Clare farmer showcases incredible remote control tractor

This has the entire office fascinated.

In an unbelievable feat of engineering and ingenuity a Clare farmer has built himself a fully functional remote control tractor.

We here at breakingnews.ie don’t claim to be farming experts, but the story from this week’s Irish Farmers Journal stopped us in our tracks.

Farmer Michael Shannon from Milltown Malbay has rebuilt a 1983 Massey Ferguson MF250 to make the vehicle fully operational using a remote control the paper tells us.

Michael Shannon’s Massey Ferguson MF250

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.

Michael Shannon with his remote controlled 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 human physically sitting on it, it can also be run with the use of a Garmin GPS unit.

“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,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Hat tip: Michael Moroney for the pictures and the piece in the Irish Farmers Journal