The contracting business
Georgina & Tom O’Dwyer operate a large silage contracting and plant hire business in Mid Tipperary. In addition, they milk a high-yielding herd of 100 Holstein x British Friesian cows -the average yield is a very respectable 8,000 litres pa. Milk is supplied to Drombane Coop which supplies Tipperary Coop now part of Arrabawn Coop. They have two sons Charlie (aged 14) and Tommy (aged 16) and two daughters Katie ( aged 14) and Emily (aged 12) who are all very interested in farming and machinery operations. They make 100 acres of pit silage and 600 bales of silage for their own cows and replacement stock. Before the herd was expanded, they also used to sell around 2,000 bales pa to local farmers. Bales are fed to the stock in a TMR mix using a Kuhn diet feeder.
Their silage contracting & plant hire business employs five full-time and up to 14 part-time workers during the busy season. The impressive machinery range includes 10 Claas tractors (4 high HP), 4 Claas mowers, 3 Rakes (a Claas, Kuhn and a Krone), an NC and Major slurry tankers with trailing shoes plus an umbilical slurry system. The O’Dwyers also operate three tracked Hitachi diggers, three teleporters on self-drive hire and three hedge cutters (two McConnell’s and a Spearhead) doing 2,500 hours of work each year.
Film&Film Wrapping
Tom O’Dwyer began wrapping bales in 1993 with a McHale bale wrapper. In 1995 he purchased a Krone baler, so he could offer his customers a complete baling and wrapping service. In 2016 he purchased a McHale Fusion and began supplying his customers a dual-wrapping Film and Film integrated balewrapping service.
He says his customers prefer the dual wrapping service even though he charges €1.20 extra per bale. According to Tom “With the Baletite netwrap replacement film there is no netwrap to recycle separately and none getting mixed up in the silage fed out. In addition, bales are cross-wrapped, so they are held tighter and can withstand transport and handling. Bales are much better preserved and there is no mouldy silage, and bales have a far longer storage life.”
Tom has been using Baletite replacement film and SilotitePro1800 balewrap for several years to conserve his own bales. SilotitePro1800 offers contractors several benefits including more bales per reel, time savings and enhanced silage quality.
Tom’s bale wrapper
Tom purchased a Goweil G-1 F125 Kombi baler wrapper manufactured in Austria in 2020 from Cooney Furlong in Wexford and was so impressed with the performance that he bought a second one in 2021. He baled and wrapped 22,000 bales of silage in 2024. The previous year he did 26,000 bales however due to poor grass growth last May and June the number of bales made was well down as a lot less farmers were taking out surplus grass from their paddocks. However, the long-term trend is for dairy farmers to make more bales as herd size increases. According to Tom farmers are not investing in bigger silage pits or repairing older clamps due to the high costs involved so bales are a more attractive option.
The reason Tom is so impressed with the Goweil integrated baler and wrapper is that “there is a much better chopping system, knives last a lot longer, bales are bigger and you get a denser bale. Even at half its maximum setting, it will produce a bale of around 100kg more than some of its rivals at full setting.
There is a bigger intake for silage and far less machinery maintenance is required. My customers like the better-chopped bales as it is easier and quicker to do a TMR mix in a diet feeder. In addition, cattle cannot pull out the silage beyond the barrier and leave a mess in that area.”
Of course, you need a bigger HP tractor however the Goweil is also a stronger machine with heavier chains and bearings. The knives are good for 3,000 bales and can do another 3,000 after you reverse them, after sharpening the knives they will still do another 1,000 bales” says Tom. So a happy customer indeed.
