Operating from Castletownroche, Mallow, Co Cork, Cloon Farm Contracting is a thriving agri contracting business with a rich history dating back to the early 1970s. Irish Tractor & Agri touched base with Diarmuid O’Connell who runs the company alongside his father Willie.
Business has been thriving as of late for the O’Connell clan down in Castletownroche, Co Cork and the plan for father and son Willie and Diarmuid is to keep things that way, as Cloon Farm Contracting continues to hold a very proud name.
At 75 years young, Willie O’Connell continues to be involved in the business he first started off more than half a century ago on a daily basis.
His son Diarmuid has followed in his footsteps when it comes to agri contracting and together they run a steadfast business that boasts an excellent fleet which is consistently being upgraded.
Irish Tractor & Agri spoke with Diarmuid to learn all about the ins and outs of the company – from its origins to the state of business today.
“My father started at silage in 1970 and then got into tillage in 1971,” Diarmuid outlined.
“Today, the services we offer our customers here include ploughing, reseeding, slurry, hedging, dung spreading and haulage among others.
“We have a lorry for fertiliser haulage, and we also make hay on our own grass ground and bale hay for the customers. We have two round balers here as well.”
Right now, there are three people working in the business full-time, including Willie and Diarmuid, while extra staff are taken on during the busy summer period.
At 75, Willie is still driving the lorry for Cloon Farm Contracting when needs be and is also on hand to operate the company’s second combine.
It seems agricultural contracting is very much in the O’Connells’ DNA and, despite all the challenges over the past year or so, business has seldom been better according to Diarmuid.
“Last year was one of the easiest years we would have had,” he reflected. “With Covid and the lockdowns, the roads were very quiet and then on top of that you had great weather for the silage season.
“We’d also have 500 acres as well here for grain and we put in a new grain drier in 2020. We store it and the wheat and barley goes to the piggery. We also cut the grain this year for ourselves and there was no panic with the straw during 2021.”
Today, Cloon Farm Contracting is operating with half a dozen tractors in its fleet – all of them John Deere.
The O’Connells don’t tend to look elsewhere when it comes to their tractors as they view John Deere as the most reliable and efficient brand out there.
“There’s a great back up service with them,” Diarmuid pointed out. “Just call them and they’ll sort it out for you, even though we would try and do a lot of the maintenance service here ourselves.”
2021 saw the O’Connells adding a new tractor to the fleet in Castletownroche – an Amazone One Pass 4 metre.
Purchased from Jim Power Agri Sales, the new machine has been running superbly ever since and plans are in place to add another combine in 2022.
“We bought a Krone TC870B in 2019, the Amazone last year and there’s a combine to add in 2022 and there’ll probably be a tractor as well added this year,” said Diarmuid.
Along with the six John Deere tractors, the machinery fleet at Cloon Farm Contracting also includes a 7550 John Deere Harvester, two T560 Combine Harvesters, a Volvo L70H, a Volvo L50 loader, a new 3 Metre Harvester, a NC dung spreader, two high spec slurry tankers and a FH 12 Volvo lorry.
It’s all key to seeing the company meet customer demand year-round and, of course, the O’Connells remain farmers to their core.
“Right now, we have 500 acres of tillage and about 80 per cent of that would be rented,” explained Diarmuid.
“We’ve 200 acres of grass ground, half of it rented, and we’ve 100 cattle in the shed here.”
A little over five years ago, the O’Connells erected a brand-new shed in their yard in Castletownroche which they have been putting to good use ever since.
Diarmuid’s glad to report that it has “made life easier” when it comes to the storage and maintenance of their machinery.
“We put in a new shed back in 2016 which has a pit for maintenance and just to make life easier, I suppose,” he said.
“The yard was fairly poor before that, but the shed has really helped to tidy things up and we’re delighted we built it when we did.”
Looking towards the coming months, the Rebel County native is keen for business to stay on its current trajectory.
Ironically, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government lockdowns which followed in a bid to reduce its spread, had somewhat of a positive impact on business for Cloon Farm Contracting.
“Funny enough, we found Covid to be great in a way because plenty of lads were off and available to work.
“I’m happy enough with the tillage at the minute but, like any fella at it, ya want plenty of work. I’m always aiming to push the silage and hopefully we can be just as busy this year as we were last year,” concluded Diarmuid.
Cloon Farm Contracting
Castletownroche,
Mallow,
Co Cork
Mobile: 086 217 7511
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 3, May/June 2022
