Fresh from its eastern states debut at the Henty and Elmore field days, New Holland’s Next Gen CR10 combine harvester will continue its tour with on-farm demos by AEH Group
New Holland’s latest generation of combine harvester has made waves since being launched to the local market in Perth in August, with this momentum and popularity now spreading across the country.
Eastern states dealership group AEH Group had the Next Gen CR10 combine on display at the recent Henty Machinery Field Days and Elmore Field Dayswhere it was a standout attraction and gained “a lot of traction.”
AEH Group has one of only four CR Next Gen combines currently in Australia – and the only CR10 – and will be demonstrating it across properties near the group’s New South Wales and Victorian dealerships during November and December.
The CR10, along with its companion model CR11, were both introduced to Australian customers and dealers at a launch event in Perth following its international unveiling at last year’s Agritechnica in Germany.
Both combine harvesters are the product of a complete ground-up rebuild, rather than minor adjustments, leading New Holland to describe the CR units as an “absolute game changer”.
The CR10 boasts a 12.9L engine producing 635hp (473kW) and a 16,000L grain tank capacity, while the even larger CR11 offers a 15.9L engine producing 775hp (578kW) along with a 20,000L grain tank.
The CR11 and CR10 have unloading rates of 210L/sec and 159L/sec respectively, while both also feature twin 600mm rotors of increased diameter and length, which New Holland says provides greater capacity for the crop to circulate and for the grain to be threshed and separated.
Also featuring are New Holland’s revised and improved IntelliSense automation systems, which make automatic adjustments according to an operator’s chosen harvest strategy, whether that is limited loss, best grain quality, maximum capacity or fixed throughput.
The Next Gen CR combines also include a totally new Twin-Clean cleaning shoe, which consists of two sieve systems in sequence, with each having its own upper and lower sieve and clean grain auger.
As a result, New Holland says the CR combines can handle all materials coming from the rotors and can reduce grain loss “close to zero”.
Another major improvement has been the development of a driveline described by the manufacturer as the cleanest on the market.
Helping to significantly reduce maintenance and downtime, the number of drive components inside the combine harvester have been reduced by 25 per cent while drive chains have been totally eliminated.
This clean driveline was one of the main features which AEH Group’s demonstration coordinator Steve Dinham believes will appeal to customers.
“Having the cleanest driveline on the market is a huge advantage and that redesign is going to be a huge benefit to the machine in general,” he says.
“You’ve got the latest technology in the cab with the IntelliView 12 guidance system, which has been implemented from our high horsepower tractor range like the T7, T8 and T9.
“The increased capacity is obviously a given and it all comes back to your total cost to harvest – are we decreasing our costs while maintaining increased capacity?”
New Holland’s combine harvesters are units designed for high capacity, with the previous CR10.90 – along with the CR9.90 – having broken world records for the most wheat harvested in eight hours.
The CR9.90 remains a popular part of the New Holland range and Dinham believes it appeals to a different demographic to the new CR10.
The CR9.90 will also feature in the upcoming swing of on-farm demonstrations, sometimes in the same environment as the CR10 demonstrator unit to test them side-by-side for customers choosing between the two models, but also separately on occasion.
Dinham is excited to demonstrate the CR10 – along with the newly released MacDon FD261 Flex Draper – on farms near AEH Group’s six New South Wales dealerships for the remainder of 2024, with plans for the unit to then travel south to farms near the group’s Victorian locations.
“We’ll be getting this demonstrator unit out and about to paddocks to essentially show off what the latest machine is, plus all the technology that comes along with it and how it performs,” he says.
“We’re really trying to push what this new product is and test it to compared to what the farmers currently have on their properties.
“Doing this allows us to get the machines on to farms and farmers get to see it operating in a familiar setting.
“From our point of view, we’re also very open to try and bring that new customer base in.
“There’s a lot of potential out there that we may not know about or see, so there’s no point in hiding.
“We do obviously demo these to our current customers, but we’re really trying to get that new customer base and strengthen our foothold.”
AEH Group’s desire to get the CR10 in front of a new customer base is already proving successful if the experience at the recent Henty and Elmore field days – where it was first shown to eastern states farmers – is anything to go by.
“It’s obviously a very new product to Australia, and while there has been plenty of testing over the years, I think there is a huge interest to see it and a lot of hype around it as far as the regular customer goes,” Dinham says.
“We’ve got interest from all over the state, even interstate, for dealers to come and they want to bring customers along to look at this machine.
“Henty and Elmore definitely had a lot of traction around it. Those big contractors and your bigger farmers all made a bit of an effort to get there just to see it, being the launch on the eastern side of the country.
“When we were at Henty it was non-stop from when the gates opened until when the gates shut.
“Everyone was at that machine and there was actually a path worn in the dirt and grass around it,” he says.
AEH Group kicked off its run of on-farm demonstrations in late October and these will continue for several weeks.
They are planned so farmers located near AEH Group’s six New South Wales dealerships – which are in Cowra, Forbes, Parkes, Temora, West Wyalong and Young – will have the opportunity to see the CR10 demonstrator in action near them.
Customers near Rural Group’s three dealerships in Cobram, Echuca and Shepparton will then get the opportunity to see it operating on farms.
New and existing customers can get in contact with their local AEH dealer to find when and where their nearest demonstration will be held.
To find your nearest dealer and explore AEH Group’s full product range, visit www.aehgroup.net.au