At Agritechnica 2025 last November, Geringhoff joined that list of companies with its camera-based, AI system called Yield EyeQ.

Yield EyeQ scans the ground at the combine header to alert producers if they’re leaving money on the field in terms of grain loss.

“We scan the ground behind the header, and then, with software, we analyze if there’s any ears or any crop left in the field,” said Hendrick Schneider, product manager with Geringhoff.

A number of companies have designed after-market products such as drop pans to measure harvest loss at the rear of the combine, but less attention has been paid at the header.

In 2019, field research by the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Western Canada estimated combine losses for canola averaged nearly three per cent of a growers’ total yield.

Cameras for the Yield EyeQ system are connected to a combine header via a linkage arm.

Once power is routed to the camera, a wi-fi signal connects the camera to a tablet where the software gathers data collected from the harvest floor.

The camera system is set up to take two pictures per second. The number of images it photographs can be adjusted in either directionm depending on operator preference.

Schneider recommended that cameras be mounted at both ends of the header to effectively monitor the ground.

Based on the photographs the cameras take, software in the Yield EyeQ generates graphs to show the extent of harvest loss.

A heat map can also show differences between fields, monitor changes throughout the day or how fields have performed in the past.

At the show, Schneider said that the current system was only set up for harvesting wheat and soybeans.

“Those are the two main crops we have at the moment,” said Schneider.

“Future-wise, we’d like to look into different crops, canola, corn, lentils.”

For now, Yield EyeQ only monitors the ground as it passes over the field.

Schneider said that future improvements to the system could include having an ISOBUS connection so operators could adjust equipment on-the-go to help reduce grain loss.

“Further ahead, we’d like to have communication with the combine,” said Schneider, “so maybe those adjustments can be done automatically from the combine cab.”

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The Harvest Settings Automation feature, which the brand introduced on previous model year machines, and which optimizes thresher settings, gets an enhancement for 2027. It will now be able to work with lentils, peas, rye, triticale, oats and sunflowers.

“We’re really expanding our automation capabilities,” says Brady Alley, combine marketing manager.

“We have six additional crops that are comparable with our Harvest Settings Automation. “

The Predictive Ground Speed Automation feature that debuted on 2025 models also gets enhancements.

A new update uses enhanced processing power and a trained algorithm to accurately detect green crops within an otherwise-mature stand. Green Crop Detection allows Predictive Ground Speed Automation to adjust the combine’s ground speed in response to a wider range of crop conditions.

“Predictive Ground Speed Automation, those are the cameras that look ahead and also satellite maps, is expanding the performance in different conditions,” says Alley.

“Adding green crop detection is one of the biggest things, detecting wet patches or green stems on wheat and making sure we’re slowing down to be able to process that increased biomass and moisture.”

New half-length concaves now allow for modular installation and better durability and are compatible with model year 2027 X9s. The new cradle also enables factory installation of the remote, from-the-cab, controlled concave and separator grate covers.

RELATED:  Check out John Deere X9 Combines for Sale on AgDealer.com

“With the Tru-Thresh family of concaves, we have what we call a half-length design,” Alley says.

“There’s a new carrier. Instead of a full U-shape, now we have two half sections. That will allow us to be more modular with our setup.

“If you think about getting unthreshed wheat or white caps into my sample, that’s an indication I want to keep that material in the rotor for another revolution. So with remote concave covers, I can close covers on the first, second or both sections of the rotor so I can hold that material in. On the separator grates, we also have covers as well.”

Choices for Tru-Thresh concaves include a high-moisture configuration with an angle bar at the intersection of both rotors and round bars for the rest of the section. There is also a multi-crop with angle bars, large wires and small wires, as well as the standard setup Deere has offered previously.

“The benefit is you can really tailor it to the conditions you’re seeing,” says Alley.

To help with initial setup for attaching headers across the full combine fleet, there is a new initial settings feature, which acts as a starting point to fine-tune the configuration for the crop and field conditions.

X9s also get a bigger 550-bushel grain tank and 35-foot unloading auger.

And for those that want to install a HarvestLab 3000, there is no longer any need to cut a hole in the side of combine. New X9s will get small, removable access panels for quick installation.

“Just take a couple of bolts out and pop those off to put the sensor on and leverage the benefits of HarvestLab 3000,” says Alley.

“We’re calling it HarvestLab-ready. It will be available on all X9s.”

As with so much of Deere’s equipment offerings, the main takeaway for 2027 is that high-end technology keeps getting more sophisticated, making it easier for inexperienced operators to do a first-class job bringing in the harvest.

“The message we want to emphasize, especially with our technology features, is our commitment to getting better over time … expanding the automation capabilities to more crop types and conditions,” says Alley.

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But the most common theme is greater automation and precision control of machinery from combine headers to fertilizer spreading to managing seeding and planting equipment.

