REPORT: The Sullivan family — moving bales from A to B: Load, go, drop, repeat. There is a growing demand for specialist contractors in Ireland who can efficiently get wrapped bales from the field to the stack. We catch up with the Sullivan family business, which is now operating three bale chasers, but doesn’t own a baler or wrapper.
It seems to vary from area to area, but, while some Irish farmers are happy to fetch their silage bales from the field to the stack themselves, others just want someone to come in and do the complete field to stack operation. But ask at the contractor, and the challenge of finding the extra labour, not to mention the machinery investment, means they often don’t want the added workload of hauling bales back to the yard, either.
Indeed, while not a steadfast rule, it would be fair to suggest that there are a good many Irish baling contractors who are just two- or three-person operations, revolving around a mower, rake and combi baler. This is where a new breed of contractor is starting to appear, those that just handle the logistics of getting bales from the field to the yard and, if needed, to stack them, too. Meath-based Enda Sullivan along with his two sons, Jake and Kyle, are among those now starting to focus on this bale logistics service, but it is not something that was planned.
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