Latest news with #Potterton
Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
327-acre Westmeath farm set to fetch over €5m at auction
The public auction on Friday, June 27, of a 327-acre Midlands holding will surely draw a lot of onlookers as well as participants — from both farmers and investors. The farm is at Annascannon, near the village of Killucan, Co Westmeath — for sale jointly with Trim-based auctioneers REA TE Potterton and Mullingar-based James L Murtagh Auctioneers. The auction will be conducted live at the Greville Arms Hotel in Mullingar and simultaneously online via the LSL Online Auctions platform. The huge property will be presented in lots, before being offered in its entirety, with different lots offering some interesting aspects to this unique holding. Some of the quality pastureland on the farm. Lot 1 comprises 198 acres of land, which includes a quarry and inert waste facility that take up about 70 acres. The rest of it is a mixture of quality land, including excellent grazing land, about 16 acres of maize crop and some woodland. 'This central part of the property sits between the Royal Canal and the Dublin-Sligo railway line,' says selling agent Thomas Potterton. 'The old quarry is now exhausted but we have identified substantial and very clean sand and gravel deposits there.' A geophysical report is available to interested parties, outlining the nature of these facilities, which may attract farming interests as well as purely commercial ones. The auctioneers expect this lot to fetch in the region of €4m. Marked aerial photo of the farm. Lot 2 consists of 75 acres north of the Royal Canal with a stream running along its boundary. 'It's a very good block of farmland,' Mr Potterton said. 'It's laid out in a number of fields and the majority of it has just been cut for silage.' The price guide is €10,000-€11,000/acre. Lot 3 is a 54-acre parcel south of the railway line. 'It's all in old pasture and has good road frontage and a water supply. We're guiding in the region of €9,000 per acre," Mr Potterton said. 'The location of this farm is very appealing. It's only about 5km from Kinnegad and the M4 motorway and 68km from Dublin. It makes it very accessible.' Read More 37-acre Golden Vale farm hoping to follow successful hybrid auction pattern
Agriland
31-05-2025
- Business
- Agriland
330kg bullocks make over €2,000 or €6.20/kg at Delvin
Delvin Mart in Co. Westmeath hosted its weekly general cattle sale on Thursday, May 29 and speaking to Agriland afterwards, Elliott Potterton of Delvin Mart said there were 250 cattle on offerwith a full clearance. There were over 100 bullocks – 80% of which were under 500kg, and in the bullock sale, prices topped out at €6.24/kg for a year-old 330kg Limousin bullock that made €2,060, bought by a farmer. Bullocks under 500kg averaged €4.08/kg or €1,420/head on average. Potterton said: 'Last year, the May 2024 average sale price for bullocks under 500kg at Delvin Mart was €2.62/kg – an average price increase of €1.46/kg. 'That's the same across all weight categories – they were all about €2.60/kg last year and they're all averaging about €4/kg plus this year.' In the heifer sale, the top price went to a 325kg pedigree Limousin heifer that sold for €2,700 or €8.30/kg bought by a suckler farmer for breeding. Two Limousin heifers averaging 295kg sold for €1,480 or €5.01/kg and another 315kg Limousin heifer sold for €1,710 or €5.42/kg. Heifers under 300kg averaged €4.25/kg while the 300-400kg heifers averaged €4.01/kg. 400-500kg heifers averaged €4.14/kg, which was up from an average price of €2.70/kg this time last year, while heifers over 500kg averaged €4.06/kg. According to Potterton: 'The average price in yesterday's sale for cows over 500kg was €3.18/kg. That's up from €2.05/kg in May 2024. 'In money terms, cows over 500kg were averaging €1,270 in May 2024 and and at the sale on Thursday, they averaged €2,000/head and there's a lot of Friesian cows in the sale here. 'There was a 655kg Friesian cow that made €2,580 or €3.93/kg at the sale here on Thursday.' Calves at Delvin Mart There were over 130 calves sold in the Thursday sale, leading to a full clearance with strong prices continuing. Potterton said: 'There were beef-sired calves sold here of Friesian/Jersey-cross cows coming into €500, you'd have change out of €150 buying some of them last year.' The top price in the calf sale went to a reared Simmental bull calf off a Friesian cow that made €790 and was bought by an exporter. Potterson said that some farmers sold May-born calves at the most recent sale that averaged €350 and the same calves 'would have done well to average €200 last year'. The mart also hosted its sheep sale on Thursday with the trade described as 'a little easier' and 40-50kg lambs averaging €3.84/kg, which was back on the average price from last year.
