Active on-farm demonstrations by dealers in Ireland have helped bring home to farmers the features and benefits of the latest crop of higher-horsepower McCormick tractors that will be exhibited at The Ploughing – the Irish National Ploughing Championships (npa.ie) being held on September 17-19 at Ballintrane, Co Carlow.

The 205hp boosting to 225hp flagship of the McCormick X7 Series has been doing the rounds, impressing with the power and torque delivery from the six-cylinder Betapower engine produced by FPT Industrial, the successor to the Iveco diesels business.

“This tractor is the new P6-Drive version, which has a very fine transmission that puts six-step powershift speed variation at the operator’s fingertips within each of the five ranges,” notes Will Doyle, Ireland sales manager at McCormick manufacturer Argo Tractors.

“There are more ratios in the important spread of ground speeds needed for most field work and for added comfort and ease of use, there’s ‘intelligent’ auto-shifting for both field and road that adapts to the operator’s performance demands and makes the tractor even more productive.

“The only way to fully appreciate these features and discover how good today’s McCormick tractors are is through a field test, which our dealers would be happy to arrange,” said Will Doyle.

Six-cylinder models in the McCormick X7 Series start at 151hp for draft work boosting to 165hp for pto implement applications and road travel, a characteristic mirrored on the other four models in a line-up that tops out with the 205/225hp X7.690 P6-Drive.

This means the tractors slot neatly into the range beneath the bigger, heavier McCormick X8 VT-Drive series, which comprises three models with 264hp, 286hp and 310hp outputs, all suited to heavy tillage work and also grassland work hauling big forage wagons or operating wide triple mower sets.

Flagship X8 VT-Drive is the most powerful model in the McCormick will be range; there are three models with up to 310hp and a CVT stepless transmission.

There is also a trio of four-cylinder models in the McCormick X7 Series with engine outputs from 141-176hp, a choice of P6-Drive powershift and VT-Drive stepless transmissions, and (with P6-Drive) a choice of Efficient or more advanced Premium specifications.

ISOBUS implement control for the optional 12in touch-operated Data Screen Manager display and Topcon Agriculture precision farming technologies can be added to the tractors’ comprehensive equipment list.

For less power-demanding work, the McCormick X6.4 Series tractors being featured at The Ploughing provide the optimum solution – as recognised by the Tractor of the Year 2018 title awarded to the series-topping X6.440 VT-Drive.

This 130hp tractor with 140hp available to pull trailed equipment on the road and drive pto-powered implements in the field can be had with a 36-speed powershift or the VT-Drive stepless transmission, plus a choice of spec levels to suit different applications and budgets.

The McCormick X6.4 Series spans 114-140hp, comes with two levels of specification with the powershift transmission and can have a CVT transmission for the ultimate in speed control.

For more McCormick news, pictures and events, visit McCormick Agri UK & Ireland on Facebook and Twitter.