Claas rolls out 40,000th Jaguar

Claas declares Jag to be the world’s best-selling forage harvester

A special top-of-the line Claas Jaguar 960 Terra Trac has become the 40,000^th Jaguar to roll off the manufacturing line.

Fitted with a special ‘big cat’ decal on its side panel, the special edition machine will be demonstrated throughout Europe during its upcoming summer.

The iconic Claas Jaguar dates all the way back to 1973, when the brand released the 120hp (89kW) Jaguar 60 to match the increased cultivation of Maize at the end of the 1960s.

The company obviously continued to grow its forage harvester side of the business, with the 213hp (159kW) Jaguar 80 following three years later, the Jaguar 600 in 1983 and the 800 a decade later, until we finally get to the current crop of machines seen today.

But the milestones don’t stop there for the Claas Jaguar forage harvesters, with the 960 Terra Trac winning the Gold Innovation Award at the SIMA expo in Paris last week.

Claas Harvest Centre product manager Luke Wheeler says the Jaguar 960 Terra Trac is the world’s first forage harvester to be fitted with a factory-integrated crawlertrack assembly.

Terra Trac was first released in 1996 for use on the Claas Lexion combine harvesters.

Wheeler says that the technology revolutionised grain harvesting by significantly reducing soil compaction, improving driving comfort and improving field access. The system is available for the Jaguar in track widths of 635, 735 and 890mm. The 635mm-wide tracks have a contact area of more than 1.3 square metres, more than twice that provided by the 800-size tyres.

The company says that testing conducted by Kiel University of Applied Sciences in Germany has shown that the soil pressure during headland turns is less than that exerted by a wheeled machine.

“Put simply, this technology means the harvester won’t sink into the ground when operating in difficult, wet field conditions,” Wheeler adds.

You can find Claas Jaguar forage harvesters at your local Claas Harvest Centre.