Agritechnica, the world’s largest machinery show, takes place Nov. 9 to 15, 2025 in Hanover, Germany. Its awards are sought after by companies worldwide.

The two gold awards and 22 silvers were chosen from 234 innovations approved for the competition.

Gold:

Claas baler

Claas won one of two gold awards by creating a 70-tonne class baler, which can create eight-foot long bales that weigh at least 500 kg when made of straw. That way, the bales can fit more exactly onto some trailers for more efficient transportation. Typical bales from other large balers on the market range from six to seven feet.

The other dimensions of the bale are four feet by three feet.

The baler has also been designed for high throughput and optimal bale density.

Aebi and AG Maschinenfabrik Line Traction

The other gold medal was won by a joint development called Line Traction between Aebi & Co. and AG Maschinenfabrik and features a new drive system for Aebi’s Terratrac tractors that are specially designed for farming on slopes.

Parts of the traditional differential has been replaced with a hydrostatic system in the planetary final drives. Each wheel of the tractor can then follow the needed speed when turning, with drive shafts always running at the same speed, which improves traction and safety in challenging driving conditions.

Silver:

Deutz-Fahr tractor assisted guidance system

There are more and more cameras on tractors and Deutz-Fahr is aiming to make them do more valuable work with the development of its tractor-assisted guidance system.

Like many new automobiles, the tractors will be able to stay in lanes, corner with guidance assistance, and recognize people or objects in the way. For farmers who spend a lot of time on the road with their tractors, an advanced option will include adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance, and road sign recognition. The concept was developed with Stereolabs and will be shown for the first time on a tractor at Agritechnica.

Claas adaptive drive train management for stepless gearboxes

Claas has created an adaptive drive train management system for its Axion tractors, which makes the large machines run more efficiently.

The system learns from the power requirement of the user, and in subsequent operations of the tractor, automatically adjusts the engine speed and gear ratios before load jumps occur.

Grimme easy cleaning for rotary tillers

Cleaning rotary tillers is challenging, which means the job doesn’t always get done between fields in crops like potatoes, increasing the risk of soil-borne disease transmission.

Grimme is introducing a new concept for easier and safer cleaning of rotary tillers.

The company changed the material of the housing to polyurethane so that less soil with adhere to it. The housing can be hydraulically opened, so the user is also provided with unobstructed access to the interior of the housing.

Lemken iQblue Fan Automation and automated fan control

On air drills, the air volume is determined by adjusting the fan speed. Speeds often have to be adjusted during seeding. Fan speeds usually don’t change when lines are blocked.

The automatic fan control system iQblue Fan Automation from Lemken now records the volume of air intake and uses this information as a control variable depending on the floating speed of the seed and fertiliser to be transported and the mass to be delivered per unit of time.

The air volume can also be optimally controlled in the case of implement combinations involving multiple fans. This enables practical, adaptive regulation irrespective of the machine or application.

Rauch Landmaschinenfabrik VarioSmart fertilizer spreading

Infinitely adjusting the spinner speed has long been possible on fertilizer spreaders with a hydraulic PTO drive, but adjusting the speed of both spreading discs or folding deflectors have so far been relied on in fertilizer spreaders with a mechanical PTO drive. VarioSmart, from Rauch Landmaschinenfabrik, now makes it possible for the first time to regulate the speed of the right-hand spreading disc on a fertilizer spreader with a mechanical PTO drive. This enables more precise distribution of the fertilizer at the field boundary thanks to more steeply descending boundary spreading patterns which reduces the risk of fertilizer granules falling on paths and other non-target areas.

Amazone AutoSpread

A self-adjusting fertilizer spreader is now available on the market for the first time in the form of AutoSpread from Amazone.

The fertilizer’s spread is now recorded via radar on the spreader, meaning testing distribution using a mat or tray is no longer as necessary.

Autonomous spreader settings generate a live-spreading pattern, validated by AI in the field.

Börger GmbH Bioselect RC 250

A new manure screw press allows greater consistency in the final product. That means farmers or custom application operators will know what type of manure will need to be applied and its consistency, including dry matter and fibre content.

The new Bioselect RC250 screw press separator from Börger also helps reduce energy consumption due to several design changes.

Einböck GmbH Smart-Hill

Mechanical weed control is challenged by hills and headlands. The tillage unit being pulled can end up off the row, damaging crops along with weeds.

The Smart-Hil system, jointly developed by Einböck and Claas E-Systems is an innovative extension of the camera-controlled Row-Guard moving frame.

A high-resolution camera analyzes colour and 3D surface models to precisely register the slope. In real time, the on-board computers move the cultivator tines to follow the row at 90 degrees.

