During an endurance performance test conducted in Lincolnshire, England on September 1st and 2nd, a CLAAS LEXION 770TT established a new Combine Harvesting World Record for wheat of 675.84 tonnes harvested, by maintaining an average harvesting rate of 85.5 tonnes/hour over an eight hour period. This new record is some 22.5% higher than the previous record established in 2008 by another brand.
The record was set as part of the endurance performance test during which the LEXION 770TT harvested over 1400 tonnes of wheat in 20 working hours, a feat made possible by the APS HYBRID threshing & separation system which allows for continued high output in damp conditions.
The combine was a standard 586hp LEXION 770TT, equipped with TERRA TRAC rubber tracks and a 12 meter VARIO cutterbar and APS HYBRID threshing system. It was driven by CLAAS combine demonstrators Jens Broer and Christian Mecmann, supported by a team of five tractors and trailers driven by staff from CLAAS UK and the local CLAAS dealer Marsh.
The endurance test was conducted on four fields of wheat totalling 183ha at Haugh, near Louth in eastern England. Cropping was split between two varieties, Conqueror and Duxford, which between them averaged 9.7t/ha with a peak yield of 13t/ha, and moisture contents ranged from 16-18%.
The endurance test was overseen by ex-ADAS machinery consultant Bill Basford, with the new World Record confirmed by Guinness World Records adjudicator Jack Brockbank. The crop was harvested to a height determined by the farmer, all the straw was chopped and the tonnage recorded over a neighbouring public weighbridge.
The endurance test was being conducted to assess the ability of the APS HYBRID threshing system on the LEXION 770TT to allow farmers to start harvesting earlier and finish later than is possible with rotary type combines.
After 15 minutes spent setting the combine and calibrating the on-board yield monitoring equipment to the weighbridge figure, the endurance test started at 9.45am. With good harvesting conditions and the LEXION 770TT maintaining average throughputs of 85.5 t/hr and peaks in excess of 100t/hr during the day, it soon became apparent that the eight hour World Record would be comfortably beaten, and at 5.45pm the new World Record figure of 674.84 tonnes was confirmed.
During this time, the combine cleared 69.7 ha of crop, but only used 11.21 litres/hectare, or 1.15 litres/tonne, of fuel, which was some 3.75 litres/ha less than was used by the record breaking LEXION 580TT in 2008, and 10.8% less than the previous world record.
Such is the capacity of the LEXION 770TT, working at this World Record breaking rate of 85.5 tonnes/hour and at a feed wheat price of £171/tonne (the September 8th average HGCA for November), the LEXION 770TT would have paid for itself in under 34 hours.
After a short break, the LEXION then continued its endurance test, working into the night. With dawn having broken, the combine was finally shut down at 6.30am, by which time it had spend 20 hours harvesting, had threshed 1361 tonnes of wheat and had only stopped for two short servicing and refuelling breaks.
Despite working through the night, overall the LEXION 770TT still maintained an average throughput of 70.94 tonnes/hour during the 20 harvesting hours it worked, which in itself was 4 tonnes/hour higher than the LEXION 580’s eight hour average in 2008.
The fact that the LEXION 770TT could maintain this high harvesting rate over such a long harvesting period, and through the night , answered the objective of the endurance test and demonstrated the effectiveness of the APS HYBRID threshing system in allowing the combine to work longer hours when other threshing systems would struggle to cope.
In holding this endurance test, and in the process setting a new World Record, CLAAS would like to thank landowners and farmers Mike Daniells of J Wharton Farms, Robbie Heath of J Heath Farms and Anthony Turnbull. Also Bill Basford who oversaw the whole event, Micronized Food Products at Driby for the use of their weighbridge and local CLAAS dealer Marsh.
