Table of contents for Harvest 2024 in Profi

Dear Reader I was all set to have a moan about the weather — the haves and the have-nots of sunshine and rain. Where you are reading this will determine which camp you fall into. Still, even though this is the initial icebreaker for many farmer conversations, there’s a much bigger cloud looming over the industry. It doesn’t matter if you are buying or selling machinery at the moment, there is a definite air of intrepidation in both camps. Although it has been an ‘OK-ish’ harvest for most arable farmers across the UK and Ireland, and milk and meat prices are holding steady, the cost of borrowing money and a lack of confidence… no need to repeat what you already know. I've written about this more than once over the…

Kioti UK continues to develop its tractors targeted at farm users. The nominal 73hp RX8040 EU entry level and HX8040 GE enhanced spec models replacing the outgoing RX7330PC-EU. Fitted with a new five-pillar cab and single piece bonnet, the tractor shares its key drivetrain with the outgoing model, with the standard transmission in the UK now an electro powershuttle five-range, four-speed offering 20 x 20 speeds. This will provide ratios from a low 0.17km/hr creep speed to flat out at 38.5km/hr. The engine also remains the same 2.34 litre Stage V four-cylinder, with trademark horizontal low-level exhaust. Operator focussed upgrades include suspension and improved air-conditioning in the new and more spacious cab. Enhanced spec GE models will have LED work lights, a three-speed 540/540E/1000rpm pto and three remote valves, with…

Back in 2019, Fendt pulled the pin on production of the Katana 85 with its V12 engine from MTU. Yet today, the competitive forage harvester market sees the resurrection of the machine in the form of the Katana 850 with a six-cylinder engine from Liebherr. Last year, we tested the flagship model with a maximum output of 623kW/847hp in grass and maize. Though giving the forager a new styling, Fendt sticks with the largest diameter drum on the market — 720mm in diameter, 800mm wide. It also retains the familiar six pre-compression rollers, but the crop flow has been modified, adopting the same layout as the Katana 650 including the cracker and larger chute. Our test candidate featured the following specification: • 40-knife drum in maize, which is standard fit…

The type of grass silage being produced in Ireland 25 years ago was radically different to today’s cow chow: big cuts of grass crop, with more emphasis on drying out the ground between the rows to support the under-tyred trailers than actually ensiling the best quality wilted forage you possibly could. Contractors were looking at more efficient ways of dropping crop and merging two or three rows to get their often at the time 1,600 to 2,500 hectares of three-month-long workload done. For many the ideal solution was a tractor with enough gusto to power a front and rear combo or a set of triples. Another new to the market option was the Krone Big M self-propelled mower. Although launched in 1996, the first of these only landed in Ireland…

The engineering department at Claas is considering new battery-powered electric drives as a possible solution for smaller tractors and yard loaders as well as medium-sized tractors and wheel loaders. And these machines with a higher power requirement, and that possibly have to travel longer distances between the field and charging station, could also use a gas engine or hydrogen drive system. However, developers currently see no real alternative for high-powered draft tractors, combine harvesters and forage harvesters to the combustion engine and liquid fuel. A lithium-ion battery that could provide the equivalent energy you get from 1,000 litres of diesel, would ultimately weigh 25 tonnes. Equally unfathomable is a hydrogen drive, because 1kg of hydrogen has about eight times the volume of 1kg of diesel. In addition, the storage and…

Peter Hillebrand, from Zeevolde in the Netherlands, specializes in marketing rhizomes and fruit trees. Such a niche business requires equally specialist equipment that is not in many dealer yards. So, an inventive spirit is required, and Peter Hillebrand isn't short of that. When he took over the farm from his father, the business still involved a lot of manual labour to both plant, grow and harvest the saplings. Compared with arable crops, trees require a lot more manual intervention — cutting back the 70cm tall plants by hand, grafting, mechanical weeding and building fences to prevent hares and rabbits from nibbling the crop. “Growing young plants is a daily challenge,” says Peter. “At times, we do the same type of work as tree growers.” The main tasks are clearly split…

