Cattle farmer using experience to fight Covid-19
By Aimee Walsh
A local cattle and Christmas tree farmer has been using his experience in agricultural chemical spraying to fight against Covid-19.
Luke Joyce, 24, from Tallaght, is using his wealth of experience and knowledge of chemicals for agricultural purposes such as weed control around Christmas trees and disinfecting livestock sheds to try fight against the current outbreak.
Luke Joyce is using his experience in agricultural chemical spraying to fight against Covid-19
Luke was born and raised on one of Tallaght’s few cattle farms on Tallaght Hill, between Brittas, Tallaght and Saggart, and says being brought up on a farm inspired him to start his own business.
“I always wanted to study entrepreneurship, because of the farm I was always interested in business from a young age. I went and did Business and Entrepreneurship in Maynooth University and got the Entrepreneurship Student of the Year Award when I graduated in 2019.
“During college I started the TheCleaningCompany.ie, which does window cleaning, power washing and gutter cleaning. It is a premium brand, trying to get away from the stereotypical window cleaner in a tracksuit cleaning your windows with newspaper.”
When the Covid-19 outbreak happened in March 2020, Luke said he knew he needed to change things up for the sake of his business and employees and decided to combine cleaning and agricultural spraying and disinfecting.
“Because of the farm, I already knew everything there was to know about spraying. We had a Christmas tree farm, so I used to do herbicide spraying to keep weeds down, and disinfecting to keep tuberculosis at bay, because there is so many deer on Tallaght Hill, TB spreads to cattle.
“I merged the two – the cleaning business and the experience in agriculture disinfecting and spraying together and started the Covid-19 disinfecting.”
The company uses a method called bio-misting to disinfect interiors, and have gone on to disinfect nursing homes, petrol stations and gyms during the pandemic. The process gets into every nook and crevice, completely destroying any harmful organisms.
Luke’s company also had a very important role in a recent filming of RTÉ’s series ‘Home Rescue’.
“They needed to get home rescue filmed but needed it to be safe as well as they are going into peoples houses. They needed it to be disinfected beforehand for the film crew and builders, and for the family to move into after. We did that for 7 or 8 episodes all around Leinster.”
For more information on Luke’s work visit The Cleaning Company
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