This article is from page 8 of the 2014-07-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A WEST Clare farmer has won rave reviews for developing a tractor that can be operated by remote control, allowing him to farm the land from the comfort of his own home.
Miltown Malbay man Michael Shannon has combined his passion for farming and machinery to develop his remote controlled tractor in what has been a labour of love over many years.
In what has been hailed as an unbelievable feat of engineering, Mr Shannon has taken a tractor that’s over 30 years old, remodelled and modified it so it can operate at the flick of a switch.
Now the 1983 registered Massey Ferguson MF250 is fully operational using a remote control device and can be let loose to work away on his family farm in Miltown Malbay.
It was Michael’s ambition when he gave up being a tractor dealer ten years ago to develop a fully working, reliable remotely operated tractor.
The farmer, along with son Tony, totally overhauled the engine and hydraulic systems as well as painstakingly redoing the wiring to make his dream possible. Not only can it be used remotely and with a human physically sitting on it, it can also run with the use of a Garmin GPS unit.
If a field is digitally mapped, you can let this tractor off by itself and it’ll spread fertilizer using GPS coordinates. “Once it’s set up to go the machine will spread to the required width and then return to the gate and stop in order to be driven home by a human on the road,” Mr Shannon revealed.