3-6 IAN Self Propelled

 The Agriculture Company AGCO, is a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment. They’ve brought an automated steering system to the market for use on select self-propelled windrowers from Hesston^® by Massey Ferguson^® and Challenger^®. AGCO claims these auto-steering products provide hay and small-grains producers with the most accurate and simple-to-operate assisted steering available in the industry for self-propelled windrowers.

Field demonstrations show these steering systems work together to reduce overlap and allow windrower operation at faster speeds, helping operators cut as much as 7 to 10 percent more hay each day than with manual steering. In fact, at the 2-centimeter accuracy level, which results in virtually no overlap, operators were able to harvest as much as 155 acres in a 10-hour day when using a 16-foot sickle-bar head, resulting in fewer passes across the field, reduced fuel use, and less operator stress and fatigue. Here’s Manager Reid Hamre:  “Now you can put an antenna on a self propelled wind rower and it is picking up signals from the global positioning satellites so that the machine knows exactly where it is.”

The technology also results in a cleaner cut, by freeing the machine operator to watch for damaged or missing sickle sections or knives that can leave strips of crop in the field if not replaced. Guided steering means all swaths are the same size, so crop dry down is uniform for faster baling, chopping and harvesting as well as more consistent forage quality.