3 minute read
C Series
Advertisement
Ideal
Model kW hp No. of Rotors
IDEAL 7 336* 451* 1 IDEAL 8 401* 538* 2 IDEAL 9 483* 647* 2 IDEAL 10 581* 790* 2
*Max. performance with PowerBoost (ECE R 120)
TW Grant
Stewart Grant, TW Grant, North Scotland.
Changing brand after more than 50 years was a success
A north Scotland-based family farm which grows malting barley for local whisky production has benefitted from increased work rates and reduced grain damage since investing in a Fendt Ideal 8PL.
Owned and managed by the Grant family, the mixed farming enterprise comprises five farms within a sixmile radius. Approximately 410ha of arable cropping includes winter and spring barley, and there is an indoor Charolais-cross beef fattening enterprise for which feed is produced from the winter barley and straw is used for bedding. There is also grassland rented out for grazing.
Barley for whisky
Several whisky distilleries within 15–20 miles radius of the farm, provide a ready market for good malting barley. Of 280ha of spring barley grown by the Grants, 40ha is for a seed contract and the rest is for malting. Almost all the winter barley is for feed. and just one brand of combine was used for more than 50 years. “Our steep slopes mean we need a combine with slope compensation and four-wheel drive,” explained Stewart Grant, who farms in partnership with his parents Margaret and Theo, and his wife Elaine. “We usually update the combine every six years and, although we have always been aware of other brands, few offered the capacity and specification we needed.”
The farm uses two Fendt tractors, supplied by local AGCO main dealer Ross Agri Services Ltd which has depots at Turriff and St Cyrus. At the 2019 Highland Show, Managing Director Martin Ross showed Stewart around the new Ideal, and suggested that it should be his next combine.
Change of brand
After the 2019 harvest, when the Grant’s combine was due to be changed, it was expected to be by replaced by another of the same brand. However, an updated range didn’t include an equivalent model with slope compensation and four-wheel drive, so other makes and models were considered, including the new Fendt Ideal. “We had decided to increase the header width from 30 to 35ft for extra output and to improve straw quality for baling.” Stewart continued. “We make round bales for our own use and to sell to local livestock farms, and we also sell many square bales, so straw quality is very important. Using a 30ft header, the tractor and trailer wheels ran on the swath and where it was flattened it took longer to dry. A wider header would provide space for tractors and trailers to travel alongside the combine without running on the straw.”
At Agritechnica that autumn, Stewart met Fendt UK product specialists and looked around the Ideal on the company’s stand. On his return to the UK, he visited an Ideal user in southern England and, having received very positive feedback, an order was placed for an Ideal 8PL with a 35ft SuperFlow header.
“We had looked at other options too, but a big attraction of the Ideal was that the front drive axles of the ParaLevel (PL) version can operate together to lift the front of the combine, allowing travel through narrow gateways without removing the header. We also wanted a combine with twin rotors as I feel they are gentler on grain. In heavy crops and when conditions were wet, the sample from our previous combine often included more skinned grains than were acceptable, and this was an opportunity to address that issue too.”
Flexible harvesting
Harvesting winter barley starts as soon as grain moisture is down to 15–17 per cent, then the crop is crimped and treated with preservative, and stored for feed. Spring barley varieties are harvested at below 20 per cent moisture, when possible, although Stewart said he will harvest the spring crop at up to 25 per cent moisture if there is added pressure from adverse weather. The crop