Horsch Proactive BoomControl

The new BoomControl system from Horsch optimises the spraying accuracy by analyzing the field surface with 3D radar sensors and using the collected data for proactive boom control. This minimizes the risk of errors and achieves an optimum spraying distance even on sharply ascending or descending terrain and under difficult conditions.

Geringhoff Yield EyeQ

Geringhoff has developed the Yield EyeQ scanner technology, which uses cameras to evaluate combine grain header losses. The decision-making support system evaluates changes in the settings of the head, which can then result in recommendations and automation of the header.

Schumacher EasyCut3 (EC3) QuickFit cutting system

Damaged knife blades or guards on the grain cutter bar cause the harvest system to grind to a halt. The person carrying out the repair has to work in the danger zone directly in front of the cutter bar beneath the raised reel.

The EasyCut III cutting system offers hole-free guards and knife blades. The guards and blades are bolted to the frame (cutter bar) or the rod (cutter back) with the aid of adapter plates, resulting in increased stability. During replacement, the patented design means that the fastening nuts located on the upper side only have to be released and removal or insertion carried out from the front. This prevents bolts from being lost and does away with the need for tools to be applied from beneath, thereby increasing installation comfort.

New Holland Corn header automation

New Holland is putting cameras on corn heads to make sure that its headers can keep up with the high throughput capacity of the rest of the combine.

Loss sensors are placed where plants are fed onto the divider hoods. Sensors also keep track of other header measures.

The camera uses an AI system to register the percentage of plants and the proportion of whole cobs or grain that are fed into the combine harvester.

The result of fully automating the corn header is a reduction in pick-up losses of up to 50 per cent.

Grimme Riconda sieve with new connection system

The Riconda modular sieve from Grimme, developed together with Ricon, has elements that are connected using a newly developed locking mechanism consisting of an anchor plate, sieve web bar and two bolts. The fabric in the belt is no longer interrupted but vulcanised in loops, resulting in a more resilient and easier-to-manage belt.

All of those changes result in significantly lower wear and eliminate the need for segment-specific lock parts.

Krone OptiSet on the Krone Vendro

Adjustments on rotary tedders for hay crops are rarely used, so Krone created OptiSet, so the implement can be adjusted from the cab.

The spreading angle of all rotors can be adjusted infinitely between 13 and 19 degrees with the push of a button. This enables a consistent drying process to be controlled, particularly in the case of heterogeneous grassland growth. The technology enables automatic adjustment even in autonomous operation and contributes to ensuring the efficiency and quality of feed harvesting.

There were three innovations that all were awarded silvers, based on their similar technology for monitoring silage quality on forage harvesters. Real-time corn silage processing scores enable the operator to manage quality as they are cutting corn.

The three technologies include:

• Claas Cemos Auto Chopping
• Fendt – Agco Forage Quality Cam
• New Holland Forage Cam, developed with KU Leuven, Mebios Biophotonics

Claas Jaguar 1000 overall concept

A new forage harvester with more than 1,100 horsepower also has a large 910 mm intake channel and a new cutter drum.

Class’s Jaguar 1000 also includes a new driver assist system and a shorter distance to the crop intake on the chopper head.

Nokian Intuitu Smart Pressure Assistant for Nokian Tyres Soil King VF tyres

Systems for changing tire inflation for different field and road conditions isn’t new, but Nokian’s Intuitu Smart Pressure Assistant now give recommendations to the operator for the optimum tire pressure depending on the axle load.

This uses the latest generation of tire sensor technology, which can determine the load in just a few minutes while driving.

Another two concepts both received silver medals for their ability to make fertilizer spreader adjustments easier. Both systems use image analysis and AI to determine characteristics of fertilizer and then automatically create spreader settings without spreading tests.

• Amazone EasyMatch, which use AI to recognize fertilizer
• Sky Agriculture Fertieye, a smartphone image analysis for fertiliser spreader adjustment under field conditions

Arnold NextG Duxalpha

Arnold NextG has created a 3D mapping system that helps better plan the use of tramlines in fields to guide equipment that will be using those fields.

Elevation and obstacles are automatically considered using the Duxalpha system during planning for tramlines.

The system can also be used to coordinate the movement of multiple machines in the same or nearby fields.

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The 9200s come in four configurations: eight-row, 12-row, 16-row and 18-row, with spacings ranging between 20, 22 and 30 inches.

“The biggest thing about the 9200 Series head is it helps us unlock the total capacity of our next-gen combines,” says J. Cole Sanford, cash crop specialist with New Holland. “We need high-capacity front equipment to get the high capacity out of the base unit.”

To achieve that improved productivity at the front, New Holland product developers aimed to get corn from the row unit into the auger and into the combine at a faster rate. They did this by enlarging the auger diameter on the header to 30 inches on the 12- and 16-row models.

