THE Fendt Vario 1050 has taken out the prestigious Tractor of the Year 2016 at this week's Agritechnica expo held in Hannover, Germany.
Claimed to be the most powerful conventional tractor available in the world, the 367 kW Vario 1050 features a constant velocity transmission working in combination with Fendt’s VarioDrive traction system which uses independent hydraulic drive motors to split power to the front and rear axles allowing free torque distribution.
Essentially the front axle is fitted with a separate hydro motor for high torque supply to offer four wheel drive in the field and automatically disengage when on the road where the tractor can reach up to 60km/h.
Other winners in the sought-after awards were the Massey Ferguson 5713 SL in the Best Utility class and the Same Frutteto S 90.3 ActiveDrive in the Best Specialised class.
The Valtra N174 V took out the gold for tractor design for what was described as a "dynamic, compact and cool look".
Fendt also picked up a gold award for the tyre pressure control system VarioGrip Pro which offers fast tyre re-inflation on-the-go for road travel.
The technology features a second high pressure tyre inside the newly developed outer tyre which serves as an accumulator allowing the inflation pressure to be altered rapidly.
Air is provided to the internal tyre via a simple rotary union and the system does not require extra compressors, air tanks or control lines. Inflation from 0.8 to 1.8 bar occurs within 30 seconds by the simple pressure exchange system.
There was a raft of other innovations presented at the expo with a new carbon fibre concept boom for the John Deere sprayer range showcased and Krone’s Premos 500 one-pass pellet harvester/maker that turns hay swathes into pellets in the field drawing big crowds.
The Premos 5000 has the potential to be a contractor’s dream in Europe where the pellets can be used for stockfeed as well as bio-fuel for home based furnaces that are popular.
The tip from both the Deere and Krone camps is that the technology could be available in Australia by 2017.
A Lely continuous motion round baler prototype also drew strong interest in it’s ‘straight from field-testing’ guise. The baler allows the operator to continue baling a new bale while one bale is being finished and ejected rather than having to stop the machine.
There’ll be more detailed coverage of the latest and greatest in agricultural machinery from Agritechnica on FarmOnline over the next week.
Tom McKenny travelled to Germany courtesy of Claas/Landpower Australia.
