The AF Series won the Coolest Thing Made in Nebraska competition
A piece of farm equipment is the coolest thing manufactured in a particular state.
The Case IH AF Series combine, built by about 650 people at the company’s Stolley Park Rd. facility in Grand Island, Neb., won the 2025 Coolest Thing Made in Nebraska competition.
Over three rounds of voting the combine received more votes than any of the other 15 finalists and topped other Nebraska-made items like the world’s largest folding corn head from Bish Enterprises, Allmand light towers, and custom artificial limbs from Limb Lab.
In total, the competition received more than 40,000 votes.
“There was certainly some tough competition,” Dustin Alexander, the plant manager, told the Grand Island Independent. “There’s a lot of pride that goes into producing those products.”
Alexander accepted the award Monday at the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Manufacturing Summit in La Vista.
Case IH manufactured the AF Series machines with farmers in mind and can handle more than 180 crop types.
The AF Series includes the AF9, AF10, and AF11 models.
The AF9 and AF10 are built for high capacity, making them ideal for crops like corn, soybeans, and small grains.
They are single rotor machines with an improved threshing system, offering 50 percent more capacity than other models.
The AF11 has 775 HP, a 396-gallon fuel tank, a 567-bushel grain tank, and a six bushel per second unload rate.
“Efficiency is the name of the game with AF11, and you will see that we take overall engine RPM of 2100 PM and actually drop that down to 1900 RPM, saving us additional fuel,” Leo Bose, marketing manager of North America for harvesting products at Case IH, told the Spring 2024 Farms.com Precision Ag Digital Digest.
Another ag manufacturer won the Nebraska Manufacturer of the Year award.
This honor, which celebrates manufacturers using innovative ways to conduct business, went to Lindsay Corporation.
The company started as a farm equipment business in 1955 and is now viewed as a global leader in irrigation and infrastructure.
“From agriculture to road safety to industrial technology, Lindsay meets customers where they are on a global scale,” a Nebraska Chamber of Commerce press release says.