Celebrating 40 years in business, Alan Poff & Sons Agri Contractors is a leading agricultural contracting firm based near Killorglin in Co. Kerry. From humble beginnings, the family-run business has grown to provide a wide range of services to farmers in the Mid Kerry region.
Starting out with a Massey 135 and a square baler, Alan Poff has built up an impressive fleet of tractors and farm machinery to cater for his customers’ requirements. He is joined in the business by his wife Patricia and sons Stephen and George. Additional staff are taken on in the busy summer months.
Specialising in baled silage, slurry spreading, hedge cutting, saw work, reseeding, muck / soil shifting, crop spraying and fertiliser spreading, the Poff’s run the business in tandem with their beef farm. They cover within a 25km radius of Killorglin / Milltown and have earned a reputation for being the best in their field.
“Our customers are a mixture of beef, dairy and sheep farmers,” Alan Poff explains.
“We’ve been catering for the agri contracting needs for the past 40 years. A lot of our customers have been with us from the start, which reflects well on the service we provide. We pick up new ones every year and they usually stay with us for the long haul. We value their custom and treat everyone the same regardless of their size. Baled silage is our main area of speciality. We make up to 25,000 bales a year.”
Offering a top-class service and complete customer satisfaction, Alan Poff & Sons Agri Contractors has an array 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 agri contractor’s success is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff as well as the quality of its machinery. The Poff family deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Alan Poff & Sons Agri Contractors are synonymous with Valtra tractors. Since purchasing their first – a Valtra 6400 – in 2000, they have bought 15 more, all from O’Connor’s Tractors in Knocknagoshel, who have been main Valtra dealers for Kerry, Limerick and Clare for the past 20 years.
Valtra tractors combine versatile features and innovative technology into outstanding comfort. Valtra owners benefit from a reliable, high-quality tractor that is tailored to meet the needs of their farm or contracting business. Each Valtra is individually built according to the customer’s wishes. This way their tractor features exactly the equipment they need and they do not need to pay for unnecessary extras.
“We think they’re a great tractor,” Alan says.
“We have 12 at the moment and never have any trouble with them. They’re reliable, economical, comfortable and have a good trade-in value. On top of that, O’Connor’s Tractors provide us with an excellent back-up service.”
Alan Poff & Sons Agri Contractors run the following Valtras: 6400, 8150, t140, t160, t151, n111 (x 2), t162, n143, t183 and n154 (x 2). The latest addition to the fleet is a 2010-registered 160hp t162. They last time the Poff’s bought new was in 2016 when they took delivery of their two n154s.
Other plant / equipment operated by the Co. Kerry contractor include three McHale Fusion 3 round balers, two CLAAS rakes, two Kverneland mowers and a John Deere mower, four Quicke loaders, two Arbocut hedge cutters, two NC 14-tonne dump trailers, a Kverneland four-furrow non-reversible plough, Amazone fertiliser spreaders, two Belmac slurry tankers, one Connor slurry tanker, a Doda umbilical slurry spreading system, a Rabe power harrow and a 1,000-litre crop sprayer.
All machines are maintained and repaired regularly by the Poff family themselves in their own workshop to avoid breakdowns and downtime. For bigger repair jobs, they enlist the services of Cronin’s Farm Machinery in nearby Milltown or the aforementioned O’Connor’s Tractors.
There is no such thing as a quiet time of the year for this well-respected contractor who will work around the clock during the silage season to keep their clients happy.
“2018 was our best year in a long time. When you get good weather like what we got last summer, it makes life an awful lot easier for everyone involved. We were able to look after our customers without the treat of wet weather hanging over us.”
Alan Poff & Sons Agri Contractors retain long-time customers and attract new ones by offering a professional, punctual, reliable, clean and value-for-money service. They stand over everything they do, while no job is too big or too small.
The Poff’s would like to take this opportunity to thank their many customers in Mid Kerry for their continued support. Here’s to the next 40 years of the successful family business!
Alan Poff & Sons Agri Contractors
Dromin, Milltown, Killarney, Co. Kerry.
Telephone: 087 1803848 / 087 2520896 / Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 8, December 2018/January 2019
