Is this Ireland's strongest tractor?
"Seeing it in the flesh, it's a massive tractor."
That is according to Mick English, the owner of Ireland's first 552hp Fendt 1052.
His civil engineering company, Shannon Valley Group, recently purchased the 14t tractor from Farmworks Machinery.
The Dublin-based dealer said that the 1052 is the largest Fendt in the country.
It has a 12.4L, six-cylinder MAN engine providing 2,650Nm of torque.
That power is one of the main reasons that Mick English upgraded to the 1052 after first seeing it at Agritechnica.
"We bought a 1050 three years ago and we have 4,000 or 5,000 hours on it; we are happy with it so we went for the new model," he said.
"We need savage lifting power and savage PTO power for the work we're doing.
"The reason we've had Fendts for seven or eight years now is... a Fendt is a Fendt," English added.
Industry advice
The 1052 will be carrying a 3.5t weight on the front and a 9t hybrid stone crushing and soil stabilisation machine on the back.
English takes advice from the manufacturers of these attachments when buying his tractors.
"The manufacturers of the equipment that we use have done all their research, and no matter which one of them you speak to, they will all tell you to buy Fendt," he said.
"They all tell you that Fendt is the king.
"Fendt is the Rolls-Royce. It's not our say; it's their say," he added.
It can often be said that large tractors might just be 'for show', but the new owner of Ireland's largest Fendt says otherwise.
"That tractor is on her limit when you drop into the ground to mill limestone boulders and hard clays; the whole tractor gets pulled down," he added.
"Every bit of her power is needed and if you had more it wouldn't go astray.
"The more power you have, the easier it is on the tractor," he said.
Diesel in the veins
Mick English hails from Co. Leitrim and boasts 35 years of earthmoving experience.
Like most contractors, he has been involved with tractors from a very young age.
"My father started in 1976 with a Massey 35 and then a Massey 165 - we didn't have the luxury of a cab back then," English said.
When asked if he ever thought, back then, that he would someday be the owner of one of the largest tractors in Ireland, English said that in the 1970s a Massey 165 was the equivalent of a Fendt 1052 today.
"In Co. Leitrim, it was anyways," he added.
English remembers how his father's 165 was a mark one model, with round axels and a small Perkins 203 engine.
"I remember jumping up on that tractor at three years-of-age when it arrived into the yard, and jumping right back off crying because of the noise when the throttle was pulled," he said.
"I still have [those] tractors," he added.
Trailblazing and buying new machines is in Mick English's blood; his father was one of the first in Ireland to have JCB machines.
"My father started the business in London in 1966, where he bought brand-new JCB 3Cs diggers," English said.
"He moved the business back home to Leitrim in 1970 and brought the JCBs and other equipment with him," he added.
Nowadays, Shannon Valley Group has over 200 diggers, including a 75t Hitachi Zaxis 690-7, which was bought in 2020.
At that time it was the first of its kind to be sold in Europe.
English says that he will "probably buy another Fendt 1052 next year as well."
