Mick English, a Co Leitrim contractor with 35 years of earthmoving experience, has become the owner of Ireland's first 552hp Fendt 1052. His civil engineering company, Shannon Valley Group, purchased the 14t tractor from Farmworks Machinery, a Dublin-based dealer that said the 1052 is the largest Fendt in the country.
English said the tractor is massive when seen in person. The machine is powered by a 12.4L, six-cylinder MAN engine that produces 2,650Nm of torque. That power output was a main reason he upgraded to the 1052 after first seeing it at Agritechnica.
Shannon Valley Group previously bought a Fendt 1050 three years ago and has put 4,000 to 5,000 hours on it. English said the company was happy with that machine and chose the new model as a result. Shannon Valley Group has used Fendts for seven or eight years, and he said the brand's reputation was a factor, adding that "a Fendt is a Fendt" in his view.
Workload and attachments
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, those manufacturers have completed their own research and consistently recommend Fendt. He compared the brand to Rolls-Royce and said the recommendation came from the equipment makers rather than from him.
English rejected the idea that a large tractor might be only for show. He said the 1052 is on its limit when working in the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays, and that the whole tractor is pulled down in those conditions. In his view, more power makes the work easier on the tractor.
Family history in machinery
English's involvement with tractors began at a young age. His father started in 1976 with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165, machines that English noted did not have the luxury of a cab. He recalled jumping onto the 165 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 said he still has those tractors.
Asked whether he expected to own one of Ireland's largest tractors, English said that in the 1970s a Massey 165 was the equivalent of a Fendt 1052 today, at least in Co Leitrim. His father's 165 was a mark one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine.
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 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. At the time, it was the first of its kind sold in Europe.
English said he will probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year as well.