“This unlocks a lot of capacity in ground speed that we needed to feed the monster that is behind us,” Sanford said during a video interview at the show, standing beside the brand’s CR10 combine.

In previous designs, only one deck plate was adjustable on New Holland’s corn heads. With the new 9200 Series corn heads, both deck plates are adjustable and are centred above the stalk row. This makes for cleaner picking, reduced grain loss and faster throughput.

New Holland’s 9200 Series corn heads are also compatible with its CR780, CR790, CR890, CR990 and CR11 combines.

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His field observations in the 2021 growing season, followed by on-farm research trials through 2022 and 2023, produced data to support a recommendation to leave taller crop stubble. Even a couple of extra inches will trap more snow, which will increase soil moisture and lead to higher yields.

“The research showed that every extra inch of stubble height can serve to trap more snow and lead to more moisture for the crop the following year,” says Palmier, owner of Max Ag Consulting at Plenty, about 70 kilometres northeast of Kindersley. “Our 2023 research showed that every extra one inch of crop stubble can increase canola yield by 1.1 bushels per acre.”

He notes there are several variables — there must be snow to start with — but the field trial showed that grain stubble left even two inches taller can result in a canola crop producing two more bushels of oilseed per acre. At about $13 per bushel, that’s a value of about $26 more per acre. The only management change needed is to raise the combine header two inches higher.

Palmier’s look into the value of stubble height began with a couple of harvest situations in fall 2021, which led to the on-farm research trial in 2022. The growing season was dry in 2021, but in one area there was moisture before harvest that caused a lot of volunteer regrowth in one canola field. It was difficult to harvest the standing crop, resulting in a lot of tall stubble.

In another situation, again due to the dry growing season, a producer left part of his canola crop unharvested because of poor yields. Both cases left tall or fairly heavy standing crop residue that trapped and held snow.

“In the early part of harvest in 2022, the yield data showed that something was affecting yield on these fields that had standing stubble and unharvested crop from the previous year,” says Palmier. “Were higher yields in these areas due to taller stubble trapping more snow and ultimately more moisture for the subsequent crop?”

Working with the producer, he launched the on-farm research trial that fall to find out.

Good support from client

Palmier was working with a client who was anxious to learn more about the value of crop height and trapping snow to improve yield. That producer had already invested in two types of harvest systems — two combines equipped with stripper headers and one with a conventional header.

The plan was to establish field scale plots of about 20 acres with varying stubble height in a field of durum wheat. Some plots were harvested with the stripper header, leaving stubble as tall as possible, and other plots were harvested with a combine equipped with a conventional header.

“It’s common for many producers to leave stubble about eight to 10 inches tall,” says Palmier. “The producer I was working with didn’t want to cut the durum crop that short. He was pretty confident that taller stubble could trap more snow, so he wanted to capture as much moisture as possible and still provide a comparison.

“So, the stubble with the conventional combine was cut a bit taller than average but not as tall as the stripper header stubble.”

Palmier says durum stubble height was 18 to 20 inches in stripper header plots and 12 to 14 inches in the conventional header plots. The producer was already using variable rate technology in his fields.

A VR mapping system had identified 10 different production zones on the field and research plots were established in several of those zones. The producer was already using Bayer’s Climate Fieldview technology with GPS tracking, so it was used to measure and mark 20-acre plots for the project.

The durum field was harvested in fall 2022 with 20-acre plots all in the same field. Some were harvested with the stripper header and others with a conventional header. All that was needed was snow, and it did come.

“There was a fairly early snowfall in the fall of 2022, which was captured in the stubble,” says Palmier. “And prevailing winds are important as well. Typically, in this area, winds are from the west, but in the winter of 2022/23, we also had winds from the east. As winds change direction, they help to carry more snow into the stubble.”

He says it is important to note that the 2022 growing season and harvest conditions were extremely dry, so there was no immediate topsoil moisture heading into winter. Without moisture, the soil didn’t freeze so it was receptive when the snow did melt. There was no run-off.

Measuring snow density

The field was left for the fall and winter until February 2023, when Palmier measured the amount of snow and moisture held in the various stubble heights.

“For the snow survey, we collected 10 snow samples from both conventional and stripper stubbles to weigh for snow density,” he says. “We also measured 30 points in both stubbles for snow heights to estimate the average snow height in both treatments. By combining both these measurements, we could then understand what our average snow water equivalent was in the two treatments.”

Palmier noted snow density in the stubble varied between the two harvest treatments. The snow in the stripper header stubble had about 25 per cent moisture, while the conventional stubble had about 27 per cent moisture. He suspects the difference in density was due to the conventional stubble moving more with the wind, allowing the snow to settle, while the stripper header stubble was more rigid.

“Even though the snow in the conventional stubble had more density, there was less of it,” says Palmier. “Whereas the snow caught in the stripper stubble was less dense, but there was more of it due to increased stubble height. Ultimately the stripper header stubble held 20 mm more moisture than the conventional stubble.”

