AGCO showed off its new flagship Fendt-badged IDEAL 10T combine harvester (pictured above) at last week’s Agritechnica show (in Germany).
The machine is reportedly powered by a 790hp (16.2L) MAN engine.
According to the company, it will be the “first standard combine in Europe to be operated entirely without a steering wheel”. With the so-called ‘IDEALDrive’ system, the machine is steered using a left-hand joystick.
Fendt says that this approach “gives the best view of the header”. Importantly, it also says that it complies with “all European vehicle and traffic regulations”. Production-spec machines will apparently be ready for the 2021 harvest.
Massey Ferguson sibling
Interestingly, AGCO also exhibited a Massey Ferguson badged IDEAL 9T combine harvester (pictured below) at Agritechnica 2019. It, unlike its bigger Fendt-branded sibling, had to make do with a conventional steering wheel.
Speaking at a special Fendt press conference earlier this year (July 2), Peter-Josef Paffen – vice president and chairman of the board of AGCO/Fendt – commented: “We [Fendt] are increasing sales of our combine harvesters to 460 units [this year]; 100 of these are large IDEAL machines.”
New John Deere flagship combine
In related news, John Deere showed off its new dual-rotor X9 ‘preview’ combine harvester (pictured below) at last week’s Agritechnica show.
While the X9 is known to be larger than the S790 – the biggest combine that John Deere currently sells – detailed technical information is, as yet, scant.
However, John Deere claims that production-spec versions of the X9 will be capable of harvesting grain at a rate of 100t/hour or more – with losses under 1%.
Notably, the ‘preview’ machine was fitted with a new draper header – hinged in the middle to enable it to “follow undulating ground better”.
