Shalvey backs up farming prowess by shattering record

A Maudabawn man is set to take his place among the pantheon of the greats as he awaits confirmation he has entered the Guinness Book of Records. Next week Patrick Shalvey will star in RTÉ's hit TV show 'The Big Week on the Farm', but before that he has managed to shatter a farm related world record.

Patrick's record book accolade comes after he reversed a tractor and trailer for more than 20 kilometres. Understandably he was delighted with his achievement: “It was a big day, there was a lot of excitement. Now on top of hosting The Big Week on the Farm I have a world record in the bag, it is pretty good.”

“It was a straight rout, it goes from Lisgrey House, New Inns to Poles Creamery. It is comparatively straight except for the bit at the Lavey Inn. I had great support from the Gardaí and the RSA and St John Ambulance Cavan Division. There was a good bit of traffic at the time, but we made it through.”

The record attempt took him about two-and-a-half hours. Guinness World Records will confirm if the record has been broken by 4 April: “There was one scheduled stop on the route just immediately after the Lavey Inn, but that's allowed as you're still going in a straight line. There was a physio therapist with us and he just checked my neck for soreness. You can make the one stop without getting out. I am well used to tractor work, I do a good bit of ploughing so I would be used to looking out behind me. It gets more difficult as you get on, but the cheers and the support make it a bit easier.”

As well as the support along the way Patrick's wife met him as he reached his destination: “The kids were at school, but my wife and a good few of the neighbours were there at Poles Creamery when I finished. It was nice,” Patrick said. The rules of the world-record attempt dictated that he could not drive forwards at any point or allow the trailer to veer so far off course that he had to correct it.

The Gardaí, St John Ambulance and a number support vehicles acted as outriders to warn other road users about the attempt: “The Guards were great. In fairness you could not do it without them.”

Next week the Shalvey family will feature in a show hosted by Áine Lawlor and Ella McSweeney from their dairy farm in Drumlum: “This attempt was planned to be part of the show. There is a lot of material pre-done. The tapes will now be sent to the Guinness Book of Records people. There were two cameras in the tractor and an app on the phone that tracks GPS movement. All that information goes to the Guinness Book of Records before they verify it. They will do that on the show. ”

Right along the route people lent their support to Patrick's efforts: “We got wonderful reaction. The graphics department in RTE did a Big Week on the Farm logo for the trailer and any of the higher vehicles could all see that and gave us a good blast of the horn and we had people out clapping and cheering us along. It got a good plug from Northernsound and we got a good reaction from the public as we went along.”

Patrick's effort comprehensively beat the previous record: “The last one was 15.5 kilometres and we did 20.12 km, so if someone wants to beat that, they will have to make a good effort.”

Having achieved a world record the dairy farmer has big plans for celebrating his achievement: “I milked the heard this morning at 5:30am. I will milk them again good and early this evening and I'll get to bed early then.”