AGCO creates the world’s first global combine, the Ideal
AGCO tapped into its universal expertise to create the world’s first global combine, writes DARON JACKS.
BLACK is the new red for Massey Ferguson.
Instead of its trademark red paint the famed brand has opted or a stylish black-and-grey cover on its much-hyped new Ideal combine and the fresh design from the ground up has won fans in Europe and North America, where it has been rebadged as a Fendt.
And after a 12-month wait, the Ideal is finally here in Australia.
The Ideal grabbed the world’s attention when it was unveiled at Agritechnica in Hanover last year with bold claims that it’s “a game changer”.
Utilising its global network ag machinery giant Agco took the best parts from its universal stable to build, what it says is, the first global combine.
“This project, believe it or not, its inception was back in 2011,” said Fergal Meehan, director of marketing, Massey Ferguson Australia and New Zealand. “Utilising the full force of parent company Agco’s global resources, this is the biggest new harvesting product development project we have ever undertaken.
“It included production of 45 prototypes and six years of continuous lab and global field tests measuring performance in all crops and conditions.
“Everything about the machines is new – new design, new engineering, new features, new styling, even a brand-new livery in stunning graphite. Added to this, the 647hp MF Ideal 9 represents a totally new market segment for Massey Ferguson.”
There are three models, featuring single and dual rotary threshing systems, including the 451hp MF Ideal 7, the 538hp MF Ideal 8 and 647hp MF Ideal 9.
Agco says the 4.84m ‘Dual Helix’ rotor fitted to the Ideal 8 and Ideal 9 is the longest in the industry and claims to provide the largest threshing area in the business.
The Ideal also boasts 12,500 and 17,100-litre grain tanks, which Agco claims is the largest available with about 18 per cent more capacity than its nearest competitor.
With no extra moving parts, two profiled under-rotor collection pans create an even crop distribution in the cleaning shoe, which Agco says can provide slope compensation up to 15 per cent resulting in a better and cleaner sample “whatever the terrain”.
While it undertook some secret testing in Australia last harvest, the award-winning combine has finally arrived Down Under in time for local growers to see it in action and to drum up sales for next year’s harvest.
“We had two here last year for evaluation. We were involved very early in the project because obviously conditions in Australia are very different to Europe or North America or South America,” Fergal said.
“So we wanted to run the machines on our own conditions and that was really good to have that opportunity.
“So we got a really good opportunity to run those last year to really evaluate for our conditions, but this year it’s about the customer and showing it them for the first time and get their feedback on it.”
Fergal says little was done to change the Ideal for local conditions, just general combine settings, which ensured the Ideal lived up to its “global combine” claims.
“It backs up the idea of the combine – it’s supposed to be a global combine,” Fergal said. “It’s supposed to work in all regions without major modifications. So we’re really happy that we didn’t need to do any local tweak.
“The way we harvest in Australia is at a lot higher speeds than North America and Europe and the engineers were interested to see how the machine performed in the field, the gear box running at a higher speed, the final drives running at a higher speed for 16 hours a day, and they were happy with how it went.”
The combines are built at the company’s Breganze manufacturing site in northern Italy, but having such a large stable of other brands such as Fendt, Challenger and Valtra, Fergal said Agco wanted to reduce the number of platforms to have a global combine that utilised these factories and shared expertise.
“Around the world we have areas where we are class leaders, for example track technology with Challenger in North America,” he said. “So the track technology out of Jackson in Minnesota where we build the track tractors is what’s on the Ideal combine.
“In Germany with Fendt, which is recognised as premium products, the electronics on the Ideal are designed in Marktoberdorff in Germany and the transmission was designed in Finland at the Valtra factory.
“So what we’ve done is use the different factories and the expertise in the factories all over the world to come together and build that global combine.
“It’s come together really well.”
MASSEY FERGUSON
IDEAL 7
ROTOR: SINGLE
CAB: VISION
GRAIN TANK (LITRES): 12,500
UNLOADING (L/SEC): 140/210
MAX ENGINE POWER (HP): 451
CLEANING SHOE LENGTH (MM): 2000
CLEANING SHOE: STANDARD
DIMENSIONS (MINIMUM): 3.3M (800MM TYRES)
IDEAL 8
ROTOR: DUAL
CAB: VISION
GRAIN TANK (LITRES): 12,500/17,100
UNLOADING (L/SEC): 140/210
MAX ENGINE POWER (HP): 538
CLEANING SHOE LENGTH (MM): 2000
CLEANING SHOE: STANDARD
DIMENSIONS (MINIMUM): 3.3M (800MM TYRES)
IDEAL 9
ROTOR: DUAL
CAB: VISION
GRAIN TANK (LITRES): 12,500/17,100
UNLOADING (L/SEC): 140/210
MAX ENGINE POWER (HP): 647
CLEANING SHOE LENGTH (MM): 2200
CLEANING SHOE: HIGH CAPACITY
DIMENSIONS (MINIMUM): 3.3M (800MM TYRES)
NEW DESIGN THE ‘BEST OF THE BEST’
MASSEY Ferguson’s Ideal combine was awarded one of the world’s most distinguished awards for design and innovation in May: the 2018 Red Dot Award: Product Design ‘Best of the Best’.
Judges recognised “the forward-thinking design and quality of this new generation of combine harvester” and acknowledged the Ideal’s innovative features and its unique, elegant graphite livery.
The Red Dot Design Competition was launched in the 1950s and awards are given in three categories: Product Design, Communication Design and Design Concept.
PRICE: TO BE ADVISED
DETAILS: masseyferguson.com.au
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