Well-known ploughman Liam O’Driscoll, who comes from a family with a pedigree of ploughing history, has a unique Russian-built tractor through his fleet of modern John Deere and Massey Fergusons. Liam runs a plant hire and haylage business, based just outside Kilbrittan in west Cork.

Day-to-day work includes hedge-cutting and digger work, with a lot of county council road maintenance jobs keeping his staff of seven busy.

In June 2018, Liam competed in the reversible category of the European Ploughing Championships in Russia. Securing gold, he received the top prize, which was a new Russian-built articulated Kirovets tractor.

Seven months later, in January 2019, the prize landed in west Cork. Shortly after it arrived in Ireland, a service engineer from Kirovets travelled from Russia to help Liam get to grips with the tractor. He brought spare parts and plenty of filter kits to keep the tractor in tip-top shape.

A 240hp, 11.2t tractor

The pivot-steer tractor is a Kirovets K424, which is rated at 240hp. Power is supplied from a Russian-built six-cylinder 6.65l Yamz common-rail engine. The K-424 engine comes with a maximum torque of 900Nm at 1,300rpm to 1,600rpm.

The engine is married up to an electronically controlled automatic transmission with torque converter and limited slip differentials from ZF, which drives all four wheels. With six forward and three reverse gears, the K-424 has a maximum speed of 40km/h. The transmission is set up to provide two-pedal automotive-type driving.

The tractor weighs in at over 11t, has a 6t rear lift capacity and a 3.5t front linkage lift capacity. Many of the components are built by Kirovets, but the tractor is equipped with Bosch Rexroth hydraulics, with a maximum flow rate of 210l/min.

The K-424 first entered production in September 2017. At the time, the manufacturer had plans to produce up to 1,200 K-4-series annually.

With plans to grow its company on the world stage, it claimed it was 35% to 40% cheaper than competitors. Kirovets exhibited the then newly introduced model at Agritechnica in Hanover in 2017.

The tractor features a suspended cab, while the front axle has leaf spring suspension. The two-seater cab features an air seat and climate control.

At the time of manufacturing, it featured the then-newly developed cab control system which included the transmission control joystick, four hydraulic spool valve levers and electronic control panel, which is located in the armrest of the suspended seat.

“The cab is its best feature. The control layout is easy to follow. Theres loads of room in the cab, you’d fit a family into it. It’s modern, and has everything you could ask for,” said Liam. With a wheelbase of 3,100mm, the tractor is 6,971mm long and measures in at 2,540mm wide and has a ground clearance of 500mm. He added that it has a very good steering lock and a good LED lighting package.

To date, Liam has used the tractor on a seven-furrow reversible plough, a subsoiler, and for trailer and low loader work such as drawing bales and diggers, while its preferred use is on a stone cart.

Liam explained that every bit of its 240hp is alive and kicking, and that the tractor has unbelievable raw power. He added that pulling up a hill with the seven-furrow plough wasn’t a problem whatsoever. He feels that the tractor is best suited to stone cart work, due to the visibility it provides and the fact he can easily alter the speed of the hydraulics through dials adjacent to the electric spool valves in the cab.

On the road, Liam said that the tractor is very smooth and surprisingly comfortable, thanks to its sprung cab and front axle. Although it may look big, it is still only 2.5m wide and Liam said it sails away at 40km/h at its ease, when it’s loaded with up to 20-22t behind.

He noted that the automatic shifting gearbox is nice for roadwork. It doesn’t have a pickup hitch or a PTO pack, which Liam noted is a shame.

Kirovets parent company is Peterburgsky Traktorny Zavod JSC, and was founded in 1801.

The company began building tractors in 1924.

According to the manufacturer, it has produced over 600,000 tractors of various capacities since the company was formed.

At present, the plant claims to be producing around 3,000 tractors each year, offering models from 250hp (10.5t) up to 560hp (18.73t).

The company claims that almost 70% of tractor components it uses are produced in-house, which includes axles, gearboxes, frames, cabs, cast components and electrical parts, etc.

The Russian manufacturer is associated with ruggedly-built and basic articulated tractors for eastern European markets.

Its home market in Russia has always been its largest, with Kazakhstan and Belarus also important markets.

“We have used the tractor sparingly, with just shy of 500 hours on the clock, but I want to keep it as a unique collectable, instead of working it too hard. With the exception of a bad handbrake design, it has given little to no issues to date. You need to keep the power to the hydraulics, or the steering can go a bit heavy.

“However, the tractor is built very strongly, and all the horsepower is definitely there. The ZF transmission is smooth shifting.

“It probably does lack some refinement when you compare it to the European-built tractors, but it’s a strong rugged tractor which is designed to pull, and does so at its ease. For a big machine, it is very manoeuvrable. Overall, I am happy with the tractor,” concluded Liam.