Shannon Valley Group, the civil engineering company owned by Mick English, has taken delivery of Ireland's first Fendt 1052, a 552hp tractor that Dublin-based dealer Farmworks Machinery describes as the largest Fendt in the country.
The 14t machine is powered by a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine producing 2,650Nm of torque. English said he had decided to move up to the 1052 after first seeing the model at Agritechnica, having previously run a 1050.
He explained that the company had bought a 1050 three years ago and had since put 4,000 or 5,000 hours on it, and was happy enough with that machine to go for the new model. On why the business has stayed with the brand for seven or eight years, he said simply that a Fendt is a Fendt.
The tractor will be worked rather than displayed. It is set to carry a 3.5t weight on the front and a 9t hybrid stone-crushing and soil-stabilisation machine on the rear.
Advice from attachment makers
English said he takes his lead from the manufacturers of the equipment his tractors pull, noting that whichever of them he speaks to, they all recommend Fendt. He described the brand as the Rolls-Royce of tractors, adding that this was the attachment makers' verdict rather than his own.
He rejected the suggestion that a machine of this size is bought for show. According to English, the 1052 is at its limit when milling limestone boulders and hard clays, with the whole tractor being pulled down, and more power makes that work easier on the machine.
From a Massey 165 to a 552hp Fendt
English, who is from Co. Leitrim and has 35 years of earthmoving experience, said his father began in 1976 with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165, machines that came without the luxury of a cab. He recalled that in the 1970s, in Leitrim at least, a Massey 165 was the local equivalent of today's Fendt 1052.
His father's 165 was a mark-one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine. English remembered climbing onto it at three years of age when it arrived into the yard and jumping straight back off in tears at the noise when the throttle was opened. He still keeps those tractors.
Buying new machinery runs in the family. English said his father started the business in London in 1966, where he bought brand-new JCB 3C diggers, before moving it back to Leitrim in 1970 along with the JCBs and other equipment.
Shannon Valley Group now runs more than 200 diggers, including a 75t Hitachi Zaxis 690-7 bought in 2020 that was, at the time, the first of its kind sold in Europe. English added that he would probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year as well.