Coming up on 30 years in business, Peter Cooney & Sons Agricultural Contractors in Ballinabrackey, Co. Meath offers an exceptional farm contracting service to a large customer-base across the midlands.
Peter Cooney & Sons has been trading since the early 1990s, but its founder’s involvement in agri contracting goes back to the 1960s when he worked for a local contractor. Nowadays, his sons Shane and David are employed full-time in the contracting enterprise and are joined by their other siblings Damien, Stephen and Cathriona as well as Peter when things get really busy. Peter’s wife Patsy has also been a great support to him and the business down the years.
“It’s a real family affair,” Stephen Cooney explains.
“We all give a dig out at busy times and work well together. We also receive help from our neighbours Colm Brennan and Ian Gorman, who are two reliable lads and are also qualified mechanics. We enjoy a great relationship with our customers, many of whom have been with us since the very beginning.”
Peter’s passion for farm machinery was instrumental in his decision to set up his own agri contracting firm. With the help of eldest sons Damien and Stephen, who were quite young at the time, he started out providing a baling service for local farmers with a David Brown tractor and a New Holland square baler. The business has come a long way since then and now offers a wide range of services, including baling, mowing, ploughing, sowing, wrapping, slurry and dung spreading and hedge cutting.
In addition, Peter Cooney & Sons carries out agri repairs at its fully-equipped workshop. A mechanic by trade, Stephen runs this end of the business which continues to go from strength to strength.
“We look after maintenance and repairs for ourselves and other farmers in the area. No job is too big or too small. We are also the sole Irish importer of transmission parts for the CASE 51 and MX Series and the McCormick MTX Series, and deliver directly to customers,” Stephen says.
Committed to providing a top-class service and complete customer satisfaction, Peter Cooney & Sons 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 company’s success is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its equipment. The Cooneys deliver the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
The family’s fleet of tractors consists of a CASE MX135, a CASE MX110, a CASE 5140, a CASE 5130, a McCormick MTX135, a McCormick MTX185 and a 1982-registered David Brown 1490. The David Brown is young compared to their 1955 Ferguson 20 which was purchased by Peter Cooney’s father, also Peter, in 1974 and is still going strong.
Peter Cooney & Sons’ policy of upgrading their plant on a regular basis to avoid breakdowns and downtime has seen them go through a lot of machinery over the last three decades.
“After starting out with the David Brown tractor and New Holland square baler, we progressed to a Claas 44s round baler in 1993. We then bought a Welger RP12 round baler in ’98,” Stephen continues.
“Two years later, we purchased a Welger RP200 with a netwrap system and chopper, which was a big step-up from the RP12. In 2001, we bought one of the first new Welger RP220s in the country from Deering’s Machinery Sales in Nurney, Co. Kildare. We also took delivery of a new Kuhn mower that year. Moving on to 2003, we purchased a second Welger RP220 profi and a CASE MX135, which we still have. A new McHale wrapper arrived in 2004.
“We have purchased 10 new balers since then, we have owned every model of Lely/Welger baler starting with the RP12 and right up to a new Massey 3130 which came about as a result of agco buying lely grass machinery . We were disappointed about this as we have a very good relationship with our former Lely/Welger dealer in P.F Gill, and he’s the local dealer in our area. In fact, we have bought a new baler every year since 2014. In 2011, we bought a McCormick MTX185 along with a John Deere 131 front mower. We change our Balers every two years so that they are always under warranty.”
Some of the plant / equipment currently run by the Cooneys include a Lely rake, a Welger AP730 square baler, Claas front and rear mowers, a Kuhn mower, a pair of Tanco 1400 wrappers, a McHale 991BTS wrapper, a Jeantil dung spreader, a Belmac 2,500-gallon slurry tanker, a Red Rock slurry agitator, a SIP 815 tedder, a McConnel hedgecutter with saw, a Broughan 24ft trailer and a Dennison 32ft low loader.
Peter Cooney & Sons has built up a loyal customer-base within a 20-mile radius of Ballinabrackey, which is situated just outside Kinnegad. “We have customers in Meath, Westmeath, Offaly and Kildare. We cover from Tyrrellspass back across to Kildalkey and from Mullingar back across to Edenderry.
“Service, reliability, the quality of our machinery and work, and value-for-money are the hallmarks of our business. If we tell someone we’ll be with them at such a time, we’ll be there at that time. We don’t mess people around.”
There is no such thing as a quiet time for this highly-regarded agricultural contracting firm. In the early part of the year, the focus is on sowing and slurry spreading. The baling season gets underway in May and runs until September. This is a particularly hectic time for the Cooneys who are prepared to work around the clock to keep their clients happy. They cut up to 3,000 acres of baled silage each year and make between 19,000 and 23,000 bales. When the baling is done with, it’s on to more slurry spreading and hedge cutting.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their support over the years, and look forward to continuing our partnership with them for many more years to come,” Stephen concludes.
For all your agricultural contracting needs in the midlands, look no further than Peter Cooney & Sons.
Peter Cooney & Sons Agricultural Contractors
Ballinabrackey,
Kinnegad,
Co. Meath.
Telephone: 085 1374744 / 086 8429720
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 7 No 6, November 2019
Peter Cooney & Sons Agricultural Contractors
