While eagerly awaiting the first Australian/New Zealand deliveries of the highly anticipated Case IH AF Series combines, selected customers have had a chance to see their new machines come off the assembly line in the US.
Case IH hosted a group of 27 customers from Australia and New Zealand for a 10-day visit to the US, where they visited the Case IH combine manufacturing facility at Grand Island, Nebraska, and took in US’s biggest field day event, Farm Progress in Iowa.
“The AF Series is completely new from the ground up, and for CNH this trip was recognition of these customers being the first to purchase what is a revolutionary new series and to give them the opportunity to see where these combines are produced, give them more exposure to the process and gain more information from the people who are the coalface of their production,” said Marc Smith, Crop Harvesting Portfolio Manager for CNH ANZ.
The AF10’s 775 horsepower makes it Case IH's highest horsepower and biggest capacity combine ever in Australia/New Zealand, while the AF9 offers 634hp. The grain-handling capacity of the two models has been increased, too, with the AF10 boasting an industry-leading 20,000L grain tank, while the AF9 has 16,000L.
The increased capacity of the AF Series was one of the features that attracted Victorian grower Cameron Martin, who has ordered two AF10s he hopes to pull into service for this year’s harvest.
“We’re currently running four of the Case IH 50 series combines and we're hoping we're going to be able to cut our fleet by half and use two AF10s with 61-foot platforms or harvest fronts,” Cameron said.
“We were interested in the AF10s because of their increased capacity and minimal grain loss out the back, which would be one of the biggest advantages for us. And the prospect of low maintenance on the machines, too. I think they really are going to be a game changer going forward, and we’re looking forward to getting them into the paddock.”
Cameron and his family run Martin Ag Farming, operating a grain property at Bungeet, in Victoria’s north-east, and another west of Walgett, NSW. The Martins are planning to start harvesting their canola crop at Walgett the first week of October and Cameron’s hopeful the new AF10s will arrive in time to join the back end of the harvest there. They’ll start on the canola at their Victorian property in November.
“In purchasing these new combines we're looking for greater efficiencies in the products on the market, and what we can bring into our business that’s going to help us with regards to labour challenges, and assist in terms of productivity and time,” Cameron said.
“The canola crops are looking good and we've got to get them off before there’s the chance of something like weather damage, so we need the largest capacity machines to be able to deliver the right result through minimal grain loss and minimal breakdowns.”
Matt Bourke was another customer who made the trip to the US, running a contracting business from north-east Victoria with 15 Case IH 40 and 50 series Axial-Flow combines. He has an AF10 on the way, and agreed it was the additional capacity that saw them place an order for the new series.
“We’ve been growing some really, really good crops throughout the eastern parts of Australia in recent years so when Case IH released this AF series machine, with a bigger capacity, we jumped on board straight away. It made a lot of sense for our business and what we can offer our clients,” Matt said.
It was Matt’s second visit to the Grand Island manufacturing facility, and he said it was a great experience seeing the new AF series combines coming off the line and learn more from the team responsible for their production.
“We got to ask questions of the team that was there, building these machines, and that interaction was really invaluable. Getting some of those insights prior to our machines arriving will be really helpful,” Matt said.
It was Cameron’s first visit to Grand Island and the experience didn’t disappoint.
“It was great to see firsthand how it all works and how the combines come together. It was also a bonus to talk to some of the people there about the AF Series and how they're actually performing in the US and Canada at the moment before we make our start in Australia. There were some good insights,” he said.
Matt was able to test-drive one of the AF Series combines during some trials around Australia last year, and said he was impressed that despite it being a complete redesign from previous Axial-Flow series, it still felt familiar behind the controls.
“The new combine will be going to work as soon as we take delivery of it, so to know we’re not going to have to do a lot of training with our staff, because it’s similar in terms of operation to the combines we currently have, is a real bonus. So, it’s going to be fairly familiar, but at the same time, it's giving you that additional power, performance and capacity.”