Philip Mattey

Are there farm-ready battery tractors out there?

Is there a way of bypassing the Straits of Hormuz on the way to the silage pit?

When I suggested this on the programme last week to Francie Gorman and Dennis Drennan, we got a number of very sceptical texts, 51551, most of which said there was no way that an e-tractor would have the battery life that they needed for their farm.

Well, hang on to your charging sockets, people, because we've got news for you.

Fent, one of the posher tractor brands about, think Mercedes if it was a car, has a 100 horsepower battery tractor that it says will do most jobs around the yard and a full day's work.

on just a single charge, and it's going to be in showrooms in Ireland next month.

You can buy it ex-factory right now, though.

There was one in Northampton in England yesterday afternoon, and Fent salesman Philip Matty took me for a virtual tour of it.

I asked him, did he like it?

So as you look around the cab that you're sitting in now, it really is no different to the diesel alternative?

Will you open the cab door and just start up the engine so that we get some idea of how it sounds?

Of course, of course.

There you have it.

Now, look, the big question amongst all of our listeners, and I'm sure it's the very first thing that everybody who comes to you is asking is, how long will the battery last?

Would you be confident that a livestock farmer would be able to take this and do all of those farmyard jobs like scraping sheds, feeding silage, stacking bales, running diet feeders and so on that they do with their diesel engine and be able to do a day's work on a single charge?

Is there any dairy farmer, is there any suckler beef farmer in the UK who's bought one of these?

Now, you can get these in Ireland if you order them ex-factory right now, and they will be in showrooms within a month's time.

What kind of retail price are they going to go for?

I'm not going to lie, that's a steep price.

That is a lot of money for a 100 horsepower tractor.