Harvest Throughput on New Holland’s CR11

May 21, 2024

New Combine Paired with MacDon FD250 Header

Harvesting has been made easier and more efficient with New Holland and MacDon.

J Cole Sanford, cash crop specialist with New Holland, recently introduced the CR11 combine, which is set to hit the market in the 2025 model year.

This machine is equipped with capacity increases for efficient crop processing, designed to meet the high demands of modern agriculture.

A key feature of the CR11 is the MacDon FD250 header. The 50-foot header integrates seamlessly with the combine, boosting total throughput. Its deeper belt system efficiently moves more material across the belt, enhancing the feed into the combine.

The updated knife and guard assembly increases the header's capacity by approximately 20%, making it a powerhouse during harvest, especially when paired with the capacity on the CR11.

Flexibility is another standout feature of the FD250. The header's ability to flex allows it to adapt to varying ground levels in the field.

This passive system leverages wing pressure to maintain consistent contact with the ground, optimizing the cutting process especially in uneven terrains.

The CR11's design includes a sophisticated subframe. This component supports the combine's feeder house, enabling it to adjust height and tilt automatically. This feature is essential for achieving a clean cut in crops like soybeans, where ground-level harvesting is crucial.

For wheat, the header maintains effectiveness with Contour Master wheels that adjust for stubble height, ensuring minimal crop loss and uniform cutting, even in challenging conditions.

Control and customization are at the operator's fingertips, with cab controls allowing on-the-fly adjustments. This enhances the operating experience, particularly in varying crop conditions such as lodged or shorter wheat.

This blend of advanced technology and user-centric design marks a significant step forward for New Holland, promising to set new standards in agricultural efficiency and productivity.

Watch the below video for an overview of throughout on New Holland’s CR11.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators