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Case IH equipment harvests a new world record wheat yield

Release Date: 16 May 2017
Eric Watson with the record breaking Case IH machine
As Case IH celebrates its 175th anniversary, together with the 40th birthday of Axial-Flow® combine harvester and the 20th of the Quadtrac™ tractor, the best-ever wheat yield shows how far agricultural productivity has progressed.

A new wheat harvesting world record has been set with 16.791 tonnes of wheat per hectare harvested with a Case IH Axial-Flow 9230 combine harvester on a 490-hectare farm. A Case IH Steiger® Quadtrac 450 tractor also helped set the record by pulling the seed drill that sowed the wheat.

The new Guinness World Record is another cause for celebration at Case IH, which commemorates its 175th anniversary in 2017. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Axial-Flow single-rotor technology, which revolutionised combine harvesting with its simplicity, grain quality, grain savings, and crop adaptability, and the 20th anniversary of the Quadtrac, whose revolutionary four-track system set a new benchmark among tractors.

The Axial-Flow 9230 achieved its record-setting yield of 16.791 tonnes per hectare on a family-owned farm run by Eric and Maxine Watson in Ashburton on New Zealand’s South Island. As a measure of the 9230’s superior productivity, the irrigated wheat yield in New Zealand is approximately 12 tonnes per hectare on average. The previous record, set in the United Kingdom two years earlier, was 16.519 tonnes per hectare.

The 9230’s achievement is especially impressive because the Watsons do not cultivate intensively and they try to minimise passes and compaction in the soils. Eric says he likes Case IH’s Axial-Flow technology because the whole system, from feeding to cleaning, is designed to be gentle on the crop to minimise grain damage. He uses the Steiger Quadtrac 450 tractor because its track system reduces soil compaction and can increase yields in certain soil types.

By innovating market-leading agricultural solutions, Case IH strives to be the preferred partner of professional farmers, making their work less labour-intensive and more productive. One of Case IH’s unique strengths is its track technology, present on Steiger, Quadtrac, Steiger Rowtrac™ and Magnum Rowtrac™ tractors and an option on Axial-Flow combine harvesters. With these products, as well as self-propelled Patriot sprayers, Cotton Express cotton pickers, Austoft sugarcane harvesters and a range of tractors, Case IH has a strong presence in every market of the Asia Pacific region.

Case IH is a logical choice in the Asia Pacific region because its agricultural equipment is well-suited to the extremely varied conditions of vast land areas, from the scorching summers of Australia to the freezing winters of Russia and China. Axial-Flow combine harvesters sell well in Australia, but also in Russia and China (where local models are manufactured in Harbin). Steiger & Quadtrac tractors, the most powerful series production tractors in the world, are also particularly appreciated in those countries.

In the 175 years since Jerome Increase Case established the Racine Threshing Machine Works in Wisconsin, USA, Case IH has grown into a global agricultural equipment leader. Distinguished innovations in the company’s history include the first steam engine tractor; first self-propelled traction steam engine; world’s first row-crop tractor; the unique single-rotor Axial-Flow rotary combine, which produces the best grain quantity and quality; and four-track Quadtrac tractors, which set the industry benchmark for lugging power, traction, and fuel efficiency.

16 May 2017
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