After the snow survey, the field was left until seeding. As spring approached, snow in the stripper header stubble melted sooner than that in the conventional stubble, likely because there was more exposed stubble on the stripper header plots to attract solar energy. Because the ground wasn’t frozen, any moisture went straight into the soil.

Soil moisture probes are key

The final bit of important technology needed to monitor the research project was an on-farm weather station outfitted with soil moisture probes. The project used a Crop Intelligence RealmFive weather station that wirelessly connected to two John Deere moisture probes.

“We set the weather station up at the edge of the field and placed the two soil moisture probes in the same field. One was placed in the stripper stubble plots and one in conventional stubble plots,” says Palmier.

The field was seeded to canola with a disc drill on May 16, and the soil moisture probes were installed May 21. The probes were connected wirelessly to the RealmFive weather station by a flex station, which pulls data from the probe. The station contains a modem and SIM card, where it can upload data to the cloud. It is stored and processed on Crop Intelligence’s platform.

The John Deere soil moisture probes have six sensor points at varying depths along the 100 cm length of the probe. Palmier used a three-inch diameter handheld auger to create a hole the right depth for the probe. To ensure proper soil contact, he first made a slurry of soil and water to fill the hole and then pushed the probe into the slurry.

Once in soil, the probes’ sensors provide soil moisture readings at intervals from 10 cm to 20 cm, 30 cm, 50 cm, 70 cm and 100 cm (from four inches to 40 inches). He says it is important to know the soil type to understand its moisture-holding capacity. Clay soil, for example, will have a plant wilting point with a reading of 20 per cent soil moisture and a maximum moisture-holding capacity of 50 per cent moisture. Sandy loam, on the other hand, will have a wilting point of eight per cent moisture and a maximum holding capacity of 32 per cent moisture.

“It is important to know soil texture,” says Palmier. “The probe will only tell you how much moisture is present, so if it says 32 per cent and you have sandy loam soil, you know the soil is at moisture-holding capacity, but if it is 32 per cent and your soil is more clay, you know you are a long way from moisture-holding capacity. “

For the 2023 growing season, Palmier measured about 20 mm (roughly 0.8 inch) more plant available moisture at the start of the year on the stripper header strips than on the conventional header strips.

The rest of the growing season was not particularly kind to the crop. From May until mid-August, there were just over 82 mm (three inches) of rainfall. The biggest rainfall after June 3 amounted to 11 mm, or less than half an inch. Overall, it was about 39 per cent of the average growing season rainfall. And on top of dry conditions, there were plenty of hot days. Between June 5 and Aug. 15, 22 days were 30 C or hotter.

On the field with alternating strips of crop grown on tall and shorter stubble, canola plants showed a difference in growth pattern. Palmier says the roots on two treatments reached the 10- and 20-cm depths at about the same time. After that, the crop seeded on the stripper header stubble reached 30 cm two days earlier, and 50 and 70 cm depths six days earlier than the short stubble crop.

“That tells me the crop on stripper header stubble appeared to be more vigorous. It had moisture but also the taller stubble most likely helped to reduce abiotic stress factors by providing more shade to plants and protecting plants from the wind and other stressors,” says Palmier.

He also found that the crop on the stripper header stubble started the year with more moisture and ended the growing season with less soil moisture than the shorter stubble crop. Again, it was an indicator of more robust plants that developed more roots and used more moisture.

Overall, the crop with taller stubble yielded six to eight more bushels per acre than crop grown on shorter stubble.

Palmier says not every farm can handle stubble that’s 15 to 20 inches tall, because not every seeding system can work through that much standing crop residue.

“But the point is, if a producer can leave stubble even two or three inches taller — go from eight to 10 or from 10 to 12 inches — it can make a difference in how much snow is trapped and how much moisture is available to the crop.”

“There are only so many things we can control, but we can set things up to take advantage of snow and moisture if or when it does come,” says Palmier. “And particularly during extremely dry conditions, every little bit helps. Small changes in management can make a difference.”

Palmier planned to monitor fields with crops seeded into different stubble heights during the 2024 growing season as well.

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The new 61-foot wide FD261 FlexDraper header will be available in limited quantities for the 2025 harvest season.

“It’ll fit any of the combines our current FD2 (series) will fit on, as long as they have the lift capacity and auger length,” Russ Henderson, product manager for the FlexDraper line, says. “That was one of our goals, to keep it as common as we could with the FD2, just make it larger.

“We tried to minimize the amount of change on it, so all your wear components and replacement parts are the same as the FD2 series, other than the sickle will be longer.”

As part of that common component strategy, the new FD261 is built on the same frame design as other FD2 headers.

