Based in Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath, Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd is an established agricultural, roadwork and property maintenance contracting organisation with origins dating back to 1969. Irish Tractor Agri & Plant touched base with Project Manager Jonathan Moore to hear more about some of its current projects and recent additions to the company’s fleet.
Business is good these days at Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd and the plan for Oliver Conroy and the team in Farthingtown is to try and keep things that way right through to 2023.
With its origins dating back more than half a century, the company today provides its customers with an unrivalled agricultural contracting service, with all tasks completed quickly, efficiently and at a competitive price.
Oliver followed in the footsteps of his father by becoming immersed in the business and eventually going out on his own in 2005.
Today, he is spearheading the progressive family-owned operation, with its excellent reputation resting upon its ability to continually adapt to changes in order to provide clients with the highest level of service possible when working with limited budgets and tight deadlines.
Irish Tractor Agri & Plant spoke with Jonathan Moore, who has been a Project Manager with the company since 2015, to learn all about the ins and outs of the company, the challenges it faced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and its hopes for the months ahead.
“Right now, the company employs 28 full-time staff. I started working here in May 2015 and only recently became project manager in the company after studying project management in UCD,” he outlined.
“We’re busy at the moment and, thankfully, most of our construction sites were able to stay going during the pandemic as they were deemed essential projects.
“We’re also very busy with waste haulage at the moment and, with the agricultural service, there’s a tillage enterprise, four ploughing machines and a new John Deere that we picked up last year. We recently expanded our tillage enterprise and adding 2 extra 5 furrow ploughs and a new Kuhn sower and a Heva front press.
“So, the agri end is still busy and on the construction end nothing much has changed. There were a couple of projects in March 2020 that would’ve had to close temporarily with restrictions but the essential work was still there, and the variation of work that we have very much kept us going and it keeps us going all year round here.”
Indeed, the wide range of services on offer at Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd keeps it busy 12 months of the year and is also why the company has close to 30 full-time staff on its books.
It has more than 50 years of experience in both farming and the use of machinery, offering extensive and flexible range of solutions that covers tillage (drilling, ploughing, harrowing, seed bed preparation, ring rolling, discing, sowing, subsoiling, combining, grain carting, etc.); slurry spreading and farmyard manure spreading, as well as grassland services (reseeding, subsoiling, raking, tedding, silage cutting, whole cropping, round baling, mowing etc.).
In that case, it’s no surprise to see the company adding six new tractors to the fleet last year, as well as a new combine harvester and Kuhn sower picked up from Meath Farm Machinery.
Last year also saw a new jet washer added to the machinery collection at Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd and jet washing itself is another service which is very popular amongst its customers.
At the moment, the work is flowing across all sectors for the company as Johnathan himself explained.
“On the agri side of things, we’re actually ploughing and sowing for Gerry and Oliver Conroy at the moment on their own farm,” said the Project Manager.
“In January 2021, we started a new slurry pipe enterprise for cattle and pig slurry that has taken off since and there’s now 1600 metres of piping that we use.
“We’re also busy down in Kilkenny with hauling waste water and, in construction alone, we have machines working all around Ireland.
“We are busy maintaining farm roadways and cow roadways with our new FAE crusher drum which will crush rock and stone particles and leave a fine smooth roadway which is then rolled and compacted. There is also the option to add lime or cement if the material has poor binding properties. This along with a direct water flow system fitted to the drum allows for a thorough mix. This system recycles and re-uses materials and saves any mass movement of material which is very cost beneficial and more economically viable.”
So, all of that considered, the burning question is what has been the secret to the success and longevity of Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd after all these years?
From Jonathan’s perspective, he sees earned trust amongst clients through the delivery of excellent services time and time again as being the outstanding reason for the company’s continued success.
“We’re 24/7, always working here whether it’s out in the field or wherever,” he said.
“Oliver has built a good relationship with a lot of people down through the years and they know that we’re reliable and have excellent machinery with drivers from every corner of Ireland.
“The driver is absolutely a major part of the company because it’s the driver that keeps the hire.
“Communication is key too for new jobs that are starting up and we always keep strong communication lines with our customers.”
No doubt the strong communication lines with customers will continue for years and years to come for Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd.
Looking towards the months ahead for the business, Jonathan is as optimistic as ever even with the challenges that are out there at the present for both the agricultural and construction industries.
“We’re coming into summer now and these are some of our busiest months. It’s when the most is done on both the agri and construction sides.
“We’re happy where we are at the moment and we’ll look to keep everything as busy as we can. We’re always looking for new ideas and there’s always little things that you can pick up on to improve the business.
“Going forward, we want to keep our strong relationships with all of our clients and customers and continue working alongside them,” he concluded.
Oliver Conroy Plant & Agri Hire Ltd
Farthingtown,
Rochfortbridge,
Co Westmeath
Tel: 044 9224499
Mob: 087 220 9661
Email: info@oliverconroy.com
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 10 No 4, July/August 2022