CLAAS of America recently received two 2018 AE50 New Product Awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE).
One award was for its CONVIO Flex Draper and the other for its Variable Rate Harvesting.
The annual AE50 Awards program celebrates products that feature the highest in innovation, significant engineering advancement and impact on the market served.
ASABE is an international scientific and educational organisation dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food and biological systems.
Entries for the AE50 awards are submitted from throughout the world and are then reviewed by a panel of international engineering experts to determine the top 50 products that represent the diversity of agricultural and biological engineering.
The CONVIO Flex Draper has been designed with auto contour flex and auto belt speed and is the only flex draper in the industry with a 175mm range of vertical flex.
It features a flexible cutterbar, knife bar, and side belts that enable the cutterbar to follow ground contours.
The Variable Rate Harvesting leverages precision sensor technology with autonomous machine control and is currently available on all CLAAS LEXION headers and JAGUAR forage harvesters.
It automatically optimises machine performance by sensing changing field conditions, crop density and machine speeds and adjusting machine performance accordingly.
According to CLAAS, Variable Rate Harvesting can maximise header performance based on crop conditions, crop volume and paddock topography.
“It reduces labour, fuel and machine costs while improving throughput, grain retention, feed quality and harvesting speed,” a CLAAS spokesman said.
Mahindra precision
US company AgJunction has announced it has entered into a framework development agreement with tractor manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).
Under the agreement, M&M gains access to AgJunction’s engineering team and technology.
For AgJunction, it secures a solid relationship with the world’s largest tractor company by volume and gain access to M&M’s supply chain and penetration into Asia and other strategic markets.
“Working together with the world’s largest tractor company will potentially create great opportunities toward our mission to expand our offerings to all farmers,” said company CEO and president Dave Vaughn.
“And it further strengthens our commitment to making our technology low-cost, simple-to-use and easily accessible to all farmers worldwide.”