The Mackey family has been farming at Killealy since Andrew’s great-grandfather bought a 52-acre holding at the beginning of the 20th century, with early enterprises including a dairy herd, pigs, sheep, poultry, and cereals.
In 1942, Andrew’s grandfather, William Mackey, bought a green Fordson N with narrow mudguards through the War Ag, which controlled the drive to increase the nation’s agricultural output. This was the farm’s sole tractor until the arrival of a 1959, four-cylinder Massey Ferguson 35, fitted with a loader.
The farm expanded and soon the dairy herd grew to 32 cows milked in the byre by an Alfa Laval milking plant with three bucket units. William Mackey also shared a Nuffield Universal Four with a local lime-spreading contractor, adding more power to the tractor line-up.
On 1 July 1966, the arrival of a new Massey Ferguson 165, purchased from R A Allen in Ballymena, brought the work force right up to date, just as Andrew’s father, Lyle, completed his course at Greenmount Agricultural College.
In the mid ’70s the MF 35 was sold to a potato grower
