John Deere’s new 8600 self-propelled forage harvester with three-in-one HarvestLab constituent sensing for use on the forager, in the clamp or with a slurry tanker will be making its Royal Highland Show debut this month on Avenue S at the Ingliston showground. It will be displayed alongside an advanced technology S-Series automated combine harvester and the company’s latest Agricultural Management Solutions precision farming solutions.
The latest HarvestLab 3000 near infrared system features AutoLOC automatic length-of-cut settings and silage additive dosing on the move, based on dry matter content. The same sensor can also be used in stationary mode for analysing clamp silage in order to manage feed rations more accurately, and for analysing the constituents in manure (eg N, NH4, P & K) when operating a slurry tanker.
Launched together with the new high-capacity 9000 Series range for the 2019 season, the updated John Deere 8600 self-propelled forage harvester tops the company’s range of standard crop channel models from the 8100 to 8500. Its introduction has been driven by the market demand for more power, more efficiency and more productivity in self-propelled foragers with a transport width of less than 3m.
The new 8600 SPFH is powered by John Deere’s PSX 13.5-litre 625hp engine, which is the same as that fitted to the new entry-level wide body 9600 model. The 8600 is also available with the new XStream KP kernel processor, which is specifically designed to handle high throughputs and delivers high kernel processing scores and chopping performance at all cutting lengths. The kernel processor can be removed in just five minutes for quick changes between maize and grass.
All 8000 and 9000 Series self-propelled forage harvesters for 2019 can also be equipped with John Deere’s complete range of AMS precision farming systems, for improved operator comfort, performance and cutting quality. Advanced technology features include AutoTrac automatic steering, RowSense feeler guidance that allows the forager to automatically follow maize rows, Active Fill Control for automatic trailer filling and the MyJohnDeere Operations Centre web portal, which can be used for machinery fleet management and for displaying detailed, up to the minute machine and harvest data.
