Based in Naul, Co Dublin, the Whyte family farm involves seven brothers and seven sons, all of whom are actively involved in the day-to-day operations. The family farm 3,000 acres of tillage across Dublin and Meath. They also keep 70 suckler cows and fatten 200 heifers annually.

The Whytes started out with Massey Ferguson tractors while New Holland at the time had more options when it came to higher-horsepowered machines. Alex Hutcheson, a neighbour and salesman at the time for Armstrong Machinery, grew up with the Whyte brothers and before long they had a Ford tractor sitting in their yard – a 100hp Ford 8600, a big machine for 1973, Ollie noted.

The need for more horsepower saw the Whytes purchase the tractor, which was the first of several 8000 series Fords to come through the gates. Ollie said the family always had blue blood when it came to tractors. This was down to the close working relationship between the Whytes and Armstrong Machinery.

The Whytes have owned almost every series of tractor manufactured by Ford-New Holland, including TWs, 10 series, TMs, and now the latest T6, T7 and T8.

The Whytes have 11 New Holland tractors on the farm, ranging from 120hp to 410hp. All were bought new.

The rule of thumb in the business is to replace the under-300hp tractors every five years and the larger tractor every 10 years. The reason for replacing the larger tractors less frequently is they don’t clock up as many hours in a year compared to the tractors working every day. Generally, the larger tractors have a set number of jobs in the year and are only used for these applications, ie ploughing, drilling and other cultivation work.

Last autumn, the decision was made to trade a T8050 in for a new higher-horsepowered tractor. Armstrongs happened to have a T8.410 available. Ollie said the waiting list for the larger T8 series can often be much longer due to the lower market demand for tractors of this size. The fact that they are manufactured in Racine in the US state of Wisconsin adds to the lead time.

T8.410

After some time, the Whytes took delivery of the T8.410. The tractor has a six-cylinder FPT Cursor 9 engine meeting stage IV emissions via diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), AdBlue injection and selective catalytic reduction (SCR). The tractor is rated at 374hp (275kW), with a maximum power of 409hp (301kW). It has a diesel tank capacity of 670l and a 99l AdBlue tank. The T8.410 is fitted with New Holland’s Ultra Command 50km/h full powershift transmission.

Fitted with category IVN rear linkage, the tractor has a rear lift capacity of 10,927kg and 5,810kg front linkage lift capacity. The cab is fully equipped with the Luxury Pack which includes the leather steering wheel and the Auto Comfort leather seat. Other features include, the LED lighting package, full RTK guidance and autosteer.

The tractor is fitted with 900/60 R38 rear tyres which are going to be replaced with for 42 inch rims.

Currently the tractor is shod on 900/60 R38 Trelleborg tyres (rear) and 600/70 R30 Michelin tyres (front). Ollie plans to change the rear 38in rims to 42in rims now ahead of this autumn for the larger footprint. The farm’s other T8.330 is fitted with 42in rims which they find are a massive help in terms of reducing soil compaction.

Usability

Having clocked up just 65 hours on the T8.410 since taking delivery, not much time has been spent in the field due to the good spell of weather last back-end. This allowed most drilling and cultivation work to be completed ahead of spring. The tractor has spent a number of hours on the Lemken Solitair 6m one-pass drill and He-va front press.

Some of the land farmed by the Whytes is hilly, needing plenty of weight and power for ploughing and drilling. Having the 410hp in front of the drill allows drilling to be done at average speeds of 10km/h, depending on soil conditions.

Drilling typically starts for the Whytes around 21 September, continuing to the first week in November. In this time, 1,800 acres are drilled with the Lemken 6m one-pass, so a high machine work rate is necessary. The second drilling outfit is the New Holland T7.235 and 4m Kverneland one-pass, planting about 1,000 acres each year. The larger T8 tractors are clocking up around 800 hours each year.

“The T8s don’t come out many times in the year, but when they do they are work long hard hours.”

Ollie said a tractor of such size is essential for achieving a high work rate within the small time frames of modern Irish agriculture and it is important the machines are working, noting that good dealer backup is key.

The T8.410 and T8.330

Manoeuvrability

What impresses Ollie and the team most about the T8s is their manoeuvrability. Their tight turning radius of 4.9m allows him to turn on the headland with the seven-furrow plough and head down the next pass at ease. The T8 is every bit as manoeuvrable, if not more so than the smaller T7s. Both T8s and the T8050 spend their time during the harvest ploughing. All of the ploughs are Kuhns – two seven-furrows and a five-furrow, roughly ploughing 85% of the ground during harvest.

The T8.410 weighs in just over 10.8t but Ollie noted the tractor is ballasted up to 13.5t for applications such as ploughing, using wheel weights, front weight blocks etc.

When drilling the T8.410 is burning 45-50 litres of diesel an hour at 1,800rpm. The good news for the Whytes is that so far the tractor has proved easier on diesel than the old T8050.