Labour shortages are arguably the biggest single challenge for agriculture as a whole, but for the fresh produce sector the problem is so urgent that it is threatening business viability. Asparagus is a clear example, with individual stems cut by hand at specific sizes and loaded manually into trays – and this labour intensive 70-day harvest formed a focus for Chris Chavasse, a former design engineer for Dyson’s industrial innovations, when he founded Muddy Machines. “I wanted to explore how automation could help solve labour shortages, by designing a lightweight, battery-powered vehicle that used a camera system to work in the crop without damaging unripe stems, identify the ripe stems, harvest them using a picking arm and place them in trays,” he explains. This was the first-generation prototype, which was…

In a tough year for machinery sales, manufacturers have mainly focused on bringing models announced around the last Agritechnica to market for 2025. There’s probably more ‘glitch solving’ work for the combine makers to do than in previous generations as most of the developments have involved the increasing use of technology to automate harvesting and connect the combine both with the farm office and with other machines in the field. This should help boost efficiency for logistics for example – if you know where the trailers are (or in the case of John Deere’s MachineSync, now available on its newest walker combines, can summon them) there’s less wasted time in the field. Getting detailed yield and quality data straight from the combine is not only useful for planning future cultivations…

OCTOBER 2023 COVER STORY Sarah Calcutt INSIDE National Fruit Show preview, ploughing match results NOVEMBER 2023 COVER STORY Perry Court Farm INSIDE Vineyard & Winery Show, The Golden Boot, JD Richmond & Son DECEMBER 2023 COVER STORY The Oaks Poultry Farm INSIDE National Fruit Show review, End of year property review JANUARY 2024 COVER STORY Springham Farm INSIDE Vineyard & Winery Show, CLM, Farm Construction FEBRUARY 2024 COVER STORY Supply chain pressures INSIDE Farm Expo preview MARCH 2024 COVER STORY Lambing at Hadlow College INSIDE Wiltshires APRIL 2024 COVER STORY SOES INSIDE Farm Expo preview M&A Brown & Sons MAY 2024 COVER STORY Protest highlights challenges facing farmers INSIDE Southern Farmers JUNE 2024 COVER STORY South East Forestry INSIDE JD Richmond & Son JULY 2024 COVER STORY Fruit Focus preview…

The 6300 is the first Grimme self-propelled harvester equipped with the Claas X11 cab. Inside it, the air-conditioned driver’s seat can be rotated by 30°, and there is plenty of storage space, and options for a mobile phone holder, USB ports and electrically adjustable and heated exterior mirrors. The redesigned engine compartment shortens the total length of the harvester by approx. 50cm to below 15m. There is a revised cooling package for the 15.6-litre, six-pot MTU (653hp) block, and the new position of the bunker access steps on the side of the ring elevator provides an easier way to it, and the engine. An additional LED unit switches on and off automatically depending on the road speed of the vehicle, and the SideView package includes two additional cameras on the…

Claydon reckons to have developed a mole drainer that combines the benefits of traditional mounted and trailed designs without any of the drawbacks. The oscillating headstock with swivel joint on the linkage is said to make it easy to manoeuvre and allows it to reach further into headland ditches or over drains. A key feature of the design is the long, narrow beam. This allows the 75mm-diameter mole and following 100mm ceramic expander to run parallel to it, producing a uniform, stable channel. It is also said to avoid excessive friction between the beam and soil surface to minimise draft requirement and fuel use. Locked in place by a steel wedge, the blade pivots on three pins. Mole angle is controlled by the 200mm-wide front skid. This is said to…

Getting straight to the point, in terms of technology and comfort, the Trion can offer almost the same features as the latest Lexion — it is just a bit smaller in terms of the size of the threshing technology and all the crop-engaging bits that go with it. The Trion comes with the familiar APS hybrid threshing unit, which was taken from the previous Lexion, with a 450mm pre-accelerator and 600mm drum, both of which measure 1.42m or 1.70m depending on what comes next in the straw and grain separating phase. The 1.70m wide machines have six walkers, while the slimmer 1.42m version has a bit more variety: five walkers or a hybrid with single or double rotors depending on model. For instance, the range-topping 750 has a pair of…

