Aptly named, ‘Contractors’, is a seven-part series that explores the working lives and personal narratives of seven agricultural contracting families from diverse locations over a critical six-month period from April to September.
It is a unique, practical and personal insight into contemporary life in rural Ireland following crews from Limerick, Kerry, Meath, Tipperary, Galway, Donegal and Clare.
The series will highlight their professional challenges, the highs and lows of their daily routine and their hopes and dreams, presenting a no-holds barred portrait of seven extraordinary crews for hire.
From April to September, farming enters its busiest six months.
There’s a monumental amount 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.
For the 137,000 families whose livelihoods depend on it, farming is a full-on, full-time job.
But few farmers have the time, the manpower or the expensive specialist plant required to do it. And so they call on the services of 1,800 agricultural contractors from all around the country.
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.
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.
Time frames are short, fuel is expensive, bad weather can derail a season and red tape can reduce a workforce to critical levels!
With an unprecedented mix of Irish culture, heritage, experience and contemporary society presented in the Irish Language, featuring many strong female led and female centred enterprises, this series will be a melting pot of all ages, generations and sexes set in the Ireland of the 2020s blended into a high quality programme that will stand the test of time.
Contractors are the heartbeat of rural Ireland – crucial players in a food-producing sector that is central to Ireland’s economy.
Their job is arguably more difficult than that of farmers themselves and without them, modern farming itself would not be possible.
There will be machinery to repair, herds to milk, bread to bake, crews to wrangle, clients to appease, weather to predict and deadlines to meet.
Set against the backdrop of each contract will be the weddings, family crises, pub quizzes, study regimes, demanding siblings and the kitchen sink drama of real life.
‘Contractors’ will air on TG4 at 9.30pm on Thursday 24 February.
You might be interested in these stories from Farming Life: The Fast and the Farmer-ish: Will NI team be crowned UK’s best tractor drivers in new BBC series?; This Farming Life: Locations and families starring in series five; Rare Breed: Meet the families starring in the 10th series of the popular farming show