Irish Examiner
14-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
€12-€13,000/acre expected at auction for 44-acre Tipperary farm
Coming up for auction next Wednesday, May 21, is an interesting 44-acre holding located in North Tipperary. The man with the gavel on the day is Tullamore-based Thomas Potterton of REA Potterton, and as well as the live auction at the County Arms Hotel in Birr, there will also be a simultaneous live online auction via the LSL auctions platform. The property is in the townland of Castlesheppard in North Tipperary in a fertile zone about 3km off the N52, 8km from Borrisokane, 15km from Birr and 22km from Nenagh. 'It's a really nice block of land,' said Mr Potterton of the holding. 'It's all in permanent pasture and it's probably best suited as that. It's laid out in three or four fields and there's a nice piece of woodland of about seven or eight acres in the centre. 'There's piped water supply to each of the fields. There's a good well there but there's also mains water available at the roadside.' The locality is well supported by an established farming infrastructure with abattoirs, contractors, merchants, Nenagh livestock market, and other service industries, which are all close at hand. The property includes a good farmyard with outbuildings. These include a hay barn with lean-to out offices and crush. According to the selling agents, the lands have been carefully farmed down through the years and ready to go for the next owner. 'It would also be a lovely piece of land to build a house on,' added Mr Potterton, who pointed out there are two entrances directly from the public road. 'You have plenty of road frontage onto a minor public road… it's also a lovely area, with the Slieve Bloom mountains in the background.' The locality, Mr Potterton added, is well supported by an established farming infrastructure with abattoirs, contractors, merchants, Nenagh livestock market, and other service industries, which are all close at hand. According to the selling agents, there has been a good level of interest so far. In terms of price, the hope is the farm will make in the region of €12,000 to €13,000/acre. It's a reasonable amount that should be very achievable for a quality land block in this part of the world.
Telegraph
30-04-2025
- General
- Telegraph
My insurer said my boiler was beyond repair. I fixed it for £160
I know properties always go wrong. Whether it's a tap that develops a drip, a tile that slips or a toilet that blocks, properties always need something fixing. Routine maintenance is a must if you want to keep your place in good condition, but what about those times when emergencies strike? Like when a roof tile slips and the rain is cascading into your bedroom? Or when the boiler breaks down and it's minus five and no milder weather in sight? It was the latter two issues which caught my attention when I was buying my home insurance policy. For just an extra £50 fee, I could buy a home emergency bolt-on for the year. The package sounded ideal. I'd clocked that it only covered up to £750 of works, and having checked the small print about the boiler (many have clauses where they don't cover boilers more than 10 years old), I decided there wasn't anything there that would preclude the cover of my 40-year-old Potterton boiler. Seven months after taking out the policy, my boiler decided to stop working. I was about to call a local plumber, but then I remembered I had the home emergency bolt-on, so I called them up. It was 10am. They told me nobody could come that day, but an engineer would attend the next day. Deciding I'd put up with a portable heater and delay my hot shower, I agreed. The next day, the engineer arrived. He took one look at the yellowing carcass and suppressed a laugh. 'Wow, I ain't seen one of these for years, love!' I nodded and sagely informed him the Potterton Profile was bullet-proof and if he could diagnose and fix the issue, I'd be grateful. A lot of grunting and groaning ensued, which I ignored, and then he turned to me, his professional game face on and declared it was the overheat thermostat that was faulty, but the parts were obsolete. Searching the part online, I replied: 'But Potterton have them for sale here?' 'Nah, but you need the thermostatic knob as well, it's not safe to carry out the repair otherwise.' 'Yes, they have those in stock as well,' I replied, holding my phone screen for him to see. 'Yeah, but we have to get stock from authorised suppliers,' he said. 'Right,' I said. 'Bye,' he said. A couple of hours passed, then I called the home emergency insurance to find out what was happening. They replied the engineer had informed them the parts were obsolete and the boiler was 'beyond economical repair'. 'But you can buy the parts,' I spluttered, 'I showed the engineer them.' They repeated the line about authorised suppliers. Sensing I was going to get nowhere, I hung up and called a local plumber. 'Yeah, I can get those parts,' he said, 'but I won't be able to do the job until tomorrow. It'll be £160.' I called back the insurance company who were adamant the boiler couldn't be repaired, and despite my insistence that a local plumber was able to do the job, I had nowhere further to go than the complaints department. With the boiler fixed (for the quoted £160) I sent the insurance company the bill for reimbursement. It took them several weeks to investigate my complaint, and while they claim an engineer attended, they did recognise I was given the wrong information and offered to reimburse the bill along with £40 compensation. What's the moral of this story? Second opinions are critical. If I'd been the previous elderly owner of my property, I'm pretty sure she would have taken – and trusted – the opinion of the insurance plumber. This would have meant several thousand pounds would have been shelled out for a new boiler versus the £160 repair. But this happens all too often, and I'm not just talking about insurance policies and their ways of working. Property repairs and maintenance should be clear-cut: you should be able to say objectively what the issue is and fix it. But actually, that very rarely happens. Problems are often misdiagnosed, symptoms can be subjective, and the solutions can vary according to who you ask. The most important thing if you want to get a property problem fixed is to always ask for a recommended contractor and get at least two opinions. As much as you want to trust big companies, known names and your usual reliable independent contractor, you should never take the first person's word for the truth – it may end up costing you more than it should.
