At the National Farm Machinery Show, which is held February in Louisville, Kentucky, several ag equipment brand executives will be accepting their AE50 engineering awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Claas executives will be among that group, picking up three awards for innovations on two different machines.
The company’s Jaguar self-propelled forage harvester received two awards for its new features. The other Claas machine to win an award is one most Prairie farmers will recognize — the Lexion 8900 Terra Trac combine.
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The big Lexion made its public debut at the Ag in Motion farm show near Saskatoon in July. The model on display was not only there to introduce the new machine to Prairie farmers. It had a dual role to play. It was also given a special livery to celebrate a production milestone for Claas, having built its 500,000th combine.
“There’s only a handful of these with the special paint scheme on,” Rick Hubrich, Canadian product supervisor for Claas of America, said during the show. “We’re celebrating the 500,000 combine coming off the line. This is one of just a few in North America.”
The 8900 relies on a six-cylinder, 16.2-litre MAN diesel for power, which is the same engine used in Fendt’s Ideal 10T combine.
The Claas Cemos automated threshing system can adjust combine settings in real time based on harvesting conditions.
Threshing and separation is handled through Claas’ APS Synflow hybrid system, which uses an accelerated pre-separation system that threshes up to 30 per cent of the grain before the crop reaches the twin rotors. The threshing and separation speeds are controlled independently.
“We have features like automatic cleaning, automatic separation and auto threshing,” said Hubrich.
“We have Cruise Pilot, so we’re speeding up and slowing down, keeping the machine at peak performance. We have automatic crop flow, so we’re not plugging.”
“This year’s batch of AE50 winners is another excellent mix of full machines, major systems, software and never-seen-before technological solutions, all significantly advancing agriculture into the future,” said ASABE executive director Darrin Drollinger in a news release.
ASABE was founded in 1907 and is an international educational organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food and biological systems. The AE50 awards are an annual recognition of innovations that advance ag machinery technology. Approximately 50 awards are given out each year.