“The FD2 was our first major frame change in 20 years,” Henderson adds. “And part of the thinking and development was to build a better platform to allow us to go larger. That meant when we went to develop the 61-foot, we already had the right frame structure and foundation we could build on to bring it out to that size.”

The FD261 was designed primarily for controlled-traffic farming operations that are common in Australia and South America — hence the 61-foot width. It allows one extra foot for overlap in those systems.

But with the recent growth in combine size, Prairie farmers here have expressed interest in it as well.

“Surprisingly, we’re seeing a lot of interest in North America,” he adds. “It won’t be huge numbers, but there’s more interest than what we expected. That’s primarily due to the new, larger combines that are out there, whether it’s Deere’s X9, Claas’ 8900 or the new AF11 from Case IH and the CR11 from New Holland. The Ideal 10 has been around for a while, but it’s in the 775-horsepower range as well.”

Transporting the FD261 down the road will require a trailer. It can’t use the same EasyMove transport system some of MacDon’s other headers do.

“That helps keep the weight down,” Henderson says. “It helps keep the weight fairly close to a fully loaded FD250.”

There are three sections across the header that allow for a total of 46 inches of vertical wing range, allowing it to contour over terrain. Even the centre section has some oscillating ability.

“We can still use ContourMax (contouring wheels), which we have on all our FD250s, available as an option,” Henderson says. “And we also still have our stabilizer wheels. The difference with the 261 is you can put two sets of stabilizer wheels on it. You can adjust them zero to 18 inches.”

Draper belt depth is the same 50 inches as on the other FD2 models, The upper cross auger behind the drapers extends almost the full width of the header.

“Most of the competition, on their 61-foots, have about an eight-foot gap on each end of the upper cross auger,” Henderson says. “With that, we noticed you get canola hanging up in the corner and lump feeding. We ran our auger almost to the end and have a small piece of shielding there to cover it, so there is nowhere for crop to hang up.”

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Grainews recently reviewed some of the features of the newest Drago GT with the vice-president of Dragotec USA, Dustin Bollig. Dragotec is the North American distributor for Drago. He says his family originally imported a Drago header for use on their own farm in Iowa, and found it had a number of design advantages that significantly reduced header losses.

“We were having a lot of header loss from corn heads. What we found with Drago was we were having a lot less header loss, because the deck plates are automatically adjustable. The stalk is pushed through, opening the deck plates with no electronics and no hydraulics. It’s automatic.”

The deck plates are spring-loaded so they are pushed apart by the stalk as it enters the header and don’t allow any gap beside them. That eliminates one possible location where shelled corn can fall through.

While most corn other headers also have adjustable deck plates, their spacing is often set by the operator, with one adjustment across the full header width. That can cause problems when the stand is variable.

“With hydraulic deck plates you only get one decision (across the header width),” he continues, “so most people just set it and forget it. University studies show if you’re off the stalk by an eight of an inch you lose up to four bushels per acre, potentially. You can’t see an eight of an inch from the cab.”

The Drago GT uses a pretty long knife roller, which also helps minimize header losses.

“The other big thing we have is the longest knife rollers in the industry.,” he says. “They’re a third longer. Longer knife rollers give us way more time so we can pull the corn down slower. There’s less ear bounce. We get that from having less tip speed with a smaller diameter. That also allows us to harvest the ear farther back in the machine.

“Most corn heads run the knife rolls so fast all the action happens right in the front. Ears bounce, they can shell and bounce right out of the head.”

To minimize bounce, the hinged deck plates sit on a pair of spring-loaded shock absorbers.

“When the ears hit the deck plates, there’s virtually no bounce,” he says. “And that saves a lot of yield.”

A large diameter front sprocket and overlapping fingers mean the Drago GT can grab downed corn easier and force it up through the knife rollers, without letting the stalk escape.

“That’s where Drago gets its name,” Bollig Says. “It’s like dragon claws trying to bring that in.”

The chopping blades are located back from the tips of the knife rollers to ensure the header has a firm grasp of the stalk before beginning to cut it. For headers with 30-inch or greater row spacings there are two chopping options, a singe or twin chop configuration. Headers below 30-inch spacing are available with only the single chop.

“With the twin chop, they cross each other and that pulverizes the plant, plus they’re split open,” he says. “So it’s better if you want to get rid of residue and work it in.”

A large diameter auger brings material across the header to the feeder house. It and all the other components are entirely gear driven. Drago headers are available from four- to-24 row widths and from 20- to 40-inch row spacings.

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“When a combine sits there for two minutes it feels like three hours for the farmer,” says Marcel Kringe, founder and CEO of Bushel Plus Ltd., which has established the Bushel Plus Harvest Academy in Canada. It will start conducting training sessions for growers and ag professionals this year on how to get the most out of a combine and, importantly, how to keep it rolling when it counts.

