McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors have been providing an exceptional contracting service to farmers in and around Boyle, Co. Roscommon for the past 40 years.
Established in 1983 by Roger McHugh and his brothers-in-law Johnny and Enda Harrington, the family business continues to go from strength to strength under the direction of Roger, Johnny and Enda, and Johnny’s sons Kenneth and John. They are supported by a small, but dedicated crew who have helped to make McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors the contractor of choice for many farmers in the region.
Committed to providing superior service and complete customer satisfaction, McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors have an array 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 contracting firm’s success can be attributed to the knowledge, experience, skill and expertise of its staff as well as the quality of its machinery. Their highly-skilled and highly-motivated team delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Baled and pit silage, slurry spreading, lime spreading, muck spreading and digger work are the main services offered by the directors, who also run their own suckler enterprises. McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors cut approximately 2,000 acres of pit silage and make about 20,000 bales per annum, while they are the main Grolime spreader in the area for Roadstone.
Grolime is a premium agricultural limestone product manufactured in a number Roadstone quarry locations around Ireland and delivered nationwide. It is a basic requirement for good grassland, boosting the performance of slurry and chemical fertilisers. Grolime is a natural, non-polluting, cost-effective soil conditioner and a sound investment for your farm. It improves the quality of grass swards, produces extra live weight gain, allows higher stocking rate, yields more digestible grass, grows more clover, supplies calcium and in some cases magnesium which is important for healthy bone development in livestock and for the production of milk.
At the heart of the operation is an 11-strong fleet of New Holland, Case and Landini tractors. There are five New Hollands, a T7.190, a T7.200, a T7.210, a T.6080 and a TM155. McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors also run a Case Puma 160, a Case Puma 185, two Landini Legends, a Landini Mitos and a Landini 8550. The newest tractor in the fleet is the Case Puma 185 which was bought second-hand from P&D Agri Services in Clonberne, Co. Galway in 2022 and powers a set of double mowers.
The firm’s grass machinery includes a John Deere 8500 forage harvester, two John Deere trailed mowers, a front McHale mower, a back-mounted Kuhn mower, a pair of McHale Fusion balers, a new McHale F5500 baler, a Volvo L70 loading shovel, two Kuhn rakes (purchased from Dolan Industries in Ballindine, Co. Mayo), two Smyth silage trailers (20ft and 18ft Super Cubes) and a single Kane silage trailer (20ft).
For slurry, the Co. Roscommon contractor has five HiSpec tankers, three of which are 2,000-gallon. There is also a 2,600-gallon with an Agquip dribble bar and a 2,300-gallon with a Mastek dribble bar. Both were purchased new from McHale Farm Machinery. The tankers are complemented by two Conor Megamix slurry agitators and a Spreadwise umbilical system.
A newly-purchased 10-tonne Agri-Spread VB Pro 10000 Compact Vertical Beater Spreader from Barnaboy Enterprises in Kilcormac, Co. Offaly is used for muck spreading, while an Agri-Spread AS65 takes care of the lime spreading. In addition, McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors have two Hitachi diggers (Z-Axis 130 and EX 100), a Lemken power harrow and an A&W low loader that came from Agri Machinery Ireland in Navan, Co. Meath.
All machines are maintained and serviced on a regular basis to avoid downtime, with most of this being carried out in-house. Some maintenance work is also undertaken by P&D Agri Services and TFM (forage harvester).
The family business has built up a large and loyal client-base in the north Roscommon and south Sligo areas as well as in parts of Co. Leitrim. There is no such thing as a quiet time for this highly-regarded operation which will work around the clock and take on extra staff at busy times to keep clients happy. Slurry and lime spreading take precedence in the early part of the year, followed by silage and baling during the summer months. After that comes more slurry spreading.
“We’re very grateful for the support we get from our loyal customers who are a mix of suckler, dairy, beef and sheep farmers. Some of them have been with us from the beginning,” Kenneth Harrington says.
McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors are members of the Association of Farm Contractors of Ireland (FCI) which was formed in 2012 to give agricultural contractors a voice at Government and EU level. The FCI’s other objectives are to promote good contractor / farmer relationships; to promote the benefits of a good agricultural contracting service; to provide members with knowledge and courses to help them run their business; to promote a good working relationship between contractors.
The long-established contracting firm would like to take this opportunity to thank its clients and suppliers for their continued support as well as its team for their hard work, dedication and expertise.
Here’s to the next 40 years!
McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors
Kingsland,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon.
Telephone: 086 828 8739 / 087 949 9225
Email: [email protected]
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 12 No 1, March/April 2024
McHugh & Harrington Agri Contractors
