For over half a century, Bryan Brothers have been providing unrivalled silage and slurry contracting services to farmers in counties Cork and Waterford. We travelled to their Conna base and met up with Alan and Stuart Bryan to find out more about this exceptional large-scale, family-run operation, as well as their recently-launched business, Hose Power Cork.
The genesis of Bryan Brothers Contracting dates back to February, 1963, when George Bryan started out with two John Deere tractors (an 1120 and a 2020) paired with a single-chop silage harvester and a Ransome combine harvester.
George nurtured the operation for three decades, specialising in beet harvesting and silage. The next generation took over in the mid ‘90s, when the reins were assumed by his sons Alan and Stuart, who have painstakingly developed Bryan Brothers into one of the leading silage and slurry contracting businesses in the Munster region, covering a catchment area within a 20-mile radius of Conna, including Fermoy, Dungarvan, Mitchelstown, Glanmire and everywhere in between.
Key services professionally provided by Alan and Stuart include slurry spreading, ploughing, silage and maize harvesting. At the heart of the operation is an outstanding fleet of modern and immaculately-maintained tractors and machinery, including four Fendt (two 720s, a 724 and a 716) and three John Deeres.
For slurry spreading, the Bryans run two Agquip umbilical systems with seven-metre disc injector and twelve metre dribble bar (including a total of 2,000 metres of pipes) as well as two 3500-gallon tandem axle slurry tankers and a Bunning muck spreader as well as a Joskin 2500ft trailing shoes.
Arable and cultivation equipment to hand comprises a Lemken five-furrow reversible plough, Amazon three-metre one-pass corn drill, Amazon three-metre power harrow and six-furrow Samco maize drill (under plastic), while comprehensive silage and maize harvesting solutions are facilitated by the professional and efficient operation of a John Deere 7550 forage harvester with three-metre pick-up, six-row maize header and corn cracker, a Krone Big M Mark II, a Pottinger three-metre trailed mower, a Fusion 3 McHale baler, two rakes (Krone 900, Claas 2800), a tedder and a Volvo L90G loading shovel.
The meticulous, conscientious and hard-working siblings also run four fully-kitted 22ft Broughan Hi-Speed trailers with hydraulic back doors, steering axles and safety lights and recently added a Broughan Triaxle Bale trailer.
Having previously worked for a local contractor in nearby Watergrasshill, Alan and Stuart returned home to take over the family business 20 years ago. Beet harvesting accounted for a large proportion of the work back then. The Bryans ran a self-trailed Pottinger harvester at the time, but kept upgrading to guarantee optimal service levels. Today, the John Deere 7550 self-propelled harvester makes light work of every job, ensuring quick and tidy results at excellent rates. “Farm Power Ltd, the local John Deere supplier, are a good company to deal with and give great service,” says Stuart.
Consistency has been key to the growth and evolution of the business down through the years, as has continuity. Bryan Brothers benefit from a large volume of repeat business, always did… “Two of the customers our father worked for back in the single-chop and double-chop times are still with us,” Stuart notes.
Year in, year out, Bryan Brothers cut up to 3,000 acres of silage. And Stuart believes the umbilical pipe system is simply the best for slurry: “We started with the pipe system four years ago and we were the first in Conna to do it,” he confirms. “Anyone who uses it will agree that it’s the best system for spreading slurry.”
The Bryans also handle ploughing and reseeding as well as cutting maize (and setting it under plastic). Meanwhile, using an integrated baler wrapper for baling silage is “a mighty job – the key to baling silage”, according to Stuart. “We started with a Fusion Baler and then moved on to the Fusion 2 and now run a Fusion 3 Plus,” he adds. This is very much in keeping with the brothers’ approach of constantly investing money in upgrading their fleet of machinery in order to provide optimal levels of service.
On the tractor front, the highly-regarded contractors have recently started to move away from John Deere towards Fendt. “We were John Deere exclusively up until 2015,” Alan says. “We had a fleet of two 6830s, three 6930s, a 7530 and a 6170R, but we’re down to the three 6930s now and the rest are Fendt. We priced both the John Deere and the Fendt in 2015 and we have found that, while there was little difference in price, the Fendt has saved us a lot of money on diesel consumption, so we’ve stuck with them.
“As well as being economical, they are a very friendly tractor to drive and the 716 is very nice to operate when setting the maize under plastic. We ordered two more new ones this year from Conor McCarthy and Atkins Farm Machinery – the 724 in January and a very high-spec 720 in July.”
Every single unit in the fleet is maintained in tip-top condition at all times. “We have a fully qualified mechanic here and we do all our maintenance ourselves in-house,” says Stuart. “Of course, the Fendts come with a four-year warranty and Atkins look after that.”
Alan continues: “Maintenance throughout the season is vitally important. You have to keep on top of things.”
Sadly, tragedy struck for the amiable Bryan brothers earlier this year when they lost their sister, Jane, who passed away at the age of 40. This crushing loss was made a little more bearable by the manner in which the community rallied around them. “All the lads stuck with us and put in a really big effort to help get us through. All our customers also stood by us because they knew we were going through a really tough time. At times like that, people show what they are made of and we can’t thank them enough for the manner in which they supported us.”
Nine people are employed during the summer months and, due to the extremely dependable and professional solutions provided, Bryan Brothers Contracting are exceptionally busy during peak season.
“We don’t mess around,” says Stuart. “We give a serious service. We will ring people and ask them when do they need us. We will be there on that day and at the exact time agreed. We invest a huge effort into every job and have no problem whatsoever working around the clock whenever it’s required. We have the same four lads working with us full-time and that tells you a lot – we look after them and they look after us.
“Health and safety is of upmost importance to us and we follow all the correct procedures.
“We get a lot of repeat business and we have a lot of big customers on our books – and they are all good customers. I don’t really believe it when I hear that farmers don’t pay contractors because they all pay us.
“We stick to what we know. We concentrate on silage and slurry and we don’t try to keep everything going at the same time. Our brains never switch off and we are always thinking of how to provide the best possible service.
“Obviously, buying the best machinery is a big part of that. If something isn’t working out or paying for itself, then we’ll steer clear of that.”
Last year, a supplementary business, Hose Power Cork was established to provide a 24-hour on-site hydraulic hose repair and replacement service. This was an inspired move as Stuart and Alan were kept busy throughout the winter. “The contracting goes out like a light in October and we wondered what could be do to keep ourselves busy,” Stuart concludes. “We decided to put a van on the road doing hydraulic hoses and it never stopped.”
Cleary, Alan and Stuart Bryan have no intention of letting the grass grow beneath their feet. With an outstanding work ethic and a keen eye for detail, they have already established Bryan Brothers as one of the leading agri contractors in the Cork / Waterford region and all the indicators are that this superb family operation will continue to grow from strength to strength in the coming years and decades.
Bryan Brothers Contracting,
Conna,
County Cork.
Tel: 086 8558355
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 8, October 2016
