Celebrating 15 years in business, Leahy Agri Business Ltd is one of Kerry’s foremost agricultural contracting firms. The Causeway-based operation offers a wide range of services to the farming community, including pit silage, bale silage, maize, grain, sugar beet harvesting and reseeding.
Founded by Maurice Leahy and his nephew Kevin Leahy, the family business is also engaged in tillage farming and supplies maize to local dairy farmers. Indeed, the Leahy’s are the main growers and harvesters of maize in Co. Kerry.
“We’re a one-stop shop for all your harvesting needs. There aren’t too many contractors out there who harvest silage, maize, beet and barley. We do everything including baling hay, silage and straw, which is a new service we started providing this year after we purchased a McHale Fusion 3 baler,” explains Kevin who, along with Maurice, decided to concentrate on agri contracting and growing crops in 2006 after previously milking 160 cows.
Committed to providing a quality service and complete client satisfaction, Leahy Agri Business Ltd also specialises in slurry spreading, crop spraying, reseeding, fertiliser spreading, shuttering, dumper and digger hire. The company has a wide range 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 continued growth and success of the business is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its equipment. The Leahy’s deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Maurice and Kevin run a fleet of eight tractors, including a new Valtra T214 Active which they purchased from O’Connor Tractors in Knocknagoshel. Boasting 250hp, a Trimble smart touch GPS and finished in metallic black, this stunning machine is the second Valtra the uncle-and-nephew combination have taken delivery of in recent times. Last year, they purchased a 172-registered Valtra T174 which quickly became their ‘go-to’ tractor.
“It was our first time to buy a Valtra and we immediately fell in love with it,” Kevin says of the T174.
“We were so impressed that we decided to invest in a second Valtra, the T214, which we put a set of McHale triple mowers on the day she landed. We’re already thinking of buying a Valtra T254 next year, but that’s for another day.”
The fleet also comprises two John Deere’s 6195M, two John Deere’s 6920s as well as two New Holland T6080s and a Ford 7740 used for their 21-metre trailed sprayer.
Other plant / equipment includes a John Deere 7700 maize and silage harvester, the aforementioned McHale triple mowers, a new CLAAS 2900 rake, three new Broughan 22ft silage trailers, three Herron 18ft silage trailers, a Kane 18ft silage trailer, a Redrock 16ft silage trailer, a JCB 434s loading shovel, a Komatsu WA 320 loading shovel, a Deutz-Fahr 2780H combine harvester with 16ft header and a CLAAS Lexion 450 combine harvester carrying a 22 ft header. They also have a New Holland LM 640 teleporter along with a Mantou MLA 680 telehandler for yard duties and loading bales.
In addition, the Leahy’s operate three Komatsu track machines (PC30, 138 and 228), a pair of Star 2,000-gallon slurry tankers, a Samco six-row maize seeder, a 26ft triaxle aluminium trailer for drawing grain, a Kuhn five-furrow reversible plough, a Kverneland four-furrow reversible plough, an Amazone ADP303 corn drill, two Armour beet harvesters (one double and one single) and a Thyregod beet harvester, which is used in frosty conditions.
“We bought the Thyregod harvester during one of the cold winters we had a few years ago and it has proven to be a great buy. It allows us to harvest beet in all sorts of conditions,” Kevin notes.
Two other new pieces of kit are a Lemken Rubin 9 disc harrow and an AVP air seeder which is fitted to a Maschio three-metre power harrow. Kevin comments: “The disc harrow has been a great success. It was slow to get going but once farmers use it once for their reseeding jobs we are asked back again and again. It’s a great bit of kit.”
All machines are maintained and upgraded on a regular basis to avoid breakdowns and downtime. Servicing and maintenance are carried out in-house, while mechanic Kevin Lynch takes care of any repair work that’s needed.
“Kevin is a local lad who calls in and gets us sorted straight away. We are very lucky to have a mechanic of his calibre living in the area,” the affable contractor continues.
Leahy Agri Business Ltd boasts a large and loyal customer-base within Kerry and beyond. The company cuts silage as far north as the county bounds with Limerick, while its beet harvesting services are sought even further afield. Customers keep coming back to Maurice and Kevin year after year because they know they’ll get a high quality, reliable, clean and cost-effective service.
The wide range of services offered by the Leahy’s means there is no such thing as a quiet time of the year for them. In the early months, the focus is on slurry spreading and sowing. The silage season, which typically runs from May to September, is a particularly hectic period for the Leahy team who will work around the clock to keep their customers happy. The rest of the year is taken up by grain, maize and beet harvesting.
“When other lads have their machines parked up for the winter, we’re still going strong with the maize and beet harvesting. It keeps us going up until Christmas every year. The shuttering also keeps us busy all-year round. We do a lot of work with building companies such as Parkway Construction in Tralee on mostly new housing developments and retaining concrete work. Milking parlour and slatted shed projects take up the rest of our time”.
Maurice and Kevin are joined in the day-to-day running of the business by Edmond White, Shane Conway, who is primarily involved in the shuttering work, and Maurice’s sister, Ann, who looks after the administration side of things. Ann is the heart of the operation, making sure machines are taxed and insured, looking after invoices, sorting and paying the bills and all the important stuff behind-the-scenes that’s needed to keep a business like this running smoothly. They can take on up to nine extra staff at peak times.
In addition to the contracting business, the Leahy’s grow 400 acres of maize on contract 380 acres of spring and winter barley and 20 acres of beet. Their farm in Causeway is divided into two separate blocks, both around 150 acres, while the rest of the land is leased.
The Leahy name is synonymous with maize production and harvesting in north Kerry which is predominantly dairy country. The maize Maurice and Kevin grow is sold and delivered to local dairy farmers. They also provide a B&B contract rearing service that sees them feed 250 Friesian heifers indoors each winter before they are returned to their owner in the spring. The slurry produced is used for tillage purposes.
Maurice and Kevin would like to take this opportunity to thank their customers and suppliers for their continued support.
Leahy Agri Business Ltd
Causeway,
Co. Kerry.
Telephone: 087 7837447 (Kevin) or 086 6087246 (Maurice).
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 9 No 6, November/December 2021
