Combining a large fleet of machinery with decades of experience, Pa Carroll Agri provides farmers across North Kerry with a large range of agricultural services. We travelled to Causeway and caught up with Jerome O’Connell to find out more about this long-running family enterprise.
Pa Carroll Agri has been providing silage, slurry, grass seeding and various other services to the farmers of North Kerry for close to half a century. Operating within a 18-20-mile radius of their Causeway base, Pa Carroll Agri has established a solid customer base of over 100 farmers giving a steady flow of work for 10 months of the year. The business has earned a strong reputation, which has seen it grow significantly from its humble beginnings in the late 1960s when Pa himself ran a Nuffield 1060 and 460. “He was cutting hay with them and had them modified by putting in six-cylinder lorry engines,” his son-in-law, Jerome O’Connell, reveals. “Then in 1977 he went into pit silage and bought a Taarup Double Chop pulled by a 2100 Leyland.
“He went into precision chop silage in 1982, starting with a New Holland trailed harvester powered by a Deutz engine. In 1990, he bought his first self-propelled harvester – a John Deere 5830 – from Gearys Garage in Kilmeedy Co Limerick. He then upgraded to a 6810 John Deere harvester in ’97 and a 7400 John Deere harvester – again self-propelled – in 2004, which was traded in for another 7400 in ’07. Today, we run both the 1997 6810 and the 2007-reg 7400 for the busy weeks of the first cut silage. The 6810 is still well able to clock up the acres and is handy for the smaller jobs or for travelling in the wetter ground.”
Jerome has been involved in the family business since 1999 and says Pa’s reputation for dependability is one of the strengths of the operation. “The window for cutting silage is getting smaller and smaller every year and farmers are under more and more pressure to get silage cut within certain dates. Therefore having a contractor that can guarantee dates and times is important, and I would say Pa has always strived to keep his word and as a result the local farmers appreciate his honesty.
“We do all the maintenance of off-warranty machinery ourselves and have a few lads that are handy with the spanners, welder and spray-gun which is a massive advantage when you want the keep the gear in good condition. Contracting in general, especially silage, is high output over short periods of time so breakdowns are a non-runner as farmers won’t wait if the clouds are gathering. You will always get some breakdowns, but in general things run very smoothly for us.”
“We keep the machinery updated when possible; for example we’re currently buying a trailing shoe which farmers want us to use as the low emissions can get them compliant with the GLAS scheme. You have to invest and move with the times. Last spring we bought a Bergmann rear-discharge dung spreader. It was one of the first of its type in the area but it was a great investment. Most spreaders struggle with the drier dung, especially if bales are included, but the design of the Bergmann means we can get through huge tonnage per hour while getting a very even spread. This is important, especially when spreading on grass and as a result we have got a lot of extra work with this machine.”
The contracting enterprise generates full time employment for four people all year-round (including founder Pa, son Patrick and cousin Paddy Slattery), while there could be up to ten men on duty during the six-week peak period in the summer. Pa’s daughter Orla has also been known “to pick up a few acre’s on a Sunday” when shes not working as a beauty therapist, as well as Pa’s brother Gerdy also helping out, making the business a real family affair. “We generally have had the same crew for the past ten years, so were lucky with the drivers,” notes Jerome. “Experienced drivers are vital to any contracting business today as the cost of machinery has soared so any unnecessary repairs can prove costly.
Pa Carroll Agri have been running JCB loading shovels since 1984, when they purchased a 410, which was followed by a 412 in 1989. The two JCBs on hand today are a 414s and 434s purchased in 1997 and 2007 respectively.
The impressive fleet currently comprises two John Deere 1365 mowers; two John Deere 6620 tractors; a John Deere 6150M tractor purchased in 2016; three Landini Landpower 135 tractors; the aforementioned JCB loading shovels and John Deere harvesters; three 14-tonne Herron trailers as well as another homemade 18-foot silage trailer; three Redrock slurry agitators; four Hi Spec slurry tankers (one 2600-gallon purchased last year, one 1600-gallon and two 2000-gallon, one with trail-n-shoe); two Abbey dung spreaders (AP900 and AP62); Bergmann rear discharge dung spreader; a Rabe three-metre power harrow; Howard rotavator; Kverneland stone rake and 4 board reversible plough; and two OCE silage pikes (one 12ft fold-out and one standard 10ft).
The investment required for such a large fleet of equipment is considerable but Jerome says it’s important to have a large array of equipment to keep a steady flow of work throughout the year and keep farmers happy: “He ran Renault tractors from ’84 until 2000. By then the fleet needed significant investment and he decided to push on and bought the three Landini Legend 130s; then in 2004 he bought the first John Deere tractor. It has been steady investment since then which is essential if you want to grow the business. Pit silage took off between 2002 and 2012 and he doubled his output during that time.
“The first cut silage season is now compressed into a very short window, which makes it very difficult to keep the acreage up, unless you invest vast amounts of money and resources. The large fleet of equipment means we have a steady flow of work for 10 months of the year. We have over 100 customers most of which are in close proximity to the yard which is an advantage during busy times. “We also do dump trailer work in conjunction with Pa’s brother, Gerdy, who runs a plant hire business out of the same yard. The two businesses complement each other well and we’d hire in tractors from him during the silage season and run our own six for the rest of the year.”
Pa Carroll Agri,
Clashmealcon,
Causeway,
County Kerry.
Tel: 086 0819132
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 3, April/May 2017
