Mick English, the owner of Ireland’s first 552hp Fendt 1052, has described the machine as “a massive tractor” after seeing it in person. His civil engineering company, Shannon Valley Group, recently bought the 14t tractor from Farmworks Machinery, a Dublin-based dealer that said the 1052 is the largest Fendt in the country.
The tractor uses a 12.4L, six-cylinder MAN engine producing 2,650Nm of torque. English said that power output was a main reason for upgrading to the 1052, which he first saw at Agritechnica. The company previously ran a 1050, bought three years earlier, and has accumulated 4,000 to 5,000 hours on it. He said the business was happy with that machine and opted for the new model. Shannon Valley Group has used Fendt tractors for seven or eight years.
The 1052 is due 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 those attachments when buying tractors, adding that they consistently recommend Fendt. He described the brand as the Rolls-Royce of tractors, while attributing that view to the equipment makers rather than to his own assessment alone.
English rejected the idea that a large tractor might be bought mainly “for show.” He said the machine 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 tractor.
English, from Co. Leitrim, has 35 years of earthmoving experience and has been around tractors since childhood. His father began in 1976 with a Massey 35 and later a Massey 165, at a time when cabs were not available. English recalled that the 165 was a mark one model with round axles and a small Perkins 203 engine, and that he still has those tractors.
He also recalled climbing onto the 165 at three years old when it arrived in the yard, then jumping off crying because of the noise when the throttle was pulled. Asked whether he expected to own one of Ireland’s largest tractors, he said that in the 1970s a Massey 165 was the equivalent of a Fendt 1052 today, at least in Co. Leitrim.
The family business has a history of early adoption. 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, which was the first of its kind sold in Europe at that time.
English said he will probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year.