Founded by the late Hugh Nolan in the late-1990s, Belan Agri Contractors Ltd in Moone, Co. Kildare is now run by his nephews Hugh (Jnr) and Patrick Nolan with a helping hand from their parents Joe and Mary, and Hugh’s wife Anna.
The company provides a complete agriculture contracting service to a wide customer-base in Kildare, West Wicklow, Carlow and Laois.
The Nolan name has been synonymous with the agri contracting sector since Hugh and Patrick’s grandfather, also Hugh Nolan, bought a threshing mill after serving in the merchant navy during World War II. Hugh passed on his passion for farm machinery to his sons Hugh and Joe who provided contracting services to local farmers for many years. Hugh went on to set up Belan Agri Contractors Ltd and since Hugh’s death in 2011, his nephews have been carrying on the family tradition.
Hugh and Patrick Nolan are also involved in their father Joe’s plant hire business, Joe Nolan & Sons Plant Hire, which provides site clearance, land drainage, excavation and farm road construction services. Operating from the same yard, Belan Agri Contractors and Joe Nolan & Sons Plant Hire cater for almost every need.
“The two businesses complement each other. Most of the customers are the same,” Hugh Nolan Jnr explains.
Belan Agri Contractors Ltd prides itself on working to a high standard with a fast, friendly and efficient service. The company has a fleet of modern and well-maintained machinery to carry out your work quickly and professionally, providing you with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in your own expensive equipment.
The success of the business is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its equipment. The family-run concern delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
Belan Agri Contractors specialises in all aspects of tillage and crop production from conventional ploughing tilling and sowing to mintill, offering complete stubble to stubble service including brown bin and chicken litter spreading , spraying (pa1 and pa2 qualified) fertilizer spreading, harvesting and baling (variable chamber round baler, big square baler 8x4x3 and 8x3x2 .
They also offer the complete pit silage ,maize and wholecrop service, including sowing maize with or without plastic and have recently started big square baling and wrapping silage along with reseeding; slurry spreading; farmyard manure spreading; beet washing; supply and delivery of straw; tractor hire with operator from 110 to 280hp equipped with GPS. For the full range of services visit www.bacl.ie
The Nolan’s employ one full-time driver, Niall Doran, and take on additional staff during peak times. They run five Fendt tractors – 716, 818, 820×2 and 828. The most recent addition to the fleet is an 820, which was purchased from Flynn’s Machinery in Mullingar.
Other equipment / machinery operated by the Nolan’s include a New Holland FR9080 self-propelled forage harvester, a Volvo L60E loading shovel, two New Holland combine harvesters (TX66 and CX8080 from JR Perry Ltd in Athy), a Taarup butterfly mower, a Lely 1015 rake, an Abbey 3,000 gallon slurry tanker, a Horsch Pronto 6KR drill, two five-furrow Kverneland ploughs, New Holland round and square balers, and a Maschio seven-leg sub-soiler.
A Bergmann spreader with GPS mapping, on board weighing and low ground pressure tyres is used to spread chicken litter which is supplied by Straw Chip Ltd in nearby Ballycullane, Athy. The spreader was purchased from HRL Machinery in Durrow, Co. Laois.
Joe Nolan & Sons Plant Hire also boasts a wide range of equipment, including four Caterpillar diggers (two 20-tonne, one seven-and-a-half tonne and a wheel digger), two Fendt tractors (824 and 924), a Mastenbroek trencher and two 20-tonne Dooley dump trailers.
In addition to the contracting businesses, the Nolan’s farm 140 acres on which they grow wheat, barley, peas and beans.
There is no such thing as a quiet time of the year for this agri contractor. In the early months, the focus is on spreading slurry, chicken litter and sowing. The silage season, which typically runs from May to September, is a particularly hectic period for the Belan Agri team who will work around the clock to keep their customers happy. The harvest then takes precedence, followed by more slurry spreading.
The Nolan’s are members of the Association of Farm Contractors of Ireland (FCI), which was set up three years ago by a group of farm contractors and has gained considerable momentum since then. The FCI, which held its first conference in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare in November 2012, was formed to give agricultural contractors a voice at Government and EU level.
Its other objectives are to promote good contractor / farmer relationships; to promote the benefits of a good agricultural contracting service; to provide members with knowledge and courses to help them run their business; to promote a good working relationship between contractors.
Belan Agri Contractors are grateful for the support they have received from their customers over the past two decades, and look forward to continuing to cater for their needs for many more years to come.
“We have received tremendous support from the local farming community down through the years. Our customers keep coming back to us year after year because we can be relied upon to provide a top-class, clean and cost-effective service.
“Patrick and I are the third generation of contractors, it’s in our blood, both of our grandfathers were involved in agri contracting (the second being the late Pat Lawler)and it’s looking promising for the fourth generation too.
“Anna and I have two children, Mathugh and Rebecca, who share my passion for machinery, and with Patrick due to marry his fiance Laura later this year, the future looks bright,” Hugh concludes.
Belan Agri Contractors Limited
Belan,
Moone,
Athy,
Co. Kildare.
Telephone: 087 6867125 (Hugh);
085 1515627 (Patrick)
Website: www.bacl.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 7, August 2015
