Based just outside of Midleton, Co Cork, M&J Contracting Ltd provides its customers with a wide range of contracting services. Irish Tractor Agri & Plant spoke with its Managing Director Shane McCarthy to find out more about the services it has on offer and the recent additions made to its excellent fleet.
Next year will see M&J Contracting Ltd in Co Cork marking an even three decades in business and the hope for Shane McCarthy and the rest of the team in Demesne is that business continues to be as steady as it is today.
Operating with three full-time on its books, the company is headed by Shane and his parents Muriel and John (hence the ‘M’ and ‘J’), with the latter set to turn 75 years old this coming December.
The origins of this family-run business date back to a time when Shane’s grandfather John started as a small-scale farmer while doing a bit of contracting on the side. When his son John jnr became more involved in the family business, he pushed the agri contracting end and John A McCarthy & Sons was born.
It was 1994 when M&J Contracting was established and the rest, as they say, is history.
While silage accounts for in and around 50 per cent of the work that it does, the company also provides services in ploughing, sowing, rolling and harvesting while also sowing and harvesting corn, maize, oil seed rape and beet as well as dung spreading, big square bales and lime spreading.
Irish Tractor Agri & Plant caught up with Shane McCarthy to hear all about the state of business at the moment and its excellent Massey Ferguson fleet.
“Business is alright at the moment. Sure weather is a nuisance all of the time, but that’s the same for everyone this year,” he outlined.
“Look, it was great weather for the first cut silage obviously in May, but it didn’t stay too dry for too long.
“When we did get the rain and things started growing, it didn’t stop raining since so we’re behind at the moment. Other than that, things are going okay.”
The long hours during the summer season often see Shane and his team at it from seven o’clock in the morning until midnight.
The company constantly invests in machinery in order to ensure that their services are carried out to a tee for customers week in, week out.
Today, it’s operating with seven tractors – all Massey Fergusons – and all of the gear in the yard in Demesne is maintained to an excellent to ensure the best performance levels.
Why do M&J Contracting stick with the Massey Fergson brand?
“My father would’ve had Masseys here donkey’s years ago during the 60s and 70s and that,” Shane explained.
“While we went to Fiat for a few years, we always had a few Masseys here and then we came back to them again. We’re happy with them, they’re a good reliable tractor and we’re happy with the service from Cork Farm Machinery as well.
“I suppose, that’s why we stay with them.”
New additions to the fleet almost seem a regular occurrence at this stage, although Shane points out that with the increase in machinery costs and finance he has to be cautious going forward.
“I’d a new Claas harvester last year and a new combine last year as well,” said the Corkonian.
“We also got a new Massey 7718 last year – it’s going well for us and we’re very happy with it. No issues with it at all.”
Covering a 30-mile radius for customers, M&J Contracting Ltd are “holding their own” at the moment business-wise, according to Shane, and down through the years the company has managed to adapt and move with the times, adding new services all the time and evolving in line with customer requirements.
Since ‘Day One’, earning repeat business with customers has been the key for this family-run venture.
Many of its customers have been with the company from the very beginning, while new ones have been picked up along the way, especially by diversifying into new areas – like sowing maize under plastic, for example.
So, the burning question is, what has been the secret behind the success of M&J Contracting Ltd to date?
How has a small start-up grown into a thriving agri contracting business which now holds an excellent reputation among its customers?
“I suppose it’s down to the fact that it’s a good, reliable service and when we say we’re going to be there, we’ll be there,” Shane pointed out.
“There’s no nonsense. If I’m not going to be there for a week, I will tell you straight out. We’re straight up with our customers and if I tell you I’ll be there on that day, I’ll be there on that day.
“I’d say that is one of the main reasons – the fact that we give a good, reliable service.”
Looking towards the months ahead for the business, Shane says he’s eager for things to more or less stay on the same course that they are on at the moment.
“We just want to keep doing what we’re doing here. We don’t want a whole lot to change.
“We’re hoping to get into cutting the whole crops in a bigger way now maybe and then we also do square bale silage now since 2016, so that’s going well for us. We’re the only ones around in our area that are doing square bale silage and you’d have to go up a lot of the country to get someone else for it.
“Customers are very happy with it and there’s repeat business from it, so we’re happy that we started it when we did,” he concluded.
Great to hear.
M&J Contracting Ltd.,
Demesne,
Midleton,
Co Cork.
Tel: 087 2606426
Facebook: /M&J Agri-Contracting
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 11 No 5, October/November 2023
