Killen Bros provides a full agricultural contracting service to farmers in the north-west of Northern Ireland. The Killen family also grow their own crops and have a large dairy herd.
A passion for farming and farm machinery led to Jonathan Killen and his brothers returning to their roots and setting up Killen Bros in 2008. The agricultural contracting business is run in tandem with the family farm in Newbuildings, which straddles the Co. Londonderry-Tyrone border, and is situated on the main Londonderry to Strabane Road.
Jonathan and his brothers Christopher, Robert, Philip, Adam and Gordon are all involved in the day-to-day running of the farm and contracting business. They are assisted by their father Derek, two full-time staff and four part-time. During peak season, the Killens take on up to six additional workers.
“Some of us had regular jobs and the rest were coming up to school-leaving age when we decided to go down this route,” explains Jonathan, who is the second eldest of the brothers.
“I was working as a mechanic with D&M Farm Services in Eglinton, but I’m a farmer at heart and I wanted to go back to it. It was the same thing for the other lads. So we started out with two tractors and a Claas harvester. The contracting business gradually grew from there and so too did the size of our farm.
“We’ve gone from milking 100 cows to 350, and keep all of our followers leaving us with 700 head of cattle. We’ve also seen a dramatic increase in the volume of crops that we grow. None of us have any regrets about going back to farming. It’s what we love doing, and doing together. It wouldn’t work if we weren’t all pulling together and singing from the same hymn sheet.”
The Killens have 70 acres of their own land and rent a further 600 acres. They grow 130 acres of whole crop wheat and 120 acres of wheat, barley and corn. The contracting business has been a great success for them and has seen them build up a large and loyal customer-base in an area extending from Dungiven to Newtownstewart.
“We cover anywhere within a 20-mile radius of Newbuildings,” Jonathan says.
Specialising in silage cutting, slurry spreading, reseeding, corn harvesting, spraying and fertiliser spreading, Killen Bros is committed to providing a high-quality service and customer satisfaction. The brothers have 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 contracting firm’s success is largely down to the quality of its equipment and the knowledge and expertise of its staff. Killen Bros deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
The Killens run a fleet of eight tractors, which consists of eight Massey Fergusons and one Fendt. Ranging from 135 to 265hp, the Massey models are 6290, 6480, 7618 (x4) and 6499 (x2). The Fendt is a 718. Additional tractors are hired in when the need arises.
Killen Bros’ other equipment / plant includes Krone butterfly mowers, a Krone Big M, three RedRock and five Kane’s trailers, two Krone Big X forage harvesters, Lely and Viking rakes, two JCB 416 excavators, KRM sower, Amazon sprayer, Kverneland plough, Massey Ferguson 36 combine harvester, four 3,000 gallon Abbey slurry tankers, two Lemkin one-pass units and three umbilical slurry systems. The machines are upgraded on a regular basis.
Servicing and repair of machinery is carried out both in-house and by the relevant dealers. Realising the importance of avoiding breakdowns and keeping machines running smoothly at all times, the Killens inspect and clean their equipment on a weekly basis.
Most of the tractors were purchased from the aforementioned D&M Farm Services in Eglinton. D&M have been main Massey Ferguson dealers for the north west of Northern Ireland since 1987. They also supply other new and used agricultural machinery, including slurry tankers, tele-handlers and trailers.
In addition, Killen Bros buy machinery from John McElderry (Motors & Tractors) Ltd in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim. John McElderry is main dealer for Massey Ferguson and Krone.
The farm contracting business is busy all year round. The year begins with slurry spreading, followed by reseeding. The silage season, which typically runs from May to September, is a particularly busy time for the Killens who are known to work around the clock to keep their clients happy. Cutting corn then takes precedence, following by more slurry spreading.
Jonathan concludes by saying: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their support. We look forward to catering for their needs and providing them with the best possible service for many more years to come.”
Killen Bros
5 Tagharina Road,
Newbuildings,
Co. Londonderry.
Mobile: 078 09714 384 / 078 58167 913
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 3, April 2015
