J Whyte Agri Services has earned a glowing reputation for providing its clients with an excellent service year in, year out. Irish Tractor & Agri heard more from Managing Director Brendan Casey who has high hopes again for 2018.
2017 was a busy year for Cork-based company J Whyte Agri Services and the man behind the running of the business plans to keep things just as hectic again out Ballycotton way over the next 12 months.
For Brendan Casey, these last 27 years since taking over the firm from his father-in-law have managed to fly by and at the minute he’s sitting on 1,400 acres of tillage down in the East Cork area.
Expansion to those acres may well be on the horizon down the line but for now Brendan’s looking for more of the same this year, as he told Irish Tractor & Agri when we caught up with him at the tail end of 2017.
“Basically, I took it over from my father-in-law, Jeremiah Whyte here back in 1991. His father had first started this in 1925.
“I usually have two lads working with me here and then my sons David and Shane help me out during the busy times.
“All aspects of our work are important. We do everything from umbilical slurry, tank slurry, ploughing, cereal and we used to do sugar beet too. That ended with the loss of the sugar beet industry in Ireland. We do about 2,000 acres of pit silage every year, we set up to 1,400 acres of cereals and cut up to 1,200 acres each year.
During the busy times, I hire in tractors and drivers to ensure demands are met and at other times, I hire out tractors and drivers to another contractor
Rewind back to Brendan’s teenage years to when he first started working full-time and it’s safe to say that he couldn’t have envisioned a career as an agricultural services company owner.
Back then his focus was on becoming a mechanic but over the next 13 years he’d come to find himself at the head of what was a third-generation company at the time it was handed to him.
“I left school at 16 and went into serving my time as a mechanic. I left it in 1978 and went working with John McCarthy for a year or two,” he outlined.
“After that, I got into driving trucks for Ballycotton Transport and eventually bought my own truck in 1984. I got married to my wife Anne and it led to me taking over here the following year.”
Brendan has earned himself a wealth of knowledge between then and now when it comes to growing tillage, spreading slurry and all the other services that J Whyte Agri Services provides.
However, it has been no joy ride to say the least. The work that has been put in during this time has been colossal and you don’t always see the rewards in this industry.
As recently as 2016, the company was suffering in one certain aspect of its repertoire of services and it took some time before things turned around, according to Brendan.
“I’ve 200 acres of cereal here and, being honest, last year (2016) was a poor year for cereals,” he said.
“This year I had a better year with crops and sometimes it can be up and down like that in this game. You just have to get through it when times are tough and make the most of it when they’re better.”
It’s as good as an approach as any when it comes to business and Brendan is keen to make things count in the next couple of month by perhaps adding to the machinery fleet at J Whyte Agri Services.
2017 saw some purchases made and there could well be a tractor or two added to the fleet this year.
“I bought a new LEMKEN plough this year along with a three-metre Maschio disc. I also bought a Bunning dung spreader and a new silage rake,” said the Managing Director.
“I’ll possibly be buying a new tractor next year (2018) but I’m taking my time now at the minute. I’ve five tractors in the fleet and then we’d hire in two or three more as we get busier during the year.
“They’re all John Deere tractors and I buy them off Farm Power in Castlelyons. I got my umbilical system off Tank Storage Systems in Kildare.”
Keeping the fleet updated to the highest standard within budget is part in parcel of this business.
I also have been lucky enough to have very good conscientious employees with a great understanding of machinery all through the years.
“I’d have very good loyal clients here with me and I look after them the way they look after me, I’d hope it’s because of the service that we give them” he said.
Looking after the clients is a trend which has been in J Whyte Agri Services Ltd since the company’s inception and that continued devotion to the customer doesn’t look like swaying anytime soon.
Next year it will be about more of the same for Brendan and his staff, with perhaps one or two more additions on the way. “Hopefully, we will have another year like we had in 2017”, he concluded.
J Whyte Agri Services Ltd
Maytown,
Ballycotton,
Co Cork
Mob: 086 256 1328
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 1, February 2018
