It’s all go at Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling & Agri Contractors in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan – a double-pronged family enterprise that continues to go from strength to strength on the back of hard work, honest endeavour and outstanding service.
Constantly reappraising, reinvesting and moving with the times, in the very best tradition of any family business steeped in agriculture, the key to Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling & Agri Contractors’ enduring success across the decades is not rocket science; ultimately, it comes down to an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.
Founder and primary driving force Ronan Smith has been farming and contracting since the late ‘80s and the straight-talking Cavan man is joined today in the constantly evolving and expanding family enterprise by sons Ross and Mark.
The Smiths milk 125 cows on the home dairy farm, where a state-of-the-art 32-unit Dairymaster parlour was installed five years ago, and provide a keen, dependable and efficient contracting service to local farmers, using fresh and immaculately-maintained machinery, while Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling is an approved IFFPG contractor, collecting all kinds of farm plastic, silage wrap, silage pit covers, chemical containers, netting, twine, fertiliser and feed bags, etc., for recycling from designated bring centres as well as farmyards across no fewer than 13 counties.
We touched base with Ronan in the midst of silage season, when he was flat out and just about to hop on board his trusty Claas self-propelled harvester for the day, and he was gracious enough to give a quick update on recent updates to the fleet:
“I have two Fastracs now, having purchased a second one earlier this year. They’re ideal for our needs. I’ve also invested in three artic lorries for the plastic collection as we’ve expanded our area again, now covering 13 counties, from Donegal down to Tipperary. The tractors and trailers were a good job but we realised that when you are going out on longer journeys there’s no getting away from the fact that the lorries are bigger, faster and safer.”
Another interesting addition to the fleet is a 7,000-gallon slurry tanker, which can be pulled by one of the trucks, while Ronan points out that the slurry equipment has been changed up a bit. “We purchased two 3,500-gallon slurry tankers with pumps which we can use to ferry slurry from the home farm to outlying bits of land. It’s a great way of moving slurry out to other areas and that seems to be going very well.
“We were initially going to go for 4,500-gallon tankers but the 3,500s are an all-purpose tanker that’s not too heavy and can spread after first cut, so we went with them. We bought them from Kevin Gilsenan at Terry Gilsenan Farm Machinery and are delighted with them.”
In the line of work that Ronan, Ross and Mark are in, money talks and reinvestment back into the business is a constant feature. “There’s days when you’ll figure that maybe you’re better off staying small and that way you won’t have to buy as much machinery and you won’t have to employ as many people, but when push comes to shove, everybody likes to grow and expand if they can,” Ronan contemplates.
“The two boys are showing more and more interest and taking a bigger role in the business – Ross in recycling and contracting and Mark in the dairying and contracting side – so we are happy to invest in the future and move with the times.”
While the currently-ten-strong team at Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling & Agri Contractors work hard around the clock, Ronan notes that the difficulty of securing further dependable workers is deeply frustrating: “Help this year is a big thing. If somebody could start up a business and bring in good workers, he’d make a fortune. With the foreigners coming in, it’s hit and miss. That’s our biggest struggle – getting good staff – but we’re coping alright at the same time.
“There’s no downtime and it’s go, go, go all day every day. You could do up to 18 hours a day. Boys here would get up at 5.30 or 6am and rock and roll until 10 or 11 at night. It takes a lot of work to keep things moving.
“Because of the nature of the way farming is changing, we’re doing more plastic than contracting these days. There are a lot of changes coming down the line. A lot of farmers have bought their own equipment and there aren’t that many young people taking over family farms or starting from scratch. Young people just don’t want to put in the long hours and hard work for what is seen as a modest return at the end of the week. It all boils down to what you’re going to have in your pocket on a Friday evening.
“A lot of family farms where we used to work are being sold or leased out, although at the same time we’re kept busy and are still doing a fair bit of baling and pit silage. The self-propelled from Leinster Farm Machinery was a good investment – it’s quicker and gets through twice the work in the same time. In contracting, it’s all down to speed and the weather doesn’t give you much of an opening. That’s why, when there’s rain forecast for tomorrow, you’ll often find yourself having to do two days’ work in one day.”
Luckily for Ronan, he enjoys what he does! “I have a real grá for machinery and so have the two boys – they have a great interest in it and will be taking over one day.” Ronan’s wife Barbara looks after accounts and is joined in the office by Anaish.
“We have a set of butterflies for cutting bigger acres faster and we still have the 13 Masseys, which we buy off Ronnie and Trevor Martin in Bailieborough – they never see you stuck and you can ring them any time, day or night. We get all our parts off Clarke’s Machinery in New Inn. We buy all our plastic from Martin Sexton at Lakeland Agri Sales … good quality wrap.”
One of the great strengths of Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling & Agri Contractors is that it’s a flexible and versatile operation that doesn’t have its eggs in one basket. “The plastic recycling is busy and growing all the time,” Ronan concludes. “We have the four artics now with four walking floors and two diggers on site at the collection points – a large one and a smaller one for bags – as well as a portable weighbridge.
“Ross and Mark are great at looking into what machinery is best for both aspects of the business and between us we’re always weighing up what the next investment should be.”
One thing’s for sure: it’s never too far away!
Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling & Agri Contractors,
Carnin,
Ballyjamesduff,
County Cavan.
Tel: 086 2506129
Email: [email protected]
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 13 No 2, Autumn 2025
Featured, Smith’s Farm Plastic Recycling & Agri Contractors
