OJ Neil Contracting Ltd
Energy crops fuel expansion
A Suff olk contractor has a knack for spotting new markets, as Judith Tooth discovers
P
utting goodness back into the soil has been Olly Neil’s business for 15 years. But
equestrian groundworks that helped him look at farming afresh. Now his business, OJ Neil Contracting Ltd, is a major player in the renewable energy and utili- ty sectors within agriculture, and it’s still growing.
it was an early diversifi cation into
Olly began his contracting business spreading lime and chalk – and still does. But after two or three years he realised it wouldn’t be enough to get him where he wanted to be, and he looked to nearby Newmarket for work in its equestrian markets. He found that having work outside farming kept staff motivated and provided work through more of the year. And groundworks proved to be quite lucrative compared to agricultur- al contracting.
“
It’s really risky to be buying expensive machinery if you don’t know if you can pay it off
Not having a farming back- ground has its advantages, too, says Olly: “My parents aren’t in- volved in farming – my father is a pilot – so I don’t have family mem- bers saying do this or don’t do this, and I think having a free rein is a positive thing in business.” Contracting moved up a gear when Olly saw the poten- tial for harvesting energy crops. Development of the AD plant at Symonds Farm, Bury St Ed- munds, in 2010, was the trig- ger, and, from that one contract, he now has 10, cutting a total of 4000ha of maize and 1400ha rye from Colchester to Spalding. And, off the back of harvesting, came drilling and spreading of solid and liquid digestate.
Investments “Because the AD plants are sig- nifi cant investments clients tend to be a bit more careful choosing who does the work and tend to of- fer longterm contracts – which are a key part of our operational cy- cle,” he says. “And, with all but two of the plants owned individually by farmers, if one was to go out of business it wouldn’t take all our energy crop work away.” Winning more work each year has meant increasing capacity, and this year a third forage har- vester will come on stream. Two Claas Jaguar 980s and a Krone 1100 will be used by the harvest- ing gangs along with seven Rich- ard Larrington trailers and more hired in as needed.
Clamping of energy crops used to be done with a loading shov- el, and one JCB 435s is still used, but tractors with homemade doz- er blades have proved more versa- tile within the business. “We try and run two clamping
machines per harvesting team to ensure the clamps are built prop- erly,” says Olly. “A poor clamp is a daily reminder to the client of poor work, and with high value ener- gy crops you can’t afford to be los- ing quality.”
Leap forward
Business took another leap for- ward in 2016: a new contract with Thames Water under its Thames- Grow brand involves spreading 355,000t biosolids north of the Thames from Swindon and Chel- tenham in the west to the Dart- ford crossing in the east. It’s a fi ve- year contract, with an option to extend to seven, giving Olly the confi dence to invest in six Vredo 4556 self-propelled muckspread- ers, loaded using 14t Volvo exca- vators. Volvo was chosen for its na- tionwide support and local dealer back-up. As the business has grown, more staff have been taken on:
JUNE 2017 • ANGLIA FARMER 37 “
Andy Gregory joined as operations manager in 2012 and Mike Phil- lips is biorecycling manager over- seeing all aspects of the Thames Water contract. Two supervisors
With high value energy crops you can’t aff ord to be losing quality
Olly Neil with one of the Vredo self-propelled muckspreaders used for the Thames Water biosolids contract
are responsible to Mike, each cov- ering one half of the contract area, and there are 14 operatives on the machines. “To be compliant with health
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