At the Auctions: Lots under hammer as contractor renews fleet

In the midst of a significant refresh of its sizeable machinery fleet, Preston-based contractor and machinery hire firm Wilson Farming held an auction to offload some of its older equipment.

Among the goodies on offer were seven Fendt tractors, a trio of John Deeres and a New Holland, plus several Claas Jaguar forage harvesters, a Lexion combine and scores of trailers and implements.

The sale was held by East Anglian auctioneer Cheffins on 16 February and attracted plenty of interest from both home-market and international bidders, some from as far away as Australia.

Roughly half of the lots went to in-person bidders and half to those taking part online. And, with the relatively weak pound making prices look attractive in euros, several high-value items sold to buyers in Austria and Germany.

Not all lots sold, though, with several headline pieces of equipment failing to meet their reserves.

And it wasn’t all about big-ticket items, with a bevy of lower-priced implements and attachments on offer, from conventional balers and twin-rotor rakes to ploughs and Cambridge rolls.

Below, we’ve picked out a few of the highlights.

See also: Krone Big M beats tractor triple mowers for Lancs contractor

Top seller in this trio of near-identical 2020 John Deere 6155Rs with Autopowr CVT transmissions was a 1,382-hour example that sold for £90,000.

Features on the well-specced 170hp tractor included a 4600 Command Center in-cab display, LED lights, a hydraulic top link and the promise of a new set of Bridgestone 650mm rear and 540mm front tyres.

One of the others had worked 1,245 hours and sold for £89,000 with the same tyre deal, and the other made £72,500 with 3,676 hours on the clock and only its part-worn Michelin tyres.

Of the seven 700-series Fendt tractors on offer, the pictured 2020 724 Profi Plus achieved the top price of £107,000.

The 240hp model came in a high spec, with a rear bar axle, guidance, five rear spools, a front linkage and front pto.

Other desirable features included electric mirrors, LED lights, Power Beyond, and Trelleborg 710mm rear and 600mm front tyres.

It had clocked 3,986 hours and a dealer had just performed its 4,000-hour service.

Of the remaining Fendt field, and as the only tractor to be offered with a loader, this 2020 718 Power Plus achieved one of the highest prices at £98,200.

Specs included a front linkage and pto, four rear spool valves, 650mm rear Ceat Farmax tyres and 540mm Trelleborgs on the front.

There were two other 180hp 718s in a similar spec, minus the loader, with one on 3,200 hours making £98,200, and the other on 4,550 hours selling for £87,800.

Three 200hp Fendt 720s registered in 2020 also went under the hammer, all in the mid-range Power Plus spec and all with about 4,000 hours on the clock.

As for all the Fendt tractors sold, there was a flurry of bidding, with a 4,213-hour model making £90,500, another on 4,050 hours selling for £91,000, and the top price of £97,200 being achieved by the lowest-worked, 3,712-hour example.

Nestled among the sea of green tractors was a lone New Holland T7.210 Power Command powershift.

The 180hp model had clocked 1,565 hours and came with four rear spools, front-axle and cab suspension, a front linkage and Michelin MachXBib 710mm rear/650mm front tyres. It sold for £75,000.

One of JCB’s top-spec 252hp 435S loading shovels was up for grabs, complete with an auto-lube system, reversing camera and 750mm tyres.

Owned from new and fully dealer serviced, it sold for £125,000 with 1,825 hours on the clock.

Parked alongside was a smaller 2021 419S in the same spec. This had done 1,538 hours and didn’t quite meet its reserve, with the bids tailing off at £124,000.

One of the oldest pieces of Claas kit in the sale was a 2005 Lexion 570 hybrid combine, complete with 7.5m V750 header.

Engine hours were 2,847, the drum had worked 1,665 hours and there were some signs of rust breaking though in the bodywork. It went for £46,000.

Of the handful of Claas forage harvesters up for grabs, just one met its reserve – a 2011 Jaguar 940.

It had a 24-knife classic drum with 95% blades and shear bar, a 40kph transmission, four-wheel drive and auto-lube system.

Several new parts had also been fitted, including an oil cooler, clutch and pulley bearing, and a reconditioned Linde pump.

Engine and drum hours were 4,929 and 3,783, respectively, and it sold for £67,000, not including headers or a corn cracker.

For those serious about knocking down large areas of grass, there was an early 2013 Krone Big M self-propelled mower on offer with a 40kph transmission and auto-lube system.

Mowing width on these machines is 9.72m and they are powered by a 400hp MAN engine driving a hydrostatic transmission.

Having racked up 1,929 cutting hours and covered a total mowing area of 13,778ha, it made £66,500.

Also for sale was a 2021 Big M 450 on just 644 cutting hours, which attracted bids up to £205,000 but didn’t reach its reserve.

A trio of tidy, well-specced 18t Bailey silage trailers sold for £23,000 apiece.

Each was running on 600mm flotation tyres, with a rear steering axle, sprung drawbar, hydraulic tailgate rollover sheet and rear push bar.

Three 2013 Bailey 14-tonners were also on offer, featuring hydraulic tailgates, silage sides, rear push bars and 560mm flotation tyres. They were reasonably up together, but rust was breaking through on the paintwork.

Two sold for £10,500 and the third for £11,500.

Offering the ability to produce and wrap round haylage and silage bales from 1.1m to 1.68m, this clean 2016 McHale Fusion Vario with 22,500 on the counter made £28,000.

It came with a 2m pick-up, 15-knife chopper system, drop floor unblocking system and a double-drive variable belt bale chamber.

Sitting at the older end of the spectrum was this well-used 2009 R950 merger, which uses a pick-up reel to lift grass off the ground before transporting it on conveyor belts.

It can gather 9.5m of grass in a single pass and users have the ability to vary the direction of the belts to adjust where the swath is deposited. It sold for £12,000.

Its paintwork might have been patchy, but this 2008 Claas Quadrant 2200 had a bale count of just 38,630 and reeled in a few bids before it sold for £9,000.

The twin-axle machine was fitted with a 2.1m pick-up and produced 120x70cm bales. It also had a modified drawbar for fitting a hopper so that it could bale chopped feedstuffs.

Sitting alongside was a newer 3200, which produced the same size bales. This was on a higher bale count of 55,236 but was tidy and sold for £19,000.

A brace of 2012 six-furrow Pottinger Servo 45S ploughs were on offer, featuring hydraulic vari-width, slatted mouldboards and auto-reset. The first sold for £7,500 and the second attracted a slightly higher total of £7,800.

Hailing from the early 2000s, this 8t Caterpillar 307B had clocked 4,029 hours and sold for £12,000.

The rubber-tracked machine had a 6.2m reach and came with a front dozer blade, three buckets and pipework to run a breaker.

Two 2010 Claas liner 2700 rakes were on offer, both with individual rotor lifting and hydraulic width adjustment. The hammer fell at £8,200 for the first and £8,600 for the second.

The hammer prices published in this article were subject to a buyers’ premium of 3.5% plus VAT, up to a maximum of £5,000 per lot.

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