Established in 1980, John Salley & Sons is well-known in agricultural contracting circles. The Salley family also farm over 1,000 acres in the north-western corner of Co. Kildare.
John Salley & Sons has been providing a top-class agricultural contracting service to its many customers in Kildare and the surrounding counties of Meath, Westmeath and Offaly for the past 35 years. Set up by John Salley, it is now very much a family affair with his three sons Syl, Patrick and Martin also involved. And not forgetting John’s wife Anna, who has always been there to support him and the contracting business.
During busy times, the Salley’s can take on up to 10 additional staff.
John Salley & Sons has come a long way since John started out with two Ford 7,000 tractors and a pair of Kidd double-chop harvesters. The family’s passion for farm machinery, coupled with their ambition and determination to provide the best service there is, has seen them become one of the biggest and most successful agricultural contractors in the midlands.
Committed to going the extra mile for their customers, John Salley & Sons specialises in silage cutting, bulk fertiliser spreading, slurry and dung spreading, plo Silage is off-loaded beside the pitughing and reseeding as well as corn, cereal and beet harvesting. The Salley’s have a wide range of machinery to carry out your work quickly and efficiently, providing you with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in your own expensive equipment.
The success of John Salley & Sons is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of their staff, as well as the quality of their equipment. This contractor delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
“Our main business is grass and maize cutting,” eldest son Syl explains.
“We cut between 3,500 and 4,000 acres of grass and maize pit silage and a further 1,000 acres of baled silage every year. We also do quite a bit of bulk fertiliser and slurry spreading. We use JCB Fastracs for the fertiliser spreading and delivering feed.”
The Salley’s run an impressive fleet of John Deere, JCB and Claas tractors. They have three John Deere 7530s, three John Deere 6920s and three John Deere 6620s. Completing the fleet are three JCB Fastrac high-speed tractors (3320, 3330 and 3170) and a Claas Arion 640.
Other plant / equipment operated by John Salley & Sons include a Claas Jaguar self-propelled 890, a Claas Lexion 460 combine harvester, a Krone Big M Mark II self propelled mower, two 10 foot Class mowers, three JCB loading shovels (434s, 416s and 414s), a JCB TM 310s teleporter, a pair of Red Rock slurry tankers, two Simon Cross slurry pump agitators, two Keenan Orbital dung spreaders, an Armer Salmon beet harvester, two Lemken disc harrow, 3 metre Kuhn corn drill, three Kuhn 3 metre power harrows and three five-furrow reversible Kverneland ploughs, three 10 tonne K85 Bredal fertilizer spreaders, two McHale 550 Round balers and one McHale Fushion baler, twelve 20 foot Dooley twin axle silage trailers and one 24 foot Smyth tri axle silage trailer.
The machinery is upgraded on a regular basis to keep breakdowns and downtime to a minimum, while most servicing and maintenance is carried out in-house. The Salley’s have built up a large and loyal client-base and continue to attract new customers each year.
There is no such thing as a quiet time of the year for John Salley & Sons. The year begins with slurry spreading, following by ploughing and sowing crops. Things get really busy from May onwards when the first cut of silage takes place. The silage takes precedence until the autumn when it’s time to bring in the corn and maize. During peak times, it’s not unusual for the Salley team to work around the clock in order to get the job done and keep their customers happy.
In addition to their agricultural contracting business, the Salley’s farm over 1,000 acres of mostly rented land which is located within a 10-mile radius of their Cadamstown yard. Here, they grow wheat, barley, grass, maize, fodder beet and feed beans.
“About a third of the land is in grass and another third is in maize. The remainder is in fodder beet, wheat, barley and feed beans. Back in the yard, we have a feed lot which we use to fatten cattle in the winter months,” Syl says.
The yard is also used as a depot by J Grennan & Sons. The Salley’s have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Offaly-headquartered company, and continue to supply bulk fertiliser for them. Involved in agri trading since 1878, J Grennan & Sons has developed from very small, solely retail beginnings into one of the leading importers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of farm inputs in Ireland.
Grennan’s core business is the manufacturing and distribution, at both wholesale and retail level, of animal feeds, farm fertilisers and agricultural seeds. The retailing and wholesaling of agrochemicals, farm hardware and farm plastics are also integral parts of their business.
For all your agriculture contracting needs, be sure to give John Salley & Sons a call.
John Salley & Sons
Cadamstown,
Broadford,
Co. Kildare.
Telephone: 046 9551024
John: 087 2544573
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 7, August 2015
