MACHINERY giant Agco cleaned up at Agritechnica, winning seven major awards and seventeen in total.
Agco brands Massey Ferguson and Fendt were awarded both the Machine of the Year Award and the coveted Public Vote Award for the Ideal header.
The Machine of the Year Award is judged by an international jury of agricultural journalists, who also award Tractor of the Year across categories.
Traction, editor in chief and award judge, Matthias Mumme, said the stand out feature was the total redesign of the header.
"It's unusual for us specialist journalists to be able to award a combine harvester designed from a blank canvas," he said.
“Developing the combine from scratch, its designers were able to get the machine's dimensions just right.
“The narrow vehicle frame of the Ideal at just 1.40 m provides more space for even the widest tyre or crawler track options.
Mr Matthias said other unique technologies included the fully automated realtime machine adjustment, the new design of grain pan and the 17,100-litre grain tank with an outstanding emptying speed of 210 litres per second.
Agco, senior vice president, Dr Rob Smith, spoke at the awards ceremony.
“Agco is extremely proud of all our brands, and the tremendous awards our teams have achieved,” he said.
“Each prize in itself is very exciting, and we are especially proud of the Public Vote Award.
“Not only have expert journalists recognised our exceptional Ideal combine development,
“It also took the highest share of the 50,000 votes cast, by farmers, users and machinery fans.”
Agco chairman, president and CEO, Martin Richenhagen said the Ideal header was the result of a “global voice of customer” study, the findings of which showed the need for an entirely new header platform.
“The Ideal combine is the result of many years of research and development, countless engineering hours, committed teamwork, and leading industry expertise,” he said.
Agco Senior vice president of global crop cycle and fuse connected services, Eric Hansotia said the global team from different Agco sites developed the features customers had pointed out in the study.
“Ideal is part of Agco’s global platform strategy that supports synergies across different regions, saves cost, and optimises supply chain management,” he said.
Mr Hansotia said close to 50 header prototypes were built and tested in the lab, on the field and around the globe in varying environments.
“Our customers harvest in many different conditions, and each farm has a unique set of requirements for their operation,” he said.
“It is the most innovative combine we have ever produced and an investment in the future of harvesting. Ideal will change the way harvesting is done today.”
Agco said the Ideal header will be available in brands Fendt and Massey Ferguson, with some markets to see delivery in 2018.
AGCO received the following awards:
- Tractor of the Year 2018: Valtra Versu T254 SmartTouch
- Tractor of the Year 2018 Best Design: Valtra Versu T254 SmartTouch
- Tractor of the Year 2018 Best of Specialised – Fendt 211 V Vario
- Tractor of the Year 2018 Finalist: Massey Ferguson 5709 Dyna 4
- Tractor of the Year 2018 Finalist: Massey Ferguson 3710
- Tractor of the Year 2018 Finalist: Valtra A114
- Machine of the Year Combine Harvester: Fendt & Massey Ferguson IDEAL
- Machine of the Year Audience Choice Award: Fendt & Massey Ferguson IDEAL
- Machine of the Year Tractor Upper Class Tractor: Valtra T Series
- Machine of the Year Tractor XXL: Fendt 900 Vario MT
- DLG Agritechnica Silver Innovation Awards: Fendt & Massey Ferguson IDEAL Combine Harvester, Fendt VarioPull System, Fendt e100 Vario, Fendt MARS/Xaver Mobile Agricultural Robot Swarms, AGCO agrirouterTM, GSI FlexWave Grain Silo Unloading System
- Agrarmarketing Prize 2017, Finalist: Fendt IDEAL advertising campaign