Shannon Valley Group, the civil engineering company owned by Mick English, has purchased Ireland's first 552hp Fendt 1052. The 14t tractor was bought from Farmworks Machinery, a Dublin-based dealer that says the 1052 is the largest Fendt in the country.
The machine is powered by a 12.4-litre, six-cylinder MAN engine producing 2,650Nm of torque. English said the power output was one of the main reasons he upgraded to the 1052 after first seeing it at Agritechnica. The company had bought a 1050 three years earlier and had put 4,000 to 5,000 hours on it. He said the business was happy with that tractor, which is why it moved to the new model.
Heavy attachments and hard ground
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. According to him, their research consistently leads them to recommend Fendt, and he described the brand as the Rolls-Royce of tractors.
English rejected the idea that a large tractor might be only for show. He said the 1052 is at its limit when it is put into the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays, adding that the whole tractor is pulled down in that work. In his view, more power makes the job easier on the machine.
A family history in earthmoving
English comes from Co. Leitrim and has 35 years of earthmoving experience. Like many contractors, he was involved with tractors from a young age. His father started in 1976 with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165, machines that lacked the cab comfort of later 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. He recalled jumping onto the tractor at three years of age when it arrived in the yard, then jumping off again crying because of the noise when the throttle was pulled. He still has those tractors.
Buying new machines is part of the family's history. English said his father was one of the first people in Ireland to have JCB machines. His father started the business in London in 1966, where he bought new JCB 3C diggers, and moved the business back to Leitrim in 1970 with the JCBs and other equipment.
Shannon Valley Group now has more than 200 diggers. They include 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.