Michael Ryan & Son Agri Ltd is a third-generation agricultural contracting firm based in Ballindoney, Ballywilliam, Co. Wexford. Offering a complete farm contracting service, Michael Ryan runs the business along with his son Micheál, wife Mary and daughter-in-law Sarah.
It’s over 40 years since Michael – then aged 17 – joined his father John’s agri contracting business. The family-run operation has come a long way since then, offering everything from silage cutting, maize, whole crop, beet harvesting and sowing to baling, wrapping, drawing in and stacking bales, dung spreading and hedge cutting. “Slurry spreading is about the only thing we don’t do. We cater for nearly everything else,” Micheál explains.
“We cut a lot of silage in the summertime. It would be split evenly between pit silage and baled silage.”
Committed to providing a top-class service and complete customer satisfaction, Michael Ryan & Son Agri Ltd – which is situated about halfway between Enniscorthy and New Ross – has a wide range 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 is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its equipment. Michael and his professional team deliver the value that quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Michael Ryan & Son Agri Ltd runs a fleet of nine tractors, including eight John Deere and one New Holland. It’s one of the most modern fleets in the South-East with three of the John Deere’s – a 215R, a 195M and a 175M – having been purchased from TFM (Templetuohy Farm Machinery) in Enniscorthy in the past year. The other John Deere’s are a 16-registered 155M, a 13-reg 6930, a 10-reg 7530, a 09-reg 6830 and a 00-reg 6910. The New Holland is an 18-reg T7260 which was purchased from Lyons and Burton Ltd.
“John Deere is a firm favourite with us. They’re a reliable, economical and comfortable tractor to drive. I wouldn’t knock New Holland at the same time. It’s a good tractor too,” the affable agri contractor explains.
“Most of our tractors are in constant use. The new John Deere 215R usually has a set of mowers or a corn sower rigged up to it. The 6830 is used for drawing silage and hedge-cutting, while the oldest of the tractors – the 6910 – is used for raking and feeding cattle in the winter. Each tractor has a job to do.”
Other plant / equipment operated by the company include a 2020-registered Claas Jaguar 950 forage harvester, a 181-reg JCB 435 loading shovel, a set of Krone butterfly mowers, a set of Claas front and side-mounted mowers, two Claas Lexion 450 combine harvesters, three McHale Fusion balers, two Horsch Pronto seed and fertiliser drills, two Kverneland five-furrow reversible ploughs, a Samco six-row maize sower, a five-metre Kuhn power harrow, Armer Salmon beet sower and beet harvester, a McConnel hedge-cutter, an 18-tonne Bunning dung spreader, five 20-feet Smyth silage trailers and a VDW beet washer which attaches to the front of the JCB loader.
All machines are upgraded on a regular basis to avoid breakdowns and downtime. Servicing and maintenance is carried out in-house, while machines under warranty are sent to the dealerships they were bought from. Fodder beet is something of a speciality as Michael explains: “When Greencore was in full production, we were ploughing, tilling and sowing 800 acres of sugar beet with a turnover of about €100,000. This left us with a lot of expensive machinery and nothing to do from October to January. It took us years to get over this loss.
“Today, we rent 75 acres nearby for growing beet. We pull the beet and wash it with our mobile washing unit before selling it to local dairy, beef and sheep farmers. We can also pull and wash beet for other growers in the area.
“In addition, we grow 30 acres of maize which we sell mostly to dairy farmers. We keep dry stock on another 30 acres that we own in Monamolin, Rathnure, which is only a mile from our yard.”
Michael Ryan & Son Agri Ltd has a large and loyal customer-base in Wexford and the surrounding counties of Carlow and Kilkenny. “We cover within a 15-mile radius of Ballywilliam and will travel further if needs be,” he adds.
There is no such thing as a quiet time for this highly-regarded agricultural contracting firm. In the early part of the year, the focus is on dung spreading, ploughing, tilling and sowing cereals, beet, maize and grass seeds. The silage and baling season gets underway in May and runs until September. This is a particularly hectic time for the Ryan’s who take on part-time staff and work long hours to keep their clients happy. They cut pit silage and make a substantial amount of round bales with their three McHale Fusion 3 Plus balers. When the silage and hay is done with, it’s on to cutting and hauling corn, baling straw, harvesting beet, maize and hedge cutting.
So what gives Michael Ryan & Son Agri Ltd the edge over its competitors? Michael replies: “Reliability, the quality of our machinery and work, and value-for-money are the hallmarks of our business. If we tell someone we’ll be with them at such a time, we’ll be there at that time. We don’t mess people around. We would be unable to provide this service without our top-class staff and we would like to thank them for all their hard work.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their support over the years, and look forward to maintaining our partnership with them for many more years to come.”
Michael is a member of the Association of Farm Contractors in Ireland (FCI) which was formed in 2012 to give agricultural contractors a voice at Government and EU level. Its other objectives are to promote good contractor / farmer relationships; to promote the benefits of a good agricultural contracting service; to provide members with knowledge and courses to help them run their business; to promote a good working relationship between contractors.
For all your agriculture contracting needs in the Ballywilliam area, look no further than Michael, Micheál and their professional and friendly team.
Michael Ryan & Son Agri Ltd
Ballindoney,
Ballywilliam,
Enniscorthy,
Co. Wexford.
Telephone: 087 1278224 (Micheál) / 087 2578567 (Michael)
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 1, January/February 2022
