A Co Leitrim earthmoving contractor has taken delivery of a 552hp Fendt 1052, a 14t tractor that Dublin dealer Farmworks Machinery describes as the largest Fendt in Ireland.
The machine was bought by Mick English for Shannon Valley Group, his civil engineering company. English said the 1052 is a massive tractor in the flesh, and that the purchase followed earlier experience with a 1050 bought three years ago.
That previous tractor has accumulated 4,000 to 5,000 hours, and English said the company had been happy with it, prompting the move to the new model after first seeing the 1052 at Agritechnica.
Asked why the company has run Fendts for seven or eight years, English said simply: “a Fendt is a Fendt.”
The 1052 is powered by a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine producing 2,650Nm of torque. In its working configuration for Shannon Valley Group, it will carry 3.5t of front weight and a 9t hybrid stone-crushing and soil-stabilisation machine on the rear.
English said he takes advice from the manufacturers of those attachments when specifying tractors. According to him, those manufacturers' research consistently points to Fendt, and he likened the brand to Rolls-Royce, adding that the assessment comes from the equipment makers rather than from him alone.
Heavy-duty duties
English rejected the idea that a tractor of this size is only for show. He said the 1052 is at its limit when working in the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays, with the whole tractor being pulled down. In his view, more power makes the work easier on the machine.
Shannon Valley Group's work is rooted in earthmoving. English has 35 years of experience in the sector and, like many contractors, grew up around tractors. His father began in 1976 with a Massey 35 and later a Massey 165, machines that English noted lacked the luxury of a cab.
He recalled that in 1970s Co Leitrim, a Massey 165 was the 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 in the yard and jumping off again in tears when the throttle was opened because of the noise. He still has those tractors.
Contracting heritage
The family business has a history of buying new machines. English said his father started the business in London in 1966, where he bought new JCB 3C diggers, and moved it back to Leitrim in 1970, bringing the JCBs and other equipment with him.
Shannon Valley Group now runs more than 200 diggers, including a 75t Hitachi Zaxis 690-7 bought in 2020. At the time, it was the first of its kind sold in Europe, according to English.
The company's appetite for new equipment appears unlikely to stop with the 1052. English said he will “probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year as well.”