New Fendt is ideal header for South Coast

And AgWest Machinery Esperance branch manager Athol Kennedy believes he has found the ideal header, aptly named the Fendt IDEAL.

After several recent demonstrations in a range of conditions and crops throughout the Esperance district, he said the IDEAL ticked all the required boxes.

"It's a header Fendt has built from the ground up and it is built to harvest the tough conditions that are always present during harvest throughout the Esperance region," Mr Kennedy said.

"Fendt also took on board feedback from Australian farmers during the build process."

Built at AGCO's European Harvesting Centre of Excellence in Breganze, Italy, special attention has been paid to efficiency, grain and straw quality, easy and logical user-friendliness, as well as a revolutionary sensor technology for optimal machine setting.

"It's a high capacity header so it is ideally designed for bulky crops that are a feature of a lot of crops in Esperance and its harvesting efficiency maintains a quality result," he said.

AGCO designed the IDEAL in four models ranging from 336 kiloWatts (451 horsepower) to 589kW (790hp), with power generated from fuel-efficient MAN and AGCO power engines.

It also added a unique Helix threshing unit which essentially is a threshing and separating system.

All grains are separated cleanly without damaging straw quality, due to the longest rotor on the market (4.84 metres length and 600 millimetres diameter).

In order to ensure a constant load on the rotor, the intake augers and threshing bars are arranged in a spiral around the rotor, in a similar pattern to DNA, this is where the name Helix is derived.

The IDEAL 8, 9 and 10 models work with a Dual Helix threshing unit with two rotors, while the IDEAL 7 works with the single Helix threshing unit and one rotor.

The rear grain pan catches the material from the separation area and distributes it in the rear area.

The entire length of the preparation door is fully utilised with crop evenly distributed.

The curve of the two grain pans also allow optimal and consistent output even on slopes - AGCO claims losses on gradients of up to 15 per cent are reduced in comparison with conventional combines.

A 'Ciclone' cleaning system, together with IDEALbalance have been redesigned to further increase the cleaning capacity of the new IDEAL 10T which features a four-channel cleaning system.

In addition, a unique and patented WavePan system with a curved double cascade, provides a wider air outlet, which can significantly increase the air volume.

This makes the cleaning system even more efficient because most short straw and chaff is separated from the grain on the first drop between the preparation floor and intermediate floor.

The Fendt IDEAL also is equipped with one of the largest grain tanks in the header market with a capacity of 17,100 litres, with a discharge rate of 210 litres a second, the fastest on the market.

In line with the move towards automation, Fendt has added IDEALharvest which visualises the row of crop in real time, sending the capacity status of the threshing unit and cleaning in real time to the combine using Mass Acoustic Detection (MAD) sensors.

The sensors are fitted along the rotors and the shaker shoe and detect the row of crop within the machine as well as any losses which occur.

Using the MAD sensors in combination with the grain quality camera, allows grain losses, percentage of cracked grain and grain purity to be displayed.

With the aid of the SmartConnect app, the driver can select a customised harvest strategy between cracked grain, grain loss and purity, within a triangle adjustment displayed on the iPad.

The driver also sets the ratio between machine output and quality.

The machine then adjusts itself on a continuous basis based on these settings and reacts in real time to changing harvest conditions.

For example, the IDEALharvest system can automatically adjust the grain separation and the rotor speed if cracked grains occur.