The Dale family name is known for good quality agricultural contracting services in County Monaghan and beyond. The family run agricultural contracting business has been successfully in operation for over 80 years!
Dale Contractors are renowned for providing a large range of services to farmers within a wide radius of their base in Newbliss, County Monaghan. They specialise in all types of agricultural work from silage to round baling, lime spreading, reseeding, slurry (pipes with dribble bar and ferry tankers) and hedge cutting.
Under the guidance of the father and son team, Kenneth and Raymond, Dale Contractors provide an excellent service to all their customers, carrying out work to meet each individual customer’s requirements. In addition, they will complete any job to a high standard with or without the farmer present, which in turn allows the customer more time to dedicate to alternative demanding tasks.
Raymond is the third generation of his family to carry on the contracting business. When asked to trace the roots of the long-established business by Irish Tractor & Agri, he answered: “Contracting has been part of our family history for many years.” Raymond continued to tell us that both his grandfathers were involved in contracting work. They would have provided a number of services such as: threshing, spreading lime, sowed, combined and dried grain. “Back in those days grain dryers were few and far between, and many farmers travelled long distances for this service”, Raymond commented. “Likewise spreading lime was a major part of the work carried out in the early 60’s by my grandfather. My father’s uncle was also involved in heavy earth moving machinery, dozing and digging.”
It was, therefore, somewhat inevitable that Raymond would follow in the footsteps of his grandfathers and father when he finished school. Now 32 years of age, contracting is a labour of love as far as Raymond is concerned! He says “it would need to be because there’s very little profit in it.” Seeing a job well done along with a happy customer is key for the Dales.
Raymond explained that in previous years the pit silage took priority, however in more recent years, the silage season has become shorter and with so much money invested in machinery, they had to branch out into other services such as baling, hedge cutting and slurry. “Any new pit silage work, or indeed any work would never be turned down,” added Raymond.
Lime spreading and reseeding continues to be a major part of the business, travelling far and wide to complete jobs. Long hours and hard graft come naturally to Raymond and his father. At all times, they aim to deliver a first class service with well maintained equipment.
“We have five tractors – Claas and New Holland,” Kenneth revealed. “We also operate a JCB 426 loading shovel, a John Deere 7400 harvester, a Claas 2900 rake, a McHale Fusion 3 Plus, a Kverneland 4 furrow reversible plough, a Kuhn Power harrow, three Donnelly trailers, Pottinger mowers, McConnel 5455 hedge trimmer, a pipe system and two 3000 gallon ferry tankers.
Maintenance is mainly carried out in house, but the bigger jobs are sent to the dealers to take care of as they just don’t have the time for this work. Raymond added “Our time is better spent getting the work done and keeping the customers happy.
This year the lime was extremely busy, with demand exceeding supply for short periods. Hedge cutting was also very popular because of the dry back end, leaving us able to travel the ground with the slurry wheels. This helped to make theseason that little bit longer”, Raymond explained
We have a great list of long serving customers, which we appreciate their loyalty and support. As mentioned previously we are always happy to add to our list of customers!
Keeping in touch with our customers is very important to us in the business. We need to be able to plan our days in the same way as the farmers need to plan around us working on their farm. We like to stick to our plans as much as possible. “We’re small enough to care but big enough to cope,” added Raymond.
Today, farmers are always seeking improved productivity and efficiency. Cutting costs, saving time and ensuring the entire agricultural enterprise is more efficient and accountable is vital for our customers. However, we don’t like to compromise on a job well done.
With years of experience in both farming and the use of machinery, Dale Contractors have a proven track record of providing a service that will not disappoint!
For all enquiries, feel free to contact Raymond or Kenneth.
Dale Contractors
Rawderry
Newbliss
Co Monaghan
Raymond – 087 954 8480
Kenneth – 087 276 6006
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 2, March/April 2022
