Noel Condell is “absolutely flat out”, which is no mean feat for a 21-year-old who has set up his own agricultural machinery business. Noel, from the Pike of Rushall in Co Laois, completed a two-year Level 6 Higher Certificate in Agricultural Mechanisation in LIT and Pallaskenry.

He says the course was based on machinery and the ins and outs of machinery maintenance and operations. Although he is not from a farm, Noel always had “a keen interest in machinery and repairs”. His dad, Eric, is a mechanic, and Noel says he always had a grá “for machinery and operating machinery”.

As part of his course in Limerick, Noel completed a nine-month placement in England, where he worked on a tillage farm. One day it was raining and the boss threw a farming newspaper at him and said: “Read that. You might learn something.”

Noel spotted an article “only the size of a matchbox” about a machine called the PBE Slurry Spike, which was up for a new innovations award in England. The machine injects and aerates ground at the same time.

Noel looked it up on YouTube straight away and thought it was a fantastic idea and something that would work at home. “It was so simple – it was genius.”

Noel made contact with Philip Blake, who invented the machine, and came to an agreement to sell it in Ireland. Noel launched at last year’s FTMTA Grass & Muck Show in Gurteen and he now organises demos of the PBE Slurry Spike all over the country.

He says he has succeeded in getting the machine grant-approved with the Department of Agriculture because it facilitates low-emission slurry spreading. Young farmers can get a 60% grant on it under TAMS II, while not-so-young farmers can get a 40% grant. The machine costs €13,500. Noel says this enhanced sales of the machine straight away.

He highlights a further advantage of the equipment: “If you are spreading slurry with a splash plate, there’s a woeful smell off it – but you’ve no smell with this, because the slurry is being injected.”

This is not the only element to Noel’s business. He is also a contractor. Beginning with a slurry spreader this time last year, he says it was an easy business to get started with. This was quickly followed by the PBE Slurry Spike, and then a hedge cutter, to give him work during the winter months.

Zero-grazing for hire

Noel also runs a zero-grazing-for-hire business. “I’d be sitting on the tractor so long I’d always be thinking about new ideas. I saw a need in the market in the local area here. A lot of dairy farmers are expanding and they needed a way of getting more grass into their cows earlier on in the year.”

So Noel bought a zero-grazing machine. He says it’s a new thing to the Laois area.

“The grass I’m cutting would be, for example, a field that they cannot get cows to, to graze. So basically I’m filling the gap. They would have had grass that they wanted to graze or maybe grass on an outfarm area that couldn’t be accessed by cows, so I was able to go in, cut the grass and bring it home and feed it to the cows. You’re getting full utilisation of the grass.”

Noel says he has seen zero-grazing benefit farmers he’s worked with in several ways so far. The cycle has started earlier with cows, as a result of getting grass into the diet earlier, so “they’re coming into heat earlier, meaning the farmer is going to have a good breeding season and they’re putting it down to getting the grass into the cows sooner”.

Noel says there is an extra benefit in the cows’ solids too, with protein and butterfat yields being up with farmers he has worked with so far.

Starting young

Noel’s entrepreneurial pursuits began at a young age. As a teenager he had a fruit and vegetable business, which saw him grow two acres of potatoes and sell them on the side of the road, as well as in Mountrath and Borris-in-Ossory. He also used to buy in fruit from a wholesaler in Kilkenny, which he says earned him a lot of pocket money when he was in school.

Noel has parting words of wisdom for those who would like to tread his path: “If you did at all have the willingness to go by yourself, actually go and give it a go. Obviously don’t put yourself at risk financially or anything like that, so if it doesn’t work out you’ve only lost your time. Be willing to go and try anything. I’d have no hesitation in trying something – come up with an idea, maybe talk to people and see what they think.”

big money

When your business involves machinery, though, Noel says: “If you are going to buy, it’s all big money – I can guarantee you. That’s probably a lot of the problem.

“[People considering this type of venture] say: ‘It’s going to cost me €40,000 or €50,000.’ But I have gone and done it – and I didn’t come from a farming background at all. ”

Despite not coming from a farm, Noel’s end goal is to farm. And we have no doubt he’ll be successful.

“I’d say some lads are kind of looking at me thinking that I’m mad, but I always wanted to work for myself and do my own thing.

“I’m the sort of guy that just gets something into my head and if I think it’s a runner, I’ll go and I’ll do it – and that’ll be it.”