“We can teach them how fast and quick this is. They can do a ton of stuff before harvest even starts. That’s really the eye-opening thing, I think. It’s easier to fine-tune in the field once the understanding of the machine is there, which is what we train, and the pre-harvest setting is done.

“It’s all about value and how to make a combine work no matter what kind of combine you have. It’s really understanding the inner workings of a combine and how one change creates a chain reaction throughout the machine, and how different harvest conditions can influence that. You cannot just compare settings with other people and hope for the best.”

VIDEO: Setting up combines to limit harvest loss

Kringe, who has a background in agricultural engineering, says he has spent most of the last two decades working with custom harvesters and grain growers in many different regions of the world, getting combines to operate at peak performance. His firm also operates a similar combine consulting business in Europe, and is working with Assiniboine Community College at Brandon, Man. and Lakeland College in Alberta to help train students in combine operation.

“We’ve been doing training in Canada and the U.S. for a little while,” he says, “but at the same time we were able to continue a business in Germany where someone wanted to retire. He had been doing combine clinics for over 25 years all over Europe. We’ve taken over that company. We now combine all the knowledge from Europe and North America and made one big Harvest Academy out of it.”

Bushel Plus is taking bookings from grower organizations, seed growers, equipment dealers or anyone who wants to arrange a seminar on how to properly set combines.

READ MORE: How to reduce canola combine losses

“We got a lot of questions from farmers about these training programs,” he says. “We’ve done a lot of keynote speaking on it. We can customize the program, depending on the customer. We can be very specific, for example, for seed growers that are very conscious about grain quality.

“We can customize a half-hour to one-hour speech about problems inside the combine through the threshing and separating system, all the way up to a full day where we go through the entire combine front to back.”

‘Myth-busting’

While he acknowledges many growers are pretty good at setting combines, he has found there are still many persistent misconceptions.

“We get the very same questions in Europe that we get here. We get the same misconceptions in the different countries where we work. We’re doing a lot of myth-busting.”

Much of the training Kringe’s firm offers can be applied across all different brands of combines, but he is also able to address the different models available and the setting considerations that are unique to each one.

“There is a lot of stuff that applies to all brands, but there are a lot of things we have to point out that are different in the different machines or sometimes even different models within a brand.”

To find out more about the Bushel Plus Harvest Academy or arrange a training event, Kringe can be contacted through the company’s website.

“This is kind of filling a need,” he says. “We got a lot of feedback from the industry, seed companies, grain associations and farmers that asked us if we would do more of this.”

The post Learn to get the best performance from a combine appeared first on Grainews.

Recently, though, some OEMs have denied header manufacturers the command set code needed to link the header with some combine and swather models’ digital systems — which means buyers of those machines will have to stick with a header from the OEM. Not all combines will be fully compatible with aftermarket headers.

“Economic theory would predict this (monopolistic) behaviour (by dominant companies),” says Carlo Dade, director for trade and trade infrastructure at the Canada West Foundation. “If you have the ability to return greater value to shareholders by locking down equipment and limiting choice, it’s simply rational (economic) behaviour.”

Maximizing shareholder profits in this way, though, pits their interests against those of producers, by limiting purchase choices through anticompetitive means.

“It’s beginning to more and more resemble the tech industry,” says Anthony Rosborough, assistant professor of law and computer science at Dalhousie University. “We’re seeing these anti-competitive activities are transcending minor consumer inconveniences and creating deep competition and market unfairness.

“That increasingly now includes agricultural equipment.”

One of the shortline companies affected is Honey Bee Manufacturing. The southwestern Saskatchewan firm is starting to feel the impact of this trend.

“No one with a controller on the header right now is offering a technical package to allow third parties to put that same controller on a header or swather,” Honey Bee’s components, systems and integration manager Scott Smith says. “That can impact multiple brands.”

That lack of universal digital communication between machines and attachments is occurring even though there’s an ISOBUS standard protocol in place to facilitate it.

“The protocol is defined in ISOBUS. But the command set is not,” Smith says. “So when someone introduces that, when they’re a member of the ISOBUS community, as all OEMs are, they’re supposed to submit their command set to ISOBUS for ratification and inclusion in the published protocol. They refuse to do that. As such, they’re preventing us from participating on those platforms.”

The shortline brand can’t sell a header to mount on a particular combine if it doesn’t have the command set to electronically communicate with models that require it.

While it’s technically possible in many cases for engineers to reverse-engineer the command set code necessary to link a header to a combine’s digital system, that is actually illegal under Canadian copyright law.

What’s more, in accordance with the new Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA, or NAFTA 2.0), a company, or even a farmer doing it for personal use, can now be held both civilly and criminally liable for it.