Roc has been part of the Kverneland Group for three years now, but that hasn’t stopped the firm continuing the development of its product, with the RS1000 the latest addition to the range. As part of the buy-out there is also better dealer coverage, with Kverneland retailers now offering the Italian-made merger in the UK and Ireland. Roc markets three models in the RS series: the RS380 front-mounted belt merger with a working width of 3.80m, along with the pair of trailed models RS730 (7.30m) with centre- and side-delivery functions and the 10m RS1000 with side delivery. Getting hitched The machine is hitched to the tractor using Cat III lower links. Two check chains help prevent selecting the wrong height and are fastened to the tractor’s top link pin. The…

After the combine has just been parked up in the shed again, here are a number of tweaks that should help make your life that bit easier in the next season. These tweaks don’t necessarily refer to the crop flow but lots of small details around the machine. And then there is also the perennial issue of fire protection. Do you have a tip or modification you'd like to share? Then please write in to us. OPERATOR SAFETY IN THE GRAIN TANK This reader installed additional steps in the grain tank of his Claas Tucano 420 for easier access for cleaning. For example, the operator can clean the window between the cab and the grain tank every morning and after the harvest, and also vacuum the grain tank to avoid…

If you are an arable farmer, then you will be well aware of how protein content can influence the price you get for your wheat. This is normally determined from sampling the truck load as it arrives at the merchant’s store, but then each lorry load can represent up to 5ha of crop depending on the yield and size of trailer. To get analysis focusing on a smaller area it would be necessary to measure the wheat protein levels while combining and use these measurements to create a protein level map using GNSS. This information wouldn’t just be of use when selling the grain, as it would also be possible to determine the nutrient uptake efficiencies. This, in turn, could allow you to target your nitrogen fertiliser applications to further…

Soon after the initial sighting of the three-axle machine, a short video was posted online … and there have been several others since. In fact, from what we can make out, there are two variations of the ‘Black Beast’, with the 2024 version of the machine fundamentally different to that seen previously. Functionally, the first machine was a graff harvester, meaning straw was placed in a swath behind the machine, but everything else including the grain and chaff, hence the name graff, ended up in the giant tank on top. Said to be based on the McLeod principle, no crop sieves were fitted. If grain and chaff separation occurred, then this was carried out separately, in a farmyard for instance, with a stationary machine. This latest version, however, has sieves…

Tim Koep grew up on a farm but was keen to travel to faraway places. This saw him complete an internship with MayBrothers Contracting in New Zealand whilst he was a student at Kiel University of Applied Sciences. The seeds for his future travels were sown when he met up with AgriExperts Consulting (see page 81, Who are AgriExperts?) when he took part in a combine training course. The optimisation element was run by AgriExperts and it was here that he met the company’s founders Niels Schröder and Jens Broer. The three stayed in touch and, following the completion of his studies, Tim was asked if he wanted to travel to Australia on behalf of the company. He did not take long to say yes, which was handy. He had…

CLAAS INDIA SOLD TO YANMAR Yanmar has acquired Claas India in a move to significantly enhance the Japanese company’s presence in the region and allow it to offer a wider range of products. Details of the transaction, which we assume includes the production site in Morinda (Chandigarh), are limited. Opened in 2008, the plant makes the Crop Tiger rice harvester. Back in 2017, when Claas celebrated 25 years in India, it reckoned to be the leaders in rice harvesters with a market share exceeding 55%. Yanmar expects the deal to be completed by the time this issue is published. STRONGER AGRICAST GRASSLAND POINT Agricast says that the new GLX Ultra is the toughest and strongest product in its range of low disturbance points. Joining the Grass Land Xtra (GLX) launched…

Claas has added five more models to the Scorpion range; the 733, 1033, 638, 738 and 742. Joining the existing eight-strong range, the higher hydraulic pressure, 100mm longer wheelbase and modifications to the rear counterweight allow the five newcomers to deliver up to 300kg more lift capacity – 3.3t in the 1033 and 733 entry models and 4.2t in the 742. Maximum hydraulic output from the 143hp Liebherr four-pot diesel is 160l/m at 1,600rpm. During loading, Dynamic Power automatically adjusts the engine speed to the joystick angle for faster load cycles. New functions include automatic bucket return to the previously saved position, automatic bucket shake, and automatic retraction of the telescopic arm (not for 1033). The Varipower 2 hydrostat comes from the Jaguar. The larger dual hydraulic motor in the…

