Ballyhenebry Farms Ltd has been leading the way in the growth and supply of potatoes in the Southeast of Ireland for four generations now. Frank Purcell told Irish Tractor & Agri when we caught up with him recently to learn more about the history behind Ballyhenebry Farms Ltd.
“The Purcell family have farmed in Ballyhenebry, Piltown for the past four generations. In 2007 our enterprise had developed and expanded to an extent that we were advised to form a company and Ballyhenebry Farms Ltd was set-up,” Frank outlined.
Since then all farming activities have expanded and the days could not be busier at the South Kilkenny based farm.
The company is owned and managed by the Purcell family from their location in Owning, Piltown. They are leaders in the growth and supply of potatoes and carrots to the market. Their largest client is O’Shea Farms Limited, who is also Piltown based.
“Our main tillage crops are potatoes, oil seed rape, barley, wheat, oats and carrots, and we also milk 300 cows so our activities are spread out over the twelve months.”
When we spoke with Frank in January he said they were “flat-out and right now calving cows is the big thing for us”.
He continued: “In total we farm about 800 acres some of which is rented, so it keeps us all very busy. We have tried to keep abreast with modern developments and keep up to date with modern technology. We have recently installed two FullWood robotic milking machines on an out farm.”
“We have eight working here full-time, including my father Tom, my uncle Joe and my brother Brian. We are also lucky to have reliable and hardworking employees, some of whom have been with us many years”
He continued: “We try and spread out the work load to best manage the activities. Right now calving and the cows take priority and after that it goes from tillage to silage to corn and so on. We do all our own machinery and tillage work so the summer is a very busy time for us.”
Frank explained that the majority of their potatoes and carrots go to O’Shea Farms who are based locally in Piltown.
“My father Tom and John O’Shea are cousins and we started supplying them over 50 years ago. We also supply wholesalers in the Dublin area.
“The potato varieties which we grow here in Ballyhenebry are Roosters, Maritiema, Whites and Salads. We now also produce 20 acres of potatoes that are grown under plastic. This is an innovation that we introduced seven years ago and it allows us to supply an earlier market. ”
Much of the corn that Ballyhenebry Farms Ltd grows is produced for their animals to consume rather than being sold.
Frank also told us his feelings on the market for wheat and barley at the moment.
“About 80 per cent of our corn here is fed back to the animals. In addition we have started to grow protein beans to be also included in their diet,” he said.
“With regards to wheat and barley, it’s getting to the stage now where the price is so low that it’s almost not worth growing any more. That’s a very big issue for tillage farmers at the moment. I think that dairy farmers should try to use Irish grain more which will keep the Irish grain market more sustainable.”
As for the machinery operated at Ballyhenebry Farms Ltd, the Purcells have put their trust entirely in the John Deere tractor brand for the past few years.
The primary reason being that the family holds a strong trust in the brand, traveling to Co Tipperary each time they add a new John Deere to their fleet.
“It’s all John Deere tractors that we have here – we have seven in total. We buy them from Templetuohy Farm Machinery in Clonmel, who offer competitive prices and excellent after sales srevice,”said Frank.
“When I first started working here we had a couple of Ford tractors as well but now it’s all John Deere and we find them very reliable. We also have a number of ploughs, potato harvesters, silage harvester, combine harvester, trailers and an engine driven pump, which we bought in England, for watering the carrots which can be started up remotely.”
Now well into a new year, the Purcells will be hoping for more of the same in 2017 and that is to keep busy for the entire 12 months and get better prices for their produce.
Ballyhenebry Farms Ltd
Ballyhenebry
Owning
Piltown
Co. Kilkenny
Tel: 087-8565732
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 2, March 2017
