Equipment Roundup

Case IH Rolls Out Its Most Powerful Tractor; AGCO Building Test Farm in North Dakota

Dan Miller
By  Dan Miller , Progressive Farmer Senior Editor
Case IH has unveiled its newest tractor, the 778hp Quadtrac 715 AFS Connect. With production, it will become Case IH's most powerful production tractor. (Photo courtesy of Case IH)

In this Equipment Roundup, DTN/Progressive Farmer looks at Case IH unveiling its most powerful production tractor yet; AGCO Corp. building a test farm in Casselton, North Dakota, to develop sustainable farming practices; researchers at Purdue University developing new technology to improve machine vision and perception; Massey Ferguson launching its 1 Series round baler and rolling out a new sprayer series; and other farm machinery industry news.

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CASE IH ROLLS OUT ITS MOST POWERFUL TRACTOR

Case IH has unveiled its newest tractor, the 778hp (peak power) Quadtrac 715 AFS Connect. With production, it will become Case IH's most powerful production tractor yet.

The Quadtrac 715 is powered by the new FPT Cursor 16L TST. Its displacement is 23% greater than the Quadtrac 645's Cursor 13L TST, delivering 778 peak horsepower at 1,900 rpm. With wider saddle tanks on the rear frame, its range is benefited by nearly 520 gallons of total diesel on board.

Other features:

-- Track units differ from other Quadtrac models in that they are 305 mm longer for more ground contact, enhanced power transfer, greater traction, and reduced compaction.

-- The Quadtrac 715 has a new bonnet design that can be raised 31% higher for improved access. It is opened and closed by way of an electric actuator.

-- A Category 5 drawbar fully matches the new tractor's implement-handling capacity, while the optional Category 4 three-point hitch lifts 10,092 kg.

-- Cab access is provided via staircase-style rotating steps. There are new storage areas. A new headliner incorporates LED lighting and enhances sound system speaker output.

The first European public viewing of the Quadtrac 715 will be at Agritechnica in November 2023 in Hannover, Germany.

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AGCO'S DAKOTA SMART FARM

AGCO Corp. is building a test farm in Casselton, North Dakota, to develop sustainable farming practices focused on precision ag technologies and technology retrofit solutions. Retrofitting new technologies onto existing equipment is one of AGCO's main product development and marketing tenets.

With 300 acres, "Dakota Smart Farm" makes AGCO an anchor tenant at the Grand Farm Innovation Campus, a public-private partnership seeking to accelerate the development of agricultural technology solutions.

AGCO-owned company Appareo, based in Fargo, North Dakota, will lead work at the farm.

For more information about the Grand Farm Innovation Campus, go to www.GrandFarm.com.

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PURDUE HADAR IMPROVES MACHINE VISION

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a patent-pending technology to improve machine vision and perception. It is called HADAR, or heat-assisted detection and ranging.

Traditional active sensors like LiDAR (light detection and ranging), radar and sonar emit signals and collect 3D information about a scene. However, these methods have drawbacks that increase as they are scaled up, including signal interference and risks to people's eye safety. Video cameras work well in sunlight or other sources of illumination but are less useful in low-light conditions such as nighttime, fog or rain.

Since thermal imaging collects heat radiation, this sensor technology can collect information on images in darkness, inclement weather and solar glare. But standard thermal imaging can also produce textureless images. Think ghosting, where thermal pictures of a person's face show only contours and some temperature contrast, but no features.

It's a shortcoming for machines designed to "see" using heat radiation.

HADAR combines thermal physics, infrared imaging and machine learning to pave the way to fully passive machine perception and do it equally well in nighttime or daylight.

The Purdue news release stated: "HADAR vividly recovers the texture from the cluttered heat signal and accurately disentangles temperature, emissivity and texture, or TeX, of all objects in a scene. It sees texture and depth through the darkness as if it were day and also perceives physical attributes beyond RGB, or red, green and blue, visible imaging or conventional thermal sensing. It is ... possible to see through pitch darkness like broad daylight."

