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British farmer Keith Challen recently demonstrated just how much he identifies with ”his“ brand of combine harvester, the CLAAS LEXION 580: Under the watchful eye of an invited Guinness Book of Records official, the LEXION 580 harvested 532 tons of wheat in eight hours. That’s 18 percent better than the previous world record.The LEXION 580, loaded with high-tech equipment including GPS steering, a 10.50 m wide cutterbar and tracked running gear, set the new world record on the farm of Kevin Yates at Sleaford near Nottingham.
The harvesting conditions in Britain this year were not ideal on account of the bad summer weather. Finally, on Tuesday, 16th September, the skies over the eastern English county cleared, and Challen was able to launch his record-breaking bid under the supervision of Guinness Book of Records’ official Carlos Martinez.
The LEXION 580 was sent on its way at 12.02 pm. By the half-way mark, at 16.02 pm, the high-tech combine harvester had already harvested 270 tons of wheat. The old record of 451 tons, established only weeks previously, was surpassed after 6 hours 45 minutes. After exactly eight hours, at 20.02 pm, the weigh gauge registered 532.14 tons.The parameters – grain moisture content, grain quality, loss ratio and stubble height – were constantly monitored throughout in accordance with the rules of the Guinness Book of Records. The harvested straw was chopped and spread over the full cutting width of the combine harvester.
The average hourly yield was 66.51 tons, and only 1.35 litres of diesel were consumed per ton. An average grain moisture content of 16.2% made harvesting more difficult, but it also proves the capability of the hybrid system. The fact that the harvesting was done on six different fields shows that the performance was achieved under practical conditions.
The world record can also be attributed to the latest CLAAS Management Systems. As the LEXION 580 is equipped with GPS steering, the driver activated the automatic steering on the onboard computer during harvesting operations, and the combine harvester maintained a straight path controlled by satellite. Furthermore, all farm employees were able to track the combine harvester’s record breaking harvest on the Internet via the CLAAS TELEMATICS Information System.
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