silage when it becomes busier during the summer. Silage cutting is our main thing and it works out cheaper to hire in some tractors and then let the others pick up the slack again when things quieten down a bit.”
Supplementing the tractors, the McMahons also run a JCB 416S loading shovel, mowers, tedders, rakes, flat bed trailers, land rollers, a plough, a power harrow, a baler and a Claas 890 self-propelled forage harvester. “Dad then looks after the low loader and lorry work,” Kieran adds. “He does recover for machinery dealers and transports harvesters, ploughs, combines and other farm machinery, including a 24-hour recovery service for Leinster Farm Machinery here in Duleek.”
Like any contractors worth their salt, McMahon Agri Services operate a modern and well-maintained fleet of machinery. “We look after the fleet very well,” Kieran confirms. “The machinery is modern but we don’t buy new gear just for the sake of it. Our view would be: if it’s not giving trouble then leave it alone. You don’t need flashy new stuff.
“At the end of the day, if you have big repayments to make on your machines then you have to pass them along to your customers. Most of our customers are local people who have been with us for 30 years and we know them well. We look after them any way we can, so we’re not going to be hitting them with unnecessary expense. All our machinery is regularly serviced and maintained, and is more than capable of providing a professional service.
“We update them on a regular basis and try to change at least one item a year, but we don’t get carried away. Some of them only do seasonal work anyway, so there’s no real rush to replace them. Leinster Farm Machinery provide us with a great service and myself and my father – who is a qualified mechanic, having served his time in the Claas dealership in Drogheda when it was called Harvest Machinery – also look after some repairs and servicing, so everything is always in great condition.”
Between their own land and rented land, the McMahons also farm some 350 acres at present, where they keep between 250 and 300 head of stock. This ensures that there’s never a dull moment!
On the contracting end of things, we are now heading into busy season… “There are four of us here full time and then we’d bring in an additional six or seven lads between April and October,” Kieran points out. “When we’re flat out, there’d be eleven of us here around the clock. We’d bring in the same lads every year – they’re all great lads and they know what they’re doing. A lot of them would have started with us after leaving school, or their fathers would have worked here before them. There’s one lad who goes out to New Zealand during the winter to work and then comes back here every year.”
Last year, McMahon Agri Services cut some 3,700 acres of silage. They generally operate within a 30-mile radius of Duleek, from Navan to Ardcath and into North Dublin. “If there’s work anywhere, we will travel for it,” Kieran notes. “As we have our own low loader, we can easily move our equipment from one job to another. The lorry work also helps keep us busy all year around, which is important for cash flow.
“You need to have a pretty steady income all year around and to keep generating money to make repayments and keep the machinery up to date.”
With an eye on the future, Kieran says McMahon Agri Services will continue as they are, providing an excellent service and offering their loyal customers an agri contracting solution that they can depend on:
“We’ll keep doing what we are doing and try to provide the best service possible,” he concludes. “95% of our customers have been with us for a long time and they have looked after us over the years, so we won’t let them down. It works both ways – they are good to us and we are good to them. When we say we are going to be there, we will be there.
“Of course, when you are providing a good service, you will also keep picking up new customers. We got an additional 2,000 acres of grass last year through word of mouth. We’ve never had to advertise. My father always said that if you look after people they will come back again and this has proven to be true.”
That’s McMahon Agri Services for you – true to their word!
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 4, May 2015
