Tom Dirom left the family farm in Cumbria to take up contracting, a journey that has taken him west to east and resulted in a significant enterprise
When we catch up with Tom Dirom just outside of Normanton, near Leeds, he is working down maize ground for a local anaerobic digester. His real excitement comes from the recent investments he has made with his soon-to-be wife, Lara Jade. “We’ve just purchased a farm at East Keswick, and we’re looking to establish a livery yard, with ground for grazing and silage making.”
It’s the logical next step for Tom, who started his own contracting business in Cumbria in 2007, and through careful but consistent investment now runs a substantial business that includes 810ha of share/contract farming agreements, as well as local authority work and niche operations.
“You have to take the good with the bad, and make sure you are available to your customers,” he says. “I’m always looking for new opportunities, so I rarely say no to things as long as the figures stack up, and I work closely with people to make sure we don’t let anyone down.”
He says that he watches the pennies, but this isn’t a euphemism for investing in basic, or second-hand kit. Tom insists on making the right investments in high-tech, new equipment with extended warranties. A non-exhaustive list of the tackle on farm includes six tractors (two from Valtra, a John Deere, three Case Pumas and a Duetz-Fahr), increasing to 16 at peak season when more are hired in. A John Deere 8600i forager harvester handles the bulk of the workload, with a second machine hired in as required.
Combines are in Claas green now, with the purchase of a Lexion 7500 with a 38ft Convio header for this season, having been John Deere previously. “We’re not concerned about brand if the kit will do what we need. We try and stay loyal to the dealers around us, and we’re lucky to have several excellent outlets, including Ripon Farm Services, Farmstar, RMV Services, Brian Robinson Machinery and Wilfred Scruton.”
As if to highlight this, Tom has recently invested in a front and rear Malone mower combination, with a 6m working width to tackle margins. A decision he says saved him a not-insignificant amount of money compared to some other brands on the market. The main silage kit also includes Kuhn Farm Machinery and Krone triple mowers and a Krone four-rotor rake.
An Amazone Pantera 4,500-litre, 30m self-propelled sprayer handles chemical and fertiliser applications. Cultivation and drilling kit also covers a range of manufacturers, with drills from Horsch and Amazone, a Kuhn six-furrow plough, a He-Va Stealth subsoiler and a Ryetec Restorer. “We really like the Ryetec kit, and they’re local and excellent to deal with, so we support them where we can,” he says.
From the ground up
It’s a long way from the New Holland TM155 he purchased back in 2007. Having worked for another contractor, Tom was approached by a civil engineering company who were installing a gas line and needed a contractor to handle reseeding once the work was completed. Willing to take the risk on large jobs, even then, he was offered work with a composting firm, hauling between farms and spreading. This saw Tom expand the fleet rapidly, purchasing three tractors and trailers, and hiring another two.
“It was manic. We were putting 75hrs a week on those machines, and I was juggling finding staff with the work. On average, we were shifting and spreading around 200,000t of compost a year, with three Samson 16t spreaders and a 21t excavator.”
The composting work took Tom across Yorkshire, enabling him to contact various farms. In 2010, one customer explained that their trailed forager was wearing out and asked Tom if he’d be interested in taking on the work. He purchased a JF1050 machine with a view to chopping just over 400ha of grass silage; by the end of the first season, he had done 610ha and upgraded to a JF1060 for the next year.
He shifted to a self-propelled Claas 8050 in 2012, after another customer asked if he could chop 200ha of maize. “We had to have some conversations with our previous customers,” he says. “The reason that they liked the trailed machine was that they could keep up with it on the clamp. So, I provided guarantees that we would adjust our pace to suit them.
“Whether the farmer is on the clamp or we’re providing a full service, I treat each field as if it’s my own. We’re covering 2,500ha a year, and we don’t get any clamp waste.”
Foraging work is now a key part of the business. The 2,500ha includes work for three AD plants in the area, and in addition to this, Tom works with willow plantations across the UK, harvesting the crop with a Henriksson Salix header.
Building on farmland and niches
Tom says that while the workload continues to increase, the circumstances within the industry have changed dramatically. “I’m doing more work than ever, but it’s for fewer customers as farms have been swallowed up or merged,” he says. “I’m also seeing more people approach me about contract farming, so they can continue to be involved without the investment.”
He recognises that few can run the kit required to farm efficiently now. “The cost of machinery is a struggle, not to mention the increases in fuel. If my son wanted to start up with a similar tractor to my TM155, it would cost him nearly £200,000. I paid £40,000 in 2007. But if you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to make those investments, offer more technology, and offer a quality service to get enough work to justify it.”
Farming remains the core of the business, but Tom recognises that there are other niche operations that can provide valuable work out of season. He recently invested in a JCB 150X HD excavator on 900mm tracks, and a tooth saw tree shear, with which he plans to expand the forestry operations, building on the contacts he has made harvesting willow. The business has also seen great success with winter work through local authorities, including gritting and snow ploughing, as well as hedgecutting and verge maintenance.
“As long as I can see a market for the machine, I’m willing to invest in it,” he says. “It’s normally a question of whether we have time, but we always seem to manage. We keep in contact, and we work with another contractor from Thirsk to make sure the work is completed when we say.”
As with many businesses, Tom has been impacted by a lack of workers coming into the industry. For a business almost constantly running at capacity, this is a major concern for him, but he does his best to mitigate the risk of them leaving. “I try to treat them right,” he says. “There are long hours and hard days, that’s unavoidable, but I make sure they are well compensated for what they do.”
He has eight full time operators on the books and will bring in up to 14 temporary workers during peak seasons. The need for regular, well-trained staff is compounded by the fact that Tom will have tractors permanently stationed on a local vegetable farm – two during the summer, and five during the winter.
“We source operators from local farms and bring over gangs from Ireland when we can,” he says. “It goes back to making sure we have the best equipment possible, so that they don’t dread getting in the cab for a long stretch of time.”
Looking ahead
As we spoke, Tom mentioned several times that he believed he was nearing capacity, yet he’s always keen to add another operation to the business if customers require it. This season, he’ll be running a New Holland RB165 ProBelt round baler, the first time he’s offered round baling, to clear herbal leys on local farms.
“If it fits within what we’re offering already, I’ll try and find a way to make it happen,” he says. “I’m hoping we can also take on some more AD work this year, or next, but my focus is building the stubble-to-stubble and contract farming work. It maximises the use of our equipment, and gives us a secure base to continue developing the business from.”