Based in Shercock, Co Cavan, GMC Agri Ltd specialises in numerous services for its customers including baled silage, slurry and reseeding works. Irish Tractor Agri & Plant touched base with its owner Gerry McCann to hear all about the business in its 40th year and the superb Massey Ferguson fleet that it operates with.
Business is good these days for Gerry McCann and his team at GMC Agri Ltd and the plan over in Shercock, Co Cavan is to try and keep things that way for the foreseeable.
Established since 1985, the business was initially formed by Gerry’s uncle Charlie who operated it with an unwavering desire to provide the best service possible to his customers.
To this day, Gerry McCann has adopted the same professional approach when it comes out carrying out work for those that trust him to do so.
Irish Tractor Agri & Plant caught up with Gerry himself recently to find out more about the ins and outs of this contracting firm and its hopes for the year ahead.
“It’s 40 years established now and, this time of the year, there’s only the four of us working here, but during the summer there’d be seven or eight,” he outlined.
GMC Agri’s fleet sees it with seven tractors in total – six Massey Ferguson and one Class – and they are all maintained to the highest standard year-round to ensure that they avoid any unnecessary breakdowns that may occur.
There are also four McHale balers in the fleet in Shercock, with new mowers and a dribble bar some recent additions made in the past few months.
Running a modern fleet ensures that GMC Agri works to the highest standard possible and, when it comes to tractors, it’s Massey Ferguson that is very much the first-choice brand for the company.
“We’ve always had Masseys here,” said Gerry. “Martin’s (Garage) in Bailieborough beside us means a lot, but we have always had them and find them great. I have two Masseys here and there’s over 25,000 hours on the two of them. It’d be more a high-hour fleet, from 26,000 hours down to 2,000 hours.”
He added: “There aren’t too many contractors that’s running high-hour fleets and you have good reliability from the Masseys. I have 26,000 hours, 25,000 hours, 19,000 hours, 18,000 hours, 17,000 hours, 11,000 hours and then 2,000 hours in tractors. That’s why we stick with Massey and we do as much as we can ourselves in regards to maintenance when we have time to do it.
“When you’re busy with work, you go to Martins and we’ve always found their service very good over the years.”
As for GMC Agri’s services, baled silage, slurry and reseeding are just some of those that it specialises in for its more than 200 customers that are on the books in the Cavan, Monaghan, Meath and Louth areas.
Gerry and his team focus on baled silage and don’t do any pit silage, so the two MacHale Fusion balers and two standard MacHale balers are kept busy during silage season.
As for slurry work, the majority of this is done using the umbilical system and, right now, business overall is “steady” according to Gerry.
“We had a bad spring last year but the good weather on the back end made up for it,” he said.
“Business is steady. The same customers all the time and you’d be doing the same work for the same lads every year, and you’d pick up an odd lad and you’d lose an odd lad.
“That’s kind of the run of it. The weather’s the biggest thing and the slurry rules that you can’t spread when the weather’s good. That’s my biggest problem, and I think it’s everyone’s problem – the weather and the rules that you have to adhere to.”
He continued: “You can’t spread until February 1st in Cavan and Monaghan and we’d be busy with that for six weeks or so. After that, we’ll be into reseeding and still at the slurry and then the silage will start hopefully any time from May onwards. That’s when the panic really starts.
“We’ll be hoping for a good summer, but then last summer wasn’t bad because the wet days you could go and spread slurry.”
So, all of that considered, the clear question is what has been the secret behind the success of GMC Agri Ltd to date?
How has a small start-up grown into what is now a thriving agri contracting business which holds an excellent reputation amongst its customers?
For Gerry, the longevity of the business has come down to a combination of different factors.
“A lot of it is experience. Reliability and having a good reputation for the work that we do,” said the Cavan man.
“When you’re working with the same farmers for that long, you have a personal friendship built up as well as a business relationship.”
Indeed, customer base is key to the success of the business and Gerry stressed that he follows his uncle Charlie’s motto in working hard to ensure that they are kept happy with the level of service that is provided.
As for the coming months, GMC Agri Ltd will simply try to keep on doing what they’re doing while also looking to meet the challenges out there for agri contracting companies at the moment head on as well.
“We just want to stay going as good as we are. You can expect everything, but you can hope for nothing,” Gerry pointed out.
“The cost is a big thing now with diesel and I had to buy tyres there this morning. Like, a tyre you used to be able to buy for €500 is €800 now.
“The cost of everything has gone up too much. You’re fighting it all the time and you’re trying to do your best to suit the farms, but you still have to run a business. You still have to pay your bills.”
GMC Agri Ltd
Church Street,
Shercock,
Co Cavan
Mobile: 087 267 4297
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 13 No 1, Spring 2025
