ZERO GRAZING ON THE RISE
A CONTRACTING outfit this size requires considerable fire power, so perhaps unsurprisingly the Halpin machinery fleet comprises of no less than 10 tractors. Claas is the dominant brand by far, making up eight of the modern tractor fleet.
Tractors are bought from local Claas dealer Conor Breen, who Pat credits with being reliable and available on call whenever the team need back-up.
The tractor fleet is kept as new as possible. 2018-registered models in the fleet this year include Claas Arion 650 and 630 models.
There are also two 2017-plated Claas tractors in the line-up, namely a 630 and a 440. Claas certainly dominates but the two exceptions are a 2017 Massey Ferguson 7720 that is often used for mowing and a 2007-plated New Holland TM 155.
Another new machine bought this season is the ZG 100 Zero Grazer. The investment was mostly spurred on by customer demand but Pat plans to use the Zero Grazer in his own dairying business for feeding cows as well.
“In our own business, cow numbers have been going up a lot and sometimes walking distances were getting too long, so we will certainly use it there,” he explained.
“I would have been getting a lot of enquiries about whether we offer zero grazing from farmer customers in similar situations, so we decided to buy one this year.
“So far so good — we paid €56,000 plus VAT and bought it from Niall O’Reilly at Zero Grazing Systems.”
On the slurry spreading side, the team offers splash plate, dribble bar and umbilical spreading systems.
Pat reports customers find they get more value out of their slurry using the dribble bar system compared to the splash plate, but the latter continues to be in demand, particularly at earlier times in the spring.
The Halpins have enough hosing and pump power to offer an umbilical system over 2km in length if needed.
Abbey tankers are used — bought from another local dealer, Lynch and McCarthy’s of Cork — and Pat describes the system as being well-built and durable.