The world’s largest farm machinery show – Agritechnica – returns to Germany this week. Chris McCullough reports
Being held for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of visitors will flock to the German city of Hanover throughout the week for Agritechnica.
The show provides manufacturers with a chance to debut products to the global market.
We bring you a snapshot of the show’s already-announced award winners, with more coverage of Agritechnica product releases after the event.
Solid gold
The much-coveted Agritechnica Gold Medal has been awarded to New Holland for its overall concept CR twin axial rotor combine harvester, which will be launched at the show.
Designing new combines with increased performance is tough given the size and weight limitations, but the company says this new one is a game changer.
Being 95 per cent new, fully automated and powered by a big FPT engine, New Holland says the new series will reduce grain loss to near zero.
The core element of the new CR combine harvester is the drive technology with an engine that is mounted longitudinally according to the rotors’ angle of inclination.
The centrally located split-power gearbox is used to drive rotors and harvesting headers with an intake chain in a straight line or via a propeller shaft.
The left rotor serves as a counter shaft for the feed drum and the propeller shaft is located on the right-hand side of the chassis above the level of the rotor housing.
Consequently, there are no drives located between the chassis and the running gear in either side of the harvester, allowing the width of the chassis to increased considerably as a result.
The resulting space has been used to widen the threshing channel and there- fore to increase the installed technical output of the combine harvester.
To eliminate any blockages, a software-controlled automatic system not only performs the usual back and forth movements to loosen a blockage, but also slews the belt tensioner to the respective tensioning side of the feed drum belt, which creates a particularly precise transfer of the rotary movement.
The patented cleaning system has also been made 13 per cent wider and grain
elevator loading has been optimised, while pressure sensor-supported control technology measures the ram pressure – and therefore harvested crop distribution separately – on the front and rear upper sieve.
This new combine remains unidentified in terms of model numbers until its show launch and will enter limited production next year for world markets.
Silver system
A joint Lemken and Track32 technology which informs farmers when their cultivator shares need changing has been awarded an Agritechnica silver medal.
The two companies came up with iQblue tool monitoring, a system for detecting tool breakage and wear and analysing the wear of cultivator shares.
Already available, a camera system monitors the shares and automatically records their current condition while working at the headland. It therefore provides farmers with a valuable decision-making aid for changing and buying spare parts.
iQblue tool monitoring is the first system on the market that ensures objective assessment even in difficult conditions.
The system comprises a camera, which takes many individual images of the tine section on a 3m wide cultivator while working at the headland.
A software algorithm evaluates the condition of the shares, which is then displayed on the ISOBUS terminal via a traffic light system. Extensively worn shares are shown in red, while damaged shares are marked in yellow and intact shares in green.
Based on this information, the system calculates not only future wear but also the point in time at which it makes sense to replace the shares. If necessary, users can retrieve the current tool status at any time.