Farrelly brothers to feature on TG4’s ‘Contractors’ series

Carnaross farm contractors the Farrelly brothers feature in a new TG4 series, 'Contractors', which promises "an amazing insight into the world of the Irish contractor, farming and rural life in Ireland today".

‘Contractors’ which began last Thursday is a seven-part observational entertainment-based documentary series exploring the working lives and personal narratives of seven agricultural contracting families from diverse locations over a critical six-month period from April to September: a unique practical and personal insight into contemporary life in rural Ireland.

The series highlights their professional challenges, the high and lows of their daily routine and their hopes and dreams, presenting a no-holds barred portrait of seven extraordinary crews for hire – all members of an agricultural sub-economy without which farming would not be possible.

The Farrelly brothers Peter and Pat, have been in the contracting business for over 40 years. From pit silage to ploughing, sowing seeds to site clearances, they have around 20 people working for them and the hard work never stops.

From April to September, farming enters its busiest six-month period. There’s a monumental job of work to be done and the farmers of Ireland can’t do it alone. So, they turn to farming contractors and their families: men and women, young and old - hired hands and subcontractors – driving the tractors, excavators and combines, foraging, hauling, seeding, cutting and harvesting. Making farming happen.

Without them, fields would be unploughed and unseeded, slurry would be unspread, silage would be uncut and hedgerows would descend into chaos.

Every year and in all weathers, these hardworking journeymen and women arrive with 20,000 tractors and harvesters, €150 million worth of agricultural machinery and 10,000 full and part-time operators to get the job done. In a single season, their crews will harvest five million bales of silage, spread 10 billion litres of slurry and handle a mammoth nationwide programme of hedge-cutting, reseeding, crop spraying, fencing, ploughing and drainage maintenance.

Along with this gargantuan workload, the contractors will deal with the immense pressures of a seasonal industry requiring huge investment in equipment, long hours, unpredictable schedules and skilled workers and operators that are often hard to find. Timeframes are short, fuel is expensive, bad weather can derail a season and red tape can reduce a workforce to critical levels.