Five short years have elapsed since DC Farm Machinery Ltd opened its doors for business and the County Meath-based concern has come a long way in that space of time. Under the guidance of husband-and-wife team, Derek and Gillian Clarke, their customers have become accustomed to a friendly and reliable service, not to mention quality agri machines and products.
Derek Clarke had 20 years’ experience in the tractor repair sector under his belt before deciding to go out on his own in 2016 and it is very much a case of so far, so good in terms of how DC Farm Machinery has evolved since then.
“When we started out our focus was on repair work,” Derek explained when speaking to Irish Tractor & Agri. “We subsequently progressed from there into a few second hand tractor sales and a few second hand machine sales. We then would have acquired the Farmhand agency which fits very nicely into the company and we have worked very well with them.”
Farmhand are the exclusive distributor to Ireland for the following brands: Krone, Amazone, Quicke, APV and Zuidberg and DC Farm Machinery – which has six employees on its weekly payroll – is one of 31 dealers in their nationwide network.
Krone is an industry leader in hay and forage equipment and their innovative line-up includes: disc mowers, rotary tedders, rotary rakes, wagons & trailers, round balers, large square balers, self propelled forage harvesters , self propelled mower and premos.
Amazone, meanwhile, is well-known for their easy-to-use, hi-tech tillage equipment which includes spreaders, sprayers, ploughs, mounted seed drills, trailed seed drills, disc harrows & cultivators, power harrows, hoeing systems and Cambridge rolls.
The market leader in tractor front end loader systems, Quicke provides a wide range of implements and styles of front-loaders to suit any application while APV specialises in crop care, grassland management, seeding & spreading equipment and offers products in a range of sizes, and to suit a wide range of applications including cultivating intercrops, reseeding, fertilising, spreading and sowing.
Last, and by no means least, Zuidberg design and manufacture front linkage and PTO systems, to suit almost every tractor type. They also produce track systems to suit many tractors and self-propelled machines.
“We supply new and second hand machinery, hydraulic hoses and fittings while repair work is still very much a big part of our business,” Navan native Derek outlined.
“There’s a big opportunity in what we do as regards the repair work because it is very specialised and that gives us an edge. It has become very electronic based so diagnostics and fault finding is really big business and we have invested heavily in up-to-date diagnostic equipment.
“It was something that we had to get into early on and we have a diagnostic system which will plug into any of the tractors. It gives us the edge and with Farmhand, the way technology is going with GPS guidance, we have to regularly do courses to keep up to speed for the technology machines. We would consider ourselves to be at the forefront of that.”
With loyal customers dotted throughout Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Cavan (and one as far away as South Korea!), Derek admits that the growth of the company to date has surpassed his expectations.
“It’s getting bigger year to year. There’s more and more work and we seem to be getting busier and busier. It is actually surprising how much work is out there.
“People would often ask me: ‘when is your quiet time?’ but there isn’t a quiet time! We have a different array of customers, from small and medium sized contractors to small and medium sized dairy farmers, which means that we effectively work the whole year round.
“Back in the day you would have your quiet months in farm machinery but when you have guys with cattle in a shed and they are feeding cows over the winter, they still need a machine to be going. If something breaks down, they’re under pressure and that’s where we come in.”
Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone on which Derek and Gillian’s business philosophy is built.
“That’s very important to us and one of the measures we use is repeat business. We get a lot of repeat business through word of mouth and that works really well for us from an advertising point of view. We get someone ringing in who will say: ‘I was talking to a neighbour of mine and you did a job for him, I’m in trouble, can you help me out?’.
“It’s more of a vocation to us than a job because with the hours that are involved, you have to be very flexible. You will have guys that will come after hours and it is part of the service. The farming machinery sector is different to anything else in that respect. Time is precious to guys, a lot of the time, for example, they are working against the weather, they need that back up and that’s what we do.”
Derek concluded: “We’re a family-run business and we like to look after our customers. You want a customer to feel appreciated and that he or she is getting value for money. Our customers are guaranteed that back up with us, we are always available.”
DC Farm Machinery Ltd
Balsaw
Wilkinstown
Navan
Co Meath
Sales and Workshop: 087 692 1767
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 2, March/April 2022
