Over the past three decades, Michael Boland has developed an excellent reputation in the areas of agricultural contracting and plant hire. We met up with the County Clare man to recount the history of his self-made business and also to take a closer look at his impressive fleet and the range of services provided, which now also includes developing and maintaining GAA pitches.
In West Clare, the name Michael Boland is synonymous with quality. The loop head peninsula man has been overseeing his own eponymous business for 30 years and during this time has forged a stellar reputation for himself not just in the local community but right across the Banner County and beyond.
Michael, who hails from an agricultural background, decided to go into business under his own name in the early 1980s and has never looked back. He has invested in quality equipment down through the years and has maintained this in pristine condition at all times.
This modern, extensive fleet – coupled with honest endeavour, great experience and a steely determination to deliver a solution that customers can depend on – has seen Michael’s reputation for excellence spread far and wide through positive word of mouth, culminating in the loyalty of countless repeat customers plus a steady flow of new business.
In recent times, the development and upkeep of GAA pitches has been added to the range of services provided and these are proving extremely popular nationwide.
“I started off with the agricultural contracting about 30 years ago and then expanded into the plant hire end of it,” the Clare man reflects. “I still provide both services as well as the GAA pitches, which I started doing in 2005. The GAA pitches seemed like an obvious area to get involved in and that part of the business has been going really well. We do everything from preparing and sowing the pitch through to drainage, sanding and general pitch maintenance.”
Marrying his plant hire and agricultural backgrounds, Michael Boland has developed tremendous expertise in pitches and – in addition to his own work in this area – he also carries out civil work on all-weather pitches nationwide on behalf of SportsLawn Ireland in Kilkee.
In keeping with the national reach of the GAA, Michael has worked all over the country, including the current homes of both the Liam MacCarthy and Sam Maguire Cups. “I’ve worked on pitches in Kilkenny, Kerry, Galway, Cork, Limerick etc.,” he confirms. “And we’ve been all over the country with the all-weather pitches, including six in Westmeath recently and some in Laois.”
At the heart of every successful agri contracting / plant hire operation is a good fleet and Michael Boland certainly oversees one of the finest collections of machinery, plant and equipment in the Banner County. Tractor-wise, he operates a stunning fleet of predominantly Massey Fergusons and New Hollands, including 7624, 7618, 6485, 6480, and 5450 Masseys (the latter of which is for the GAA fields) as well as a compact New Holland, 6030 New Holland, T7200 New Holland, TM190 New Holland and a Deutz 95 agrotron.
Elsewhere in the fleet, he runs a New Holland self-propelled harvester; Komatsu loading shovel; a selection of diggers and mini excavators including 57-4, 140-7, 145-9, 210-7, 210-9 and 250-7 models; a Komatsu PX61 bulldozer; and two Volvo A25c dump trucks.
Michael constantly reinvests to ensure that the fleet remains as fresh as possible. To this end, he purchased two 142-reg tractors this year as well as a 141-reg rubber duck and 235 digger. “The 210s are two- and three-years-old, while the Komatsu is ’08 and the 250 and 140 are ‘07s, as well as the ‘dozer,” he adds. “You have to keep investing and keep the machinery updated as best you can.
“We have our own mechanic to look after the equipment. He’s self-employed but he’d be with us up to seven months of the year. He makes sure that most of the stuff is kept in top working order, while the diggers would be bought from and looked after by Whelans.”
Regarding his catchment area, Michael continues: “The agricultural contracting is concentrated in the West Clare area. We are in the peninsula and we’d work for a small base of customers here. I’ve been working more or less for the same people since I started out. To be honest, you wouldn’t be expanding too far out of the area because it’s too far to travel. But we’re kept busy enough with the contracting and the few pitches on top of that. We’re kept ticking over anyway.
“We’re doing a lot of slurry spreading and silage and then a bit of digger work along with that. We’ve enough to keep us going and we also do our own plant hire on top of that. We used to work for Whelan’s Quarry until it closed down and we will be working with Ward & Burke for the next two years, which is a good contract to have. We also do some work with Clare County Council and Lagan Asphalt, so we can’t complain.”
Michael Boland employs up to ten full time employees and the same again on top of that during busy periods. Looking to the future, he says his objective is to continue in the direction he is currently heading: “I just want to keep it going,” he states. “Things are picking up again and we’ve had a busy couple of years after a very quiet 2009/2010. But good help will be scarce because there aren’t too many young lads interested in getting into the agri contracting or plant hire sectors. A lot of young lads have emigrated or gone travelling and, of those who are left, not too many of them are interested in driving tractors for twelve or 14 hours a day.
“It’s hard to get lads in West Clare and I’m sure it’s the same all along the west of Ireland. This generation just doesn’t seem to be orientated towards tractors and that’s going to present us with a challenge in the not-too-distant future. Where will be get good, motivated workers from?
“In 2008, we had 16 lads working on a job for Clare County Board – eight of those lads are in Australia now. You can’t blame lads for heading abroad the way things went here at home, but it will mean that good workers will be thin on the ground in the coming years.”
Whatever happens, one suspects that Michael Boland will find a way to continue to provide the stellar service for which he is renowned!
Michael Boland
Tullig Cross
Kilrush
Co. Clare
Tel: 065 9058162
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 6, November 2014
