It took some time for Wakanui farmer Eric Watson to get the tracks dirty on his newly-purchased Case IH AF10 combine, but it was worth the wait, he says, and the challenging conditions really put the new machine through its paces.
Eric’s 490ha farm is just east of Ashburton on New Zealand’s South Island, on the fertile Canterbury Plains. Like many other parts of the country, it was a wet summer in the region, taking a toll on the annual crop harvest.
Eric, who runs Rangitata Holdings Ltd with his wife Maxine, grew up on a mixed farming property in the area, but bought his own farm, a cropping operation, almost 35 years ago. It was a great move, the Ashburton local earning a global reputation for exceptional crop management after breaking the Guinness World Record for highest wheat yield not once, but twice.
He achieved 17.398 tonnes per hectare (258.6 bushels per acre) in 2020, after breaking his own previous 2017 record of 16.791 tonnes per hectare, both achieved using irrigation and high-intensity management.
As well as wheat, the Watsons grow barley, ryecorn (which they’ve gone back to after a long hiatus due to the good prices), haricot beans for the first time in some years, grass for seed, and some vegetable seed crops like hybrid radish and spinach.
The new Case IH AF10 replaces a Case IH Axial-Flow 9250 combine, with Eric deciding to invest in the latest Case IH harvester series after reading about its specifications and wanting to increase harvest capacity after challenging harvests in the previous three years.
“The implication of a late harvest has repercussions for next year’s crop yields – late sowing affects plant development resulting in poorer returns. So, the increased capacity of the AF series really assists when you're up against the clock and trying to get it done faster and more efficiently,” Eric said.
Constant rain made for another challenging harvest this year, with the Watson farm receiving 260mm from the beginning of January to the end of February. To put that into perspective, their average annual rainfall is about 600mm.
So, it took some time to be able to get into the paddocks, but when he could finally get the AF10 - with its MacDon 35ft front - on the job, he was impressed with what he saw and was able to achieve.
“With the likes of the ryecorn, which grows taller than the wheat, it went really well. I was surprised how well it handled the green straw, especially in the ryecorn as well as in the wheat. Some of the wheat straw was a bit green, but especially in the ryecorn, it certainly did exceed my expectations,” Eric said.
“One of our ryegrasses was swathed straight after about 40mm of rain and the row was quite wet underneath when we harvested it. It never really dried much in the swathe and I was surprised how well it handled the wet, damp ryegrass as well.”
Eric appreciates the significant investment he’s made in the AF10, and knew it had to justify the expense, but the amount of crop he’s been able to get through in limited periods of time confirm he’s made the right call.
“A couple of times during harvest, I was asked how much I’d got done over the likes of a weekend, and I’d say, ‘oh, I've done all that, and that’ and they would be really impressed with just how much we’d got off, and the speed with which we’d been able to do it,” he said.
The AF10’s 775 horsepower makes it Case IH's highest horsepower and biggest capacity combine to date. Its grain-handling capacity has been enhanced with an industry-leading 20,000L grain tank. The AFXL rotor on the AF10 is longer than previous series, meaning 50% more separation to process high-yielding crops.
Greater control and consistency in harvest are achieved through tailored visibility in the dual Pro 1200 displays as well as real-time machine monitoring, remote view of in-cab displays and visualisation of agronomic data layers through FieldOps.
Part of the AF series’ optimisation is also evident in Case IH’s Harvest Command™ system, designed to enhance harvest efficiency and productivity. Harvest Command automation monitors everything from ground speed and engine load, to feed rate control and sieve settings, which are based on the feedback received from the loss sensors, a grain camera and sieve pressure sensors.
Eric agreed the losses during harvest were lower, and he found the AF10 reasonably user-friendly when it came to learning to operate it. He appreciated the advantages of the new, larger Pro 1200 screen, and the advancement in the automation features, which allowed him to monitor in real time the machine’s performance and progress. The extra horsepower in the heavy straw crops he grows paid dividends as well.
He said the rain and lack of sunshine during critical growing periods meant below average yields this year, but on the positive side the AF10 has helped his current cultivation and planting schedule.
He’s confident though that whatever the next harvest season throws at the business, he’s got the right machine for any conditions.
“The AF10 has been a great investment for us. It’s handled a variety of crops - and in pretty atrocious weather conditions at times - really well and in a year when yields were impacted, we needed every advantage we could get to maximise returns. It’s ticked every box,” Eric said.