Opened in July 2018, FRS’s Carlow office and agri supplies store has enjoyed a very successful first year in business as manager Noel James explains.
Located on the same site as Carlow Mart, Carlow is a sub-office of the KCDFRS (Kilkenny & Carlow District Farm Relief Services) head office in Cillin Hill, Kilkenny. KCDFRS is one of five district divisions of the FRS Network which since 1980 has provided a wide range of services to over 20,000 farmers nationwide, including relief milking, scanning, hoof care, fencing, general farm work, freeze branding and even sludge removal and waste plastic collection. These services are provided to support farmers in the efficient running of their farming enterprise.
“We’re very pleased with how the first year has gone for us. We opened for business last July and had a great turnout for our official opening in January,” Noel enthuses.
“There has been a big demand for our services, especially last spring when farmers who were working long hours with calving and so on were coming to us and looking for someone to do relief work on weekends. Farmers work hard all week and it’s a big thing for them to get a Saturday evening or a Sunday off.
“There was a need for a Carlow office because our head office in Kilkenny, which is run by Philip Kenny, is too far away for many farmers in our catchment area. We used to have a second branch in Tullow, but after that closed our catchment area wasn’t been tapped into. We have now got all of Co. Carlow covered as well as parts of Laois, Kildare and Wicklow.”
Among the areas covered in Co. Carlow are Aghade, Ardattin, Bagenalstown, Ballinkillen, Ballon, Ballymurphy, Borris, Carlow Town, Clonegal, Clonmore, Fenagh, Hacketstown, Kildavin, Leighlinbridge, Myshall, Old Leighlin and St Mullins. The Carlow office also provides relief services to farmers in areas just outside the county such as Nurney and Athy in Co. Kildare and Coolkenno in Co. Wicklow.
A large percentage of FRS customers are dairy farmers who avail of relief milking, hoof care and pregnancy scanning in addition to engaging operators for a wide range of general farm work. “The dairy industry is a real powerhouse. Since the milk quotas were lifted in 2015, cow herd sizes have increased dramatically and dairy farmers have been using our services a lot more because of the extra labour involved. FRS is strongest where the dairy industry is most prevalent,” Myshall man Noel says.
Dairy farming is a full-time commitment and KCDFRS supports farmers on a full-time basis or as and when the need arises. All of their operators are fully trained (most are graduates of Kildalton Agricultural College) and have the skills to work with the latest technology in your milking parlour. All operators are fully trained and insured, providing the farmer with peace of mind. KCDFRS can supply up to 50 relief workers to different farms at any one time.
KCDFRS can also provide general farm labourers during busy seasonal period, holiday periods and in emergency situations. Their relief workers can help with general work such as slurry spreading, fertiliser spreading, topping, yard scraping, dosing, injecting and silage feeding. They can also supply specialist workers as required to carry out tasks such as hoof care, freeze branding and calf dehorning. The benefits of using their farm relief workers include: choice of semi-skilled and specialist staff; tax deductible; one invoice; no employee costs / paperwork; fully insured.
In addition, KCDFRS is both a leading contractor and supplier of fencing in Co. Carlow. They supply fencing solutions for a variety of industries, including farming, local authorities, supermarkets, multinationals and stud farms. One of their biggest customers is Carlow County Council who they have provided with security fencing, industrial fencing, crash barriers, chain line fencing and palisade fencing over the years. KCDFRS also supplied boundary fences, crash barrier fencing, post and rail fencing and security fencing to protect utilities onsite at the Circle K Junction 5 M9 service station in Rathcrogue, Co. Carlow which was opened in 2017.
When a customer enquires about KCDFRS’s fencing service, they send their fencing manager out to the site to review the project. The customer will receive free advice and a timeframe to start and complete the project.
The new KCDFRS agri store in Carlow stocks everything from hardware and equipment, gates and accessories, and farm safety equipment to fencing supplies, fencers and animal care supplies. The holder of an animal remedies merchant’s licence, the well-laid out store is open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.
The store’s location on the grounds of the Leinster Co-Operative Mart makes it extremely accessible to farmers who come every week to sell and buy stock.
“We couldn’t ask for a better location. The place is a hive of activity every Monday when the cattle sales are on and you also have the weanling sales every Thursday between October and December. We get a lot of footfall from being so close to the mart,” explains Noel, who is assisted by Joe Lawrence with the running of the store.
FRS has 20 offices nationwide and provides a valuable source of part-time income to many young farmers, especially those from suckler farms.
Noel concludes by saying: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their business over the past year and look forward to providing them with the same great service for many more years to come.”
KCDFRS Carlow Office
Killeshin Road,
Carlow R93 VOR1.
Telephone: 059 9152444
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 7 No 5, September/October 2019
