AgriLand paid a visit to Co. Clare to catch up with Garvey Agri Services – a contracting business that’s in the thick of the 2019 silage campaign.

Our camera-man spoke to Tom Garvey (pictured above), who was fronting the team from the harvester in what he described as “super conditions”.

Tom explained: “We’re contracting since ’05. We’ve a wide range of machinery – including a Claas self-propelled (harvester); Massey [Ferguson] tractors; Conor and Hi-Spec tankers. We do plant hire as well.

“We’ve been very lucky with the weather this spring. Compare it to this time 12 months ago, when you’d hardly walk a field, let alone be out cutting silage in it.”

He went on to say: “You’ll see a Claas [Jaguar] 960; we bought it in ’17 off Timmy McCarthy. It’s a good machine; reliable; great back-up. We’d hope to change it down the road if prices are right.

“We run a CAT loader on the pit – a 926M. [We’re] very happy with it. It’s very good on fuel and well able to climb a pit versus some of its other competitors.

“We’re running Massey [Ferguson] tractors at the minute – and one Claas tractor. We’re very happy with the Masseys; they’re good overall tractors. It’s all down to dealer back-up; I couldn’t fault the Claas either.

“We’re running Claas mowers, as well as a Claas rake.

We’ve a [Massey Ferguson] 6490 there that’s raking. It’s a bit oversized for the job it’s doing, but it’s ’09 and there’s just shy of 15,000 hours on it at the minute. We’ve retired it to an easier life.

“There’ll be days where it’ll be pulled on for drawing [silage] or slurry.”

Tom went on to detail other MF tractors in the fleet – one bought second-hand from Joe Whelan last year and another (equipped with ‘auto-steer’) that was bought brand new.

He also has a refreshingly logical approach to streamline the activities of the mower, rake and harvester. Don’t forget, of course, to watch the video.