Mick English, the owner of Ireland's first 552hp Fendt 1052, said the machine is a massive tractor now that he has seen it in person. His civil engineering company, Shannon Valley Group, recently purchased the 14t tractor from Dublin-based dealer Farmworks Machinery, which described the 1052 as the largest Fendt in the country.
The tractor is powered by a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine that produces 2,650Nm of torque. That output was one of the main reasons English upgraded to the 1052, which he first saw at Agritechnica.
The purchase follows several years of running the brand. English said the company bought a 1050 three years ago and has clocked 4,000 to 5,000 hours on it, and was happy enough with that machine to move to the new model. He said the firm has run Fendts for seven or eight years, and that its continued loyalty comes down to the brand's reputation.
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 choosing tractors, and that they consistently recommend Fendt. He likened the brand to Rolls-Royce, noting that the recommendation comes from the equipment makers rather than from him.
Power rather than show
Large tractors are sometimes dismissed as being for show, but the new owner disagrees. English said the 1052 is at its limit when the machine works in the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays, with the whole tractor being pulled down, and argued that having more power makes the job easier on the machine.
A family tradition
English hails from Co. Leitrim and has 35 years of earthmoving experience. Like many contractors, he was involved with tractors from a young age. He recalled that his father started in 1976 with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165, at a time when a cab was not an option.
Asked whether he imagined then that he would one day own one of Ireland's largest tractors, English said that in the 1970s a Massey 165 was the equivalent of today's Fendt 1052 in Co. Leitrim.
He remembers his father's 165 as a mark one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine. English said he jumped up on the tractor at three years of age when it arrived in the yard, and jumped straight back off crying at the noise when the throttle was pulled. He added that he still has those tractors.
Buying new machines runs in the family. His father was among the first in Ireland to have JCB machines, having started the business in London in 1966 where he bought brand-new JCB 3C diggers. He moved the business back home to Leitrim in 1970 and brought the JCBs and other equipment with him.
Today Shannon Valley Group runs 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.