Civil engineering contractor Shannon Valley Group has bought Ireland’s first 552hp Fendt 1052, according to owner Mick English. The 14t tractor was purchased from Farmworks Machinery, a Dublin-based dealer that described the 1052 as the largest Fendt in the country.
The machine has a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine producing 2,650Nm of torque. English said the power output was a major reason for moving to the 1052 after first seeing it at Agritechnica.
Replacing a 1050
The company bought a Fendt 1050 three years ago and has put 4,000 to 5,000 hours on it. English said the business was happy with that tractor, which prompted the decision to choose the new model. He added that Shannon Valley Group has run Fendts for seven or eight years, and said the company’s continued choice of the brand reflected its confidence in it.
The 1052 is intended to carry a 3.5t weight on the front and a 9t hybrid stone-crushing and soil-stabilisation machine on the rear. English said he takes advice from the manufacturers of such attachments when specifying tractors, and that those suppliers consistently recommend Fendt. He likened the brand to Rolls-Royce, but stressed that the comparison came from the attachment manufacturers rather than from his own judgement.
Heavy-duty work
English rejected the idea that large tractors are 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 task easier on the machine.
English, who is from Co Leitrim, has 35 years of earthmoving experience. He said he has been involved with tractors since a young age, following a family tradition. His father’s tractor history began in 1976 with a Massey 35 and later a Massey 165, machines that lacked the luxury of a cab.
Asked whether he expected to own one of Ireland’s largest tractors in the 1970s, English said a Massey 165 was then the equivalent of today’s Fendt 1052 in Co Leitrim. He recalled his father’s 165 being a mark one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine, and remembered climbing onto it as a three-year-old when it arrived in the yard, then jumping off crying when the throttle was opened because of the noise. He said the family still has those tractors.
Family business
English said buying new machines runs in the family. His father started the business in London in 1966, where he bought 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 was the first of its kind sold in Europe at that time.
English said he will probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year as well.