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New Holland, MacDon Announce New Draper; Great Plains Unveils New Harrow; Trimble Buys Smart Spray Tech

Dan Miller
By  Dan Miller , Progressive Farmer Senior Editor
New Holland and MacDon Industries have co-developed a new draper, the FD2 FlexDraper. It is available in widths up to 50 feet and is offered with a triple-reel configuration on headers 40 feet and longer. (Photo courtesy of New Holland)

In this Equipment Roundup, DTN/Progressive Farmer looks at New Holland Agriculture North America and MacDon Industries announcing a new co-branded combine header, Great Plains launching a new harrow and Trimble signing an agreement to acquire French spray tech company Bilberry.

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NEW HOLLAND, MACDON RELEASE CO-BRANDED FLEXDRAPER

New Holland Agriculture North America and MacDon Industries have announced the arrival of their co-branded combine header, the FD2 FlexDraper. The FD2 FlexDraper can be mounted on any New Holland CR Series or CX Series combine.

"The FD2 FlexDraper was introduced with the vision of pushing our harvesters to do more -- more capacity, more flex and more speed -- and get the job done in less time," Curtis Hillen, combine marketing manager for New Holland Agriculture North America, said in a news release.

The FD2 FlexDraper is available in widths up to 50 feet and is offered with a triple-reel configuration on headers 40 feet and longer. All FD2 FlexDraper models include the Clean Sweep Crop Keeper System to keep the crop moving in the right direction by using angled reel fingers and tines, reel endshield crop paddles, reel endshield crop deflectors and inner endshield crop deflector fingers.

For more information: www.newholland.com.

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GREAT PLAINS ANNOUNCES NEW FLEX HARROW

Great Plains has launched its newest conventional tillage tool, the CT8300 Heavy-Duty Flex Harrow. The CT8300 is designed to be versatile in seedbed preparation, product incorporation, residue management, and weed control. The enhanced ladder frame design provides durability across a wide range of customer applications, and the strengthened toolbar and narrow tongue eliminate the need for wing cables, permitting tighter turns.

Just one SCV control lifts and folds the CT8300.

The CT8300 is available in 15 different widths ranging from 18 feet to 60 feet. Models 33 feet and larger feature walking tandems to maintain consistent mainframe height even on rough terrain. All tires are standard-sized, 12-ply implement tires with radial tires as an option on machines that are 45 feet and larger.

CT8300 Flex Harrows are available to order with eight or 16 rows of bar tines.

For more information: www.GreatPlainsAg.com.

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TRIMBLE BUYS BILBERRY

Trimble has signed an agreement to acquire Bilberry, a French tech company specializing in selective spraying systems.

Bilberry is a pioneer in applying AI technology that identifies a wide variety of weeds in real-time for a broad range of crop types. The system allows sprayers to be retrofitted with the technology to apply herbicide to only weeds (green-on-green) rather than spraying an entire crop or bare ground.

Trimble currently offers the WeedSeeker product, a green-on-brown smart spraying system.

The Bilberry solution is brand agnostic. Trimble says case studies have shown the system can reduce the use of herbicides by more than 80%.

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

Follow him on Twitter @DMillerPF

Dan Miller