Owners of existing Horsch Leeb sprayers with AutoSelect can now update them with AutoSelect Pro, a curve compensation system that adjusts the application rate when cornering. The latest update of the automatic nozzle control system, AutoSelect Pro increases the quantity on the outside of the curve and reduces it on the inside. This system automatically switches the nozzles with the operational speed to ensure a consistent application rate. It also automatically adapts the working height of the boom, removing workload from the operator and improving performance. Horsch is also developing spot spraying technology based on the PrecisionSpray pulse nozzle system. The company is researching different methods, including Green on Brown (GOB) and Green on Green (GOG) detection, and carrying out field tests with different camera manufacturers. GOB plays a major…

Sampo sees its C12 as a competitor to the likes of a Claas Evion or the Trion 520/530. Or, if you are a New Holland fan, the CX5.90 and CX6.80. We looked at the C12’s predecessor, the 3065, way back in the 9/2002 magazine. More recently, in the 2020 Harvest Special, we had a go in the C22 Roto hybrid combine. In-house Sampo still builds all of its headers in-house. All the parts are produced in-house too; in fact, there are no external suppliers, which is no mean feat for one of the smaller players in the combine market. The tables for the C12 come in cutting widths of between 5.10m and 6.30m. The reel has plastic tines and is driven hydraulically from the right-hand side; its horizontal alignment is…

First the obvious. Fitting a camera to large bits of kit can really boost all-round visibility, improving safety and letting you get a view that would otherwise be blocked by the machine itself or obstacles. The Bergmann & Koch solar reversing camera system we look at here tempted us because it is portable and easy to fit. What comes as part of the kit Developed in Germany, the reversing camera kit we tried comprises a solar-powered reversing camera that can also be charged using a USB-C cable. The camera has a magnet base that will attach to any suitable metal surface. A key point was to ensure the metal surface on which the camera was mounted was clean and dry. The only mounting hiccup was that the plastic covering the…

Grimme has come a long way since it married the front half of a Deutz tractor with a single-row potato harvester to create its first self-propelled in 1969. Even in his wildest dreams, Franz Grimme senior, the grandfather of current bosses Christophe and Phillipe Grimme, who recently took over from their father Franz, could have imagined that 55 years later the self-propelled business would warrant an impressive 10,200m² facility to make them at the Niedersachsen industrial park near Rieste. Opened in 2012, the €17 million investment, which is located on the fringe of the busy A1 motorway connecting Osnabrück and Bremen, assembles all versions of the two- and four-row Varitron and four-row Ventor. The six-row Rexor 6200 and 6300 self-propelled sugar beet harvesters are also built here, and when all…

At the beginning of December 2023 and after six weeks of what felt like it nearly permanently raining, the last of the grain maize crop seemed to be a write-off … and similarly any potatoes or beet still in the ground. So, we were more than a little surprised when Franz Rathmer called us up one morning: “We’re combining the last crop of grain maize this afternoon.” No footprint Brimming with anticipation, we travelled to the scene of the action where we heard the unmistakable sound of the Commandor 115 working at full chat. With our camera at the ready we ran out to snap the photos for this article. But the field was so wet you couldn’t walk where the combine, sitting on its 4.5m² Caterpillar tracks, was powering…

Making haylage and hay for equine ‘A’ listers, (that’s racehorses and competition horses to the uneducated horse lover) can be a profitable business but requires high standards to produce the nutritional quality demanded, not to mention considerable investment in equipment. AM Jervis and Son established Equi-Grass in 1980, as Mark Jervis explains. “My father Tony started making haylage almost by accident; we had horses and he fed them on ‘dry silage’ made by experimenting with the new technique of wrapping bales.” Initially supplying local customers, the business went up a gear when they exhibited at the National Stud’s stallion show in Newmarket. The ‘dry silage’ offered equestrian customers a higher quality forage than was generally available as hay, with the bonus of minimising moulds and dust which can affect the…

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