Tomás Codd runs a mixed dairy and arable farm with his wife, Hilary, and three sons in Co. Wexford. 

The farm consists of dairy enterprise of 300 milking cows and around 400 youngstock, while the remaining 75% of land on the farm is arable.

They also grow mixture of crops such as wheat, malting barley, oats, oilseed rape and forage maize.

Tomás needed a range of machinery in order to cultivate and harvest his vast range of crops and to also produce silage for his dairy cows.

Extremely reliable

Tomás made the switch to Pöttinger five years ago and said that the decision gives him “incredible control” over the quality of crops that the farm can produce.

He uses a Pöttinger wagon along with Pöttinger mowers and heightened how effective the wagon is when operating in short weather windows.

“We don’t always have weeks and weeks of good weather to make good grass,” he said.

“Sometimes we only have 48 hours and the wagon certainly gives us that flexibility and control of what we can put in our yard for winter feed.”

Discussing the arable side of the farm business, Tomás uses the full range of Pöttinger cultivators and seeding equipment.

“It was an easy choice. With our local dealer and local Pöttinger representative always on hand to help to set up the machine and get the best out of the machine, we find that we can send people off to the fields and we don’t have to worry about them.

“The machines are extremely reliable with the hard wearing durastar points, we spend less time in the workshop replacing wearing parts.”

Tomás added that the machines can do between two and three seasons without needing replacement parts and said that ‘it really is just fuel up and go’.

Increased output

The farm uses a Pöttinger terradisc for chopped straw and stubble cultivation and Tomás said that the output is “unbelievable”.

“In the correct sort of fields, you can travel at speeds approaching 20km/h which gives us a really big output,” he said.

“There is no compromise with the work, the machine just sits there it’s really stable.”

Tomás highlighted the role his three sons play in the farm business and described how the switch to Pöttinger has allowed them to keep playing hurling along with working on the family farm.

“It’s very important to have machines that are reliable and that can stay working. They have to get back for training or for a game and there is no point being broken down in the field when you need to be playing a match.”

“From that perspective, Pöttinger certainly ticks that box for us.”

Supporting a family business

For the future, Tomás believes that food security is going to be more important than ever, given the events that have occurred around the world.

Diversification is also going to be important for farmers according to Tomás and he is currently in the process of launching a new oat crisp brand.

The project is being headed up by his eldest son Michael, a recent food and agri-business graduate, and the crisps will contain oats harvested from the family farm using Pöttinger machinery.

“For us Pöttinger’s ethos and ideas fit really well into our family business, and we feel like a really valued customer of Pöttinger.

“They go way beyond the call of duty to help us with our machines and our optimisation and we are very happy with the product and the reliability, the backup service and the team that they send to us,” concluded Tomás.

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