“Canadian law prevents us from doing that legally,” Smith says. “That was upheld in a ruling, Nintendo vs. King, a few years ago. They got sued $13 million for their trouble.”

“The cost for the shortline is kind of a chilling effect, not being able to understand in certain cases the cost of liability,” Rosborough says. “We’re not talking about small potatoes in terms of liability for some of these companies.”

A recent lobbying effort by an industry group that included the Canada West Foundation resulted in Bill C-294, to amend the Copyright Act, being passed in the House of Commons last June — but it still awaits approval in the Senate, where it’s stalled at second reading.

“When we saw the X9 get locked down,” Dade says, “all the things we had been talking about as theoretical threats to the industry suddenly landed on our laps and prompted us to move more quickly with this.”

If and when it’s passed, C-294 will only be a foundation to modify other laws that fall under the jurisdiction of the provinces, who can then amend their agricultural machinery legislation to change the rules on digital access.

Dade says while the federal government quickly took steps to introduce C-294, he hasn’t heard much feedback from the provinces, who will need to play a key role.

But fixing the problem entirely may also require some changes to CUSMA, which is up for review in 2026.

The association representing shortliners, the Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada (AMC), has been lobbying on members’ behalf to bring this problem to the attention of governments and industry stakeholders.

It remains to be seen if producer associations will become vocal on this issue as well. There’s certainly a reason for them to be involved.

Along with the shortliners, producers will also feel the impact if the anti-competition trend continues — and not only in reduced equipment purchase options.

“Farmers buy mixed fleets,” Smith says. “They don’t buy all of one brand. There’s always some mix of equipment, and it’s always expected to work. As more and more technology comes onto the farm, the less brands are interoperable between themselves, the more that’ll be a challenge. And that’s really not helpful to anyone.

“I think the primary driver we’d like to see is some form of mandated interoperability for products sold in Canada. If that’s there, this problem goes away.”

The post Code clash limits header options appeared first on Grainews.

Geringhoff’s TruFlex Razor Draper header offers some unique features that help reduce kernel loss and improve material flow, including the Integrated Air System (IAS).

In that system, a fan mounted on the rear of the header forces air up from the cutter bar toward the rear of the belts to prevent kernel loss at the front of the header over the cutter bar.

“Nobody else has that,” Haas says. “It’s something unique. We started here in Western Canada in 2020 and tested it and improved it. We now have about 140 headers out (in Canada) and 80 per cent of them have the air system on it.

“We started testing at Olds College. In Europe we’ve tested with different varieties of canola. Here when we tested it (against) a header without (IAS); it’s over a bushel, about one and a half (in loss savings). When you have a head without the air system, (loss) went to two, to two and half bushels sometimes. With ours, it reduced it to 0.5 bushel.

“Farmers can see the cutter bar is way cleaner. In cereal there’s a benefit. If it (the crop) is really short, in dry years or where it’s dried out, it feeds better. So you don’t need the reel so much. But the big difference is in canola, lentils, lighter crops.”

A narrow four-inch side panel also helps reduce loss in canola when fitted with a vertical cutter bar.

The TruFlex Razor headers use a three-section design that allows for each wing to flex 26.5 to 36 inches, depending on the working width. Each wing can pivot four degrees up and five degrees down.

Models equipped with the flexible cutter bar option get another six inches of flex there, for a total 42 inches of ground contouring on the 45-foot model.

The cutter bar height is controlled hydraulically and can be set to automatically contour to the terrain, causing the combine to raise or lower the feeder house to maintain a consistent cutting height.

“It has hydraulic gauge wheels,” Haas says. “So if you calibrate this header on your combine it will talk. Our header tells the combine what to do, lift the feeder house up, down, raise it (the header wings) left, right. If you drive in ditches or in sloughs you will have a constantly perfect height on your cutter bar — so it doesn’t dig into the dirt. On headlands you can manually lift one wing up (to clear ground obstacles).”

All hydraulic systems on the header are self-contained. The header only requires the standard PTO drive from the combine to operate its systems.

“The hydraulic pump and oil tank, everything is on the header,” he adds. “The gearbox is a high-end build. Everything is hydraulic on this header, so if the cutter bar hits something, it doesn’t break. It stops. If something gets blocked, the relief block for the oil will open and not break or damage anything. It will just stop.”

READ MORE: Geringhoff partners with Agco

The TruFlex Razor header is available in 35-, 40- and 45-foot widths, but Haas says other models are now in field trials that will eventually offer more cutting width choices. And Geringhoff headers are compatible with all combine brands.

“We can put this header on all varieties of combines,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s green, yellow, red or black, whatever.”

Geringhoff headers come with a standard two-year factory warranty, but a longer five-year warranty option is available. The company now has a warehouse in Saskatoon to supply Western Canada.

The post TruFlex Razor Draper header a “premium” design appeared first on Grainews.