In its current form, HADAR is large and heavy since HADAR algorithms require many colors of invisible infrared radiation, Purdue said. "To apply it to self-driving cars or robots, we need to bring down the size and price while also making the cameras faster. The current sensor takes around 1 second to create one image, but for autonomous cars, we need around 30 to 60 ... frames per second."

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CASE IH BUILDS NEW EARLY RISER PLANTERS, AXIAL FLOW COMBINES FOR SMALL-, MID-SIZE FARMS

Case IH's latest model Early Riser planter, the Early Riser 2120, and Axial-Flow combine, the Axial-Flow 160 series, offers efficient performance for all producers, including small- and mid-scale operations.

The Early Riser 2120 will be offered in three row unit configurations, 6R30-inch, 8R30-inch and 11R15-inch, and includes options for both liquid and dry fertilizer.

The new Axial-Flow 160 series combine comes with Case IH's tried-and-true Harvest Command combine automation technology. The Axial-Flow 160 series comes with a higher-capacity grain tank, holding up to 350 bushels to improve harvesting efficiency.

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MASSEY FERGUSON'S NEW BALER OFFERS EFFICIENT POWER DEMAND

Massey Ferguson, an AGCO Corp. brand, has launched its 1 Series round baler. It is available in two variable-chamber models, the RB.146, which produces up to 4-by-6-foot round bales, and the RB.156, for up to 5-by-6-foot bales.

The 1 Series comes standard with a camless pickup that reduces power requirements to 80 horsepower for the RB.146 and 100 horsepower for the larger RB.156.

The baler series employs a vertical chamber that uses gravity to increase bale density without additional parts or power. It also features a positively engaging undershot rotor for increased efficiency.

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MASSEY FERGUSON ANNOUNCES NEW SPRAYER SERIES

AGCO's Massey Ferguson brand is rolling out a new 500R Series sprayer. The 740-gallon, 212 HP MF 525R and 860-gallon, 235 HP MF 530R Series sprayers come standard with an advanced chemical distribution system, flexible chassis and LiquidLogic system -- with 50-second priming, boom recovery and boom cleanout features.

The MF 500R features a tractor-style cab with nearly 360-degree visibility and is powered by a 7.4L AGCO Power engine.

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IRON COMPS IS NOW TRACTOR ZOOM PRO

Tractor Zoom has announced that its Iron Comps platform is now TractorZoomPro.com.

TractorZoomPro.com offers key machinery market updates.

With Tractor Zoom Pro, Tractor Zoom also is launching a new tool, Tractor Zoom Pro Appraisals. It enables equipment dealers to digitally catalog equipment, evaluate comparable sales against auction, retail, and first-party sold data, and generate customer appraisals in the field or office.

For more information, go to www.tractorzoompro.com.

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AGREVOLUTION EXPANDS TO HARRISBURG, ILLINOIS

AgRevolution intends to expand its operations into Harrisburg, Illinois, through an asset purchase of M&S Implement Company Incorporated.

AgRevolution is a dealership owned by AGCO Corp. that currently operates seven locations throughout western Kentucky and southern Indiana. The Harrisburg location will operate under the AgRevolution brand and provide sales and services to AGCO's full lineup of brands and equipment, including Fendt, Gleaner, Massey Ferguson and Hesston by Massey Ferguson.

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DEERE RAISES FISCAL-YEAR OUTLOOK

Deere & Company reports net income of $2.978 billion for the third quarter ended July 30, 2023, or $10.20 per share, compared with net income of $1.884 billion, or $6.16 per share, for the quarter ended July 31, 2022.

Same-quarter and same year-to-date, 2023 over 2022 worldwide net sales and revenues increased 12%, to $15.801 billion, for the third quarter of 2023 and rose 24% to $45.839 billion, for the first nine months of this fiscal year.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @DMillerPF

Dan Miller