Limerick contractor, Pat Hanley first took to the wheel of tractor when working on his father’s farm at Ballylanders, Co. Limerick, but it wasn’t until the the early 1970s that he struck out on his own.
That was 50 years ago and he is still going strong with “no notion of retiring”, although he does confess that at times he would like to slow down a little.
A Fergie was the first
His first tractor was a Ferguson TE20 TVO with a mid-mounted finger bar mower which spent most of the summer cutting hay.
However he soon sold that and moved onto a Massey Ferguson 165 with a 43″ Tarrup direct cut harvester.
Basically these machines were flail mowers with a spout attached to direct the forage into a trailer. They were also referred to as ‘single chop’ and could take a standing crop or one that was already mown.
Clearing 6-8ac/day was considered good going back then; it was all being done with just 58hp after all. Pat tells Agriland this as he comes to the end of a similar sized field which he started no more than an hour beforehand.
Buying blue
The desire for more power and work on hilly ground saw him switch brands to County which gave him 100hp with a 1004 and far greater stability.
What wasn’t quite so impressive though, was the turning circle, a notorious problem with Countys due to their equal sized wheels.
The second County was an 1174 and then it was the turn of a Ford TW20 to head the fleet as trailed harvesters started to fade slowly from the scene to make room for self-propelled machines.
Although Pat had remained loyal to the blue tractors from Basildon, his first choice of a self-propelled machine was a John Deere 5830 which, at 280hp, took him into a new power league altogether and moved the business into the 21st century.
It is a distinguishing feature of the business that the Limerick contractor has remained with the brands he knows and trusts.
He started with Tarrup mowers which became part of Kverneland, which they still use, and it is the same with forage harvesters.
Brand loyalty pays for Limerick contractor
The reason is quite logical according to Pat – it is a question of getting to know the machinery.
Although he is now on a much more modern harvester than he started with, he still has a good idea of how JD harvesters, in general, work, and knows where to look when they stop doing so, which happens far less often nowadays.
Sourcing the machinery is not quite so conventional however, as it tends to be imported with the tractors being bought in Northern Ireland while the 500hp 7500 harvester he now operates originated on the continent.
Keeping staff on board
It is not only machinery that has changed, finding staff has as well. Although there are not the spare farmers’ sons that were around when he started, he does get by with drivers coming in after their day-job or taking a few days off from their regular jobs in the busy period.
He also makes a point of ensuring that all who work for him get paid what they are owed, spending time at the end of the season to settle up with all those who have helped out, developing a strong loyalty as he does so.
Today, Pat shares the business with with his son Patrick. Alongside the seven tractors they run on the farm contracting side, they also have a small fleet of diggers which are generally kept busy with Limerick County Council, or local farm work such as roadways.
Other work includes baling with a McHale Fusion and hedge-cutting with a McConnell trimmer; this Limerick contractor is quite content to leave slurry spreading to others.
The 50 years that Pat has spent in the business have seen a lot of changes. He started with the modest mother of all modern tractors and now sits atop a harvester with nearly 20 times the power, and he could go bigger still.
That’s quite a difference over one career, but it is far from over yet.