Tillage farming and agricultural contracting are a way of life for the Cassells family in Rathvilly, Co. Carlow. Jim Cassells explains more.
There are two generations of Cassells involved in both enterprises. Brothers Jim, Tom and Billy are joined by Jim’s son Kenneth and Tom’s son Thomas. While the three brothers have separate farms, they are run as a single unit at Ricketstown, Rathvilly, which is situated on the Carlow-Kildare border. They own 400 acres and rent a further 450 acres, on which they grow cereals and fodder beet each year.
“We grow winter wheat, winter oats, winter and spring barley, fodder beet and spring beans. Tillage is the only type of farming we’re involved in. We look after the sowing, spraying and cutting of the crops ourselves, as we do for other tillage farmers in the area,” Jim explains.
The grain is supplied to Quinn’s of Baltinglass, whose cereal grain processing facility in Lewistown, Co. Kildare processes over 180,000 tonnes of grain annually. As well as this, Quinn’s feed mill in Baltinglass produces over 50,000 tonnes of coarse animal feed per annum. In business for over 80 years, Quinn’s have established themselves are one of the largest grain buyers in the country.
The Cassells have been providing a top-class agricultural contracting service to farmers within a 25-mile radius of Rathvilly for the last 45 years. Trading as Cassells Bros, this enterprise offers a wide range of services, including silage and grain harvesting, sowing, ploughing, spraying, tilling, round and big square baling, bulk lime and fertilising spreading, dung spreading, land drainage and excavation.
“The three of us (Jim, Tom and Billy) started out doing land reclamation. We progressed from there to silage cutting and beet sowing. A lot of farmers in the area grew sugar beet, but that ground to a halt with the closure of the sugar beet factory in Carlow in 2005. We now cater for everything except slurry spreading and hedge-cutting. And I’ve no doubt we’d be at slurry spreading if it wasn’t for the fact that beet harvesting takes up so much of our time in the winter months. We even have our own weighbridge for weighing the trailers of grain and fodder beet,” Jim says.
Committed to providing a professional and reliable service as well as complete customer satisfaction, Cassells Bros have a wide range of machinery to carry out work quickly and efficiently for their clients, providing them with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in their own expensive equipment. Their success is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of their staff, not to mention the quality of their equipment. The Cassells deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Cassells Bros run a fleet of eight tractors consisting of six John Deere (7530, 6930, 7820, 6800, 7710 and 7810), a New Holland 7840 and a JCB Fastrac.
Other plant / equipment operated by the contractor include a Hitachi 210 track machine, a JCB 3CX backhoe loader, a Claas Lexion 770 combine harvester, a Claas 870 forage harvester, a Krone Big M self-propelled conditioner mower, Broughan and Smith silage and grain trailers, a Volvo L70F loading shovel, a Krone rake, a Lely round baler, two New Holland round balers, a Massey Ferguson 187 big square baler, a Tanco round bale wrapper, Monosem 12-row and Stanhay six-row beet seeders, Agrifac six-row and Armer Salmon twin-row beet harvesters, a Joskin dung spreader, two Bredal lime / fertiliser spreaders, a Volvo articulated truck, a selection of low loader, bulk and flat trailers, a Horsch four-metre drill, Kverneland six-furrow semi-mounted and five-furrow fully-mounted reversible ploughs, a Horsch Joker disc harrow and Househam and Knight sprayers.
All machines are upgraded on a regular basis to avoid breakdowns and downtime. Servicing and maintenance is carried out in-house while for bigger repair jobs, machines are sent to Kelly’s of Borris or Templetuohy Farm Machinery (TFM) in Emo / Enniscorthy. “Kelly’s are well-known Claas and JCB dealers while Templetuohy Farm Machinery have the John Deere dealership. We have a good working relationship with both,” Jim continues.
There is no such thing as a quiet time of the year for the busy tillage farmers and contractors. Between the sowing, silage, baling, drainage and excavation work, lime and fertiliser spreading and grain and beet harvesting, there is never a dull moment. At the really busy times, the Cassells take on part-time staff and will work around the clock to keep their customers happy.
“Contracting is a tough business to be in as you’re working extremely long hours and are at the mercy of the weather, economy and fuel prices. But by providing our customers with a reliable, tidy and cost-effective service, we’re still going strong after 45 years. We have a number of long-term customers throughout Carlow, Kildare and Wicklow who we would like to thank for their continued support and loyalty. We appreciate all the business we get.”
Jim also pays tribute to Kieran McGuirk and Peter Conway for the role they’ve played in the business’ success down through the years.
For all your agri contracting needs, be sure to give Cassells Bros a call.
Cassells Bros
Ricketstown,
Rathvilly,
Co. Carlow.
Telephone: 059 9161127
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 7, October/November 2017
