Long-term test
John Deere 8500i forager:
It’s the little things:
While last month our attention was on John Deere’s new 9000 series foragers, this time around we are focused on the long term reliability of the 8500i. Cheshire contractor R E Williams tells us what it has been like to live with.
Driving impression
Tribine T1000 combine:
New take on old concept
First seen back in 2016, the Tribine sets itself apart from the rest of the combining pack by boosting capacity with a 35,000-litre hopper. We take a look at the commercial model and answer the question if we will see it in Europe.
Grimme Ventor 4150 self-propelled potato harvester :
SE goes self-propelled
For fans of Grimme’s trailed SE harvester but wanting more output, the Ventor 4150 could be the answer. It‘s packed with nifty features.
John Deere combine updates for 2019:
Good to go in ’19
John Deere has announced a series of upgrades and improvements for its next wave of combine harvesters. We headed to the firm’s UK base in Langar, Nottinghamshire to see what’s coming up.
Claas Tucano 430 Montana combine:
Live life on the level
To compete with the likes of Deere’s Hillmaster or New Holland’s Hillside, Claas could only offer its Montana self-levelling chassis on the Lexion line-up … until now. For next season this feature also comes to the Tucano, along with a host of other updates.
Krone Big X 1180 forager:
More muscle for the Big X
Some 130-150 new self-propelled foragers are sold in the UK each year, and Krone is looking to its new four-model range of Big Xs to increase its share of this highly competitive market.
Report
Harvesting timber with Komatsu kit:
Drop, measure, chop
If you want to see proper harvesting tech, you need to head to the woods and check out the likes of Komatsu’s 951 in action. A slick operator interface and telematics combine to make the most of felled timber.
New Holland CX8.90 at work in Wiltshire:
Tracks and walkers
When looking to boost combine output, the knee jerk reaction is to go bigger. Not George Hosier, who has upped the performance of his existing New Holland CX 8.90 by simply fitting a stripper header … although he still uses a conventional table for 20-30% of his combinable acres.
Canadian farm sends hay from Ontario to Florida:
Making the hay the Canadian way
Originally from the UK, Mike Faulkner moved out to Ontario back in 2000 to milk a 50-cow herd of commercial Holsteins. Those dairy cows have long since departed, replaced by a 12,000-bird egg-laying enterprise and, more recently, a hay operation that ships around 115,000 small bales a year down to wholesalers and retailers in Florida. Here we focus on the forage part of the business
Used machinery
Massey Ferguson 9280 and 9380 Delta combines:
Navigating the Delta minefield
There are certain parallels between Massey Ferguson’s Delta combines and New Holland’s TM175/190 tractors: after a heap of razzmatazz at
launch, both products failed to deliver with customers. However, since then, the respective manufacturers have stepped up to the plate and the product has become much improved. We show you what to look for.
Technical
Future combine design:
Ten years after
What do machinery designers think the future combine harvester will look like? We speak to the leading combine makers, and then go on to ask some machine designers what they reckon the near future could have in store.
Machine management
High capacity harvest:
Chasing gains
So, just how do you deal with the massive amounts of grain coming from two high performance combines? For Oxon farmer Ben Smith the answer was to install a new drier.
Buyers Guide
Combine harvest guide 2018
Our new guide to combine harvesters provides a concise but comprehensive pictures of models, features and specifications covering everything from compact machines for smaller farms to the techno-giants of big arable operations.
Power
Non-stop harvesting
Slick peas
With a tight 150-min window to get peas from the field to the processing plant, there is not much room for error. HMC Peas shows us how it hits its targets.
Tuning
Combine harvesters
Thinking of harvest ’19
With next harvest some way off, there’s still plenty of time for a bit of combine fettling to make your summer life easier. While all of
these home-made solutions feature on a John Deere WTS 9560, they could be adapted, with minimal hassle, for most other brands
