A TV-series devoted entirely to the biggest, most expensive and most powerful tractors in the world is set to air on Channel 5.

The three-part series will begin at 9pm on Friday 20 May with a visit to Montana to investigate Big Bud – the largest tractor ever built.

The eight-wheeled tractor is more than 7.5m wide, almost 4.5m high and weighs 62t. Also featured in the first episode is a John Deere 9RX that is working on a Cambridgeshire farm.

The show’s researchers picked the tractor unit because of its high-tech self-driving and precision features, which they say come with a £500,000 price tag.

Other segments will look at tractor pulling and, in stark contrast, what is dubbed the world’s smallest  tractor. The Sirio 4×4 is 60cm wide and has been designed to work between rows on a Christmas tree farm.

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The second episode concentrates on the fastest tractor – a 150mph JCB Fastrac – and the Isle of Sark, where tractors are the only mechanised mode of transport.

The series finale covers a steam-powered Case 150 and the lengths its restorer, Kory Anderson, went to to ensure all parts were original.  

Other tractors featured in the episode include a tulip harvester-processor and a bizarre unit that uses a corkscrew propulsion system to move it across snowfields.

The series concludes with a test drive of the eight-wheel-drive, leviathan Big Roy. The 475hp unit was built in 1977 and is housed in a museum, but will be put through its paces in snowy Canada.