Shannon Valley Group, the Co Leitrim civil engineering company owned by Mick English, has bought Ireland's first 552hp Fendt 1052. The 14t tractor was purchased from Dublin-based dealer Farmworks Machinery, which said the 1052 is the largest Fendt in the country.
The machine is powered by a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine that produces 2,650Nm of torque. English said he upgraded to the 1052 after first seeing it at Agritechnica. The company bought a 1050 three years ago and has put 4,000 or 5,000 hours on it; satisfaction with that tractor led it to choose the new model.
According to English, Shannon Valley Group has run Fendts for seven or eight years. He summarised the reason for staying with the brand by saying that a Fendt is a Fendt.
Heavy-duty role
The 1052 will carry a 3.5t weight on the front and a 9t hybrid stone-crushing and soil-stabilisation machine on the back. English said he takes advice from the manufacturers of those attachments when buying tractors, and that they consistently recommend Fendt. He described Fendt as the Rolls-Royce of the sector and said the recommendation came from the equipment makers rather than from him.
English rejected the suggestion that very large tractors might be bought only for show. He said the tractor is on its limit when it is working in the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays, and that the whole tractor gets pulled down in those conditions. In his view, more power makes the work easier on the tractor.
English, who has 35 years of earthmoving experience, said his father began in 1976 with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165, machines that lacked the luxury of a cab. Asked whether he expected, back then, to own one of Ireland's largest tractors, he said that in the 1970s a Massey 165 was the equivalent of a Fendt 1052 in Co Leitrim.
He recalled that his father's 165 was a mark one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine. He remembered climbing onto the tractor at three years of age when it arrived in the yard and jumping off again in tears because of the noise when the throttle was pulled. He still has those tractors, he added.
Buying new machines is part of the family history. English said his father started the business in London in 1966, where he bought brand-new JCB 3C diggers, and moved it back to Leitrim in 1970 with the JCBs and other equipment. Shannon Valley Group now has more than 200 diggers, including a 75t Hitachi Zaxis 690-7 bought in 2020, which at the time was the first of its kind sold in Europe.
English said he will probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year as well.