New Holland celebrates 60th Anniversary of self-propelled forage harvester

New Holland Agriculture celebrates the 60th anniversary of its first forage harvester, transforming its legendary model 818 pull-type forage harvester into a self-propelled machine known as the 818 Crop Cruiser. Since then, New Holland has been at the forefront of forage harvesting with a host of pioneering industry firsts that have revolutionized the sector.

New Holland is marking this important milestone with a 60th Anniversary Special Edition of its FR Forage Cruiser for all units produced for the next season. The machines will bear a distinctive 60th Anniversary decal to symbolize the machine’s advanced technologies and exceptional performance.

Henrik Aaskov Hansen, Global Product Manager for New Holland Self Propelled Forage Harvesters, said: “For the last 60 years, New Holland forage harvesters have constantly pushed the boundaries of performance, delivering the highest quality silage to meet the most demanding requirements of livestock farmers. More recently, our FR Forage Cruisers have also proven invaluable assets in biomass production, which is developing fast in response to the growing demand for sustainable fuels. As we mark this important milestone, New Holland Forage Harvesters are demonstrating how their versatility is helping our customers to improve their profitability and fully grasp the opportunities of new revenue streams.”

FR Forage Cruiser: ultimate versatility, productivity and crop quality

New Holland’s forage harvesters deliver crop quality and throughput with no compromise. The proven Power CruiseTM features ensure ultimate capacity in fields of varying crop density, while the state-of-the-art headers power through grass, corn and whole crop.

The FR Forage Cruiser can be relied on for industry-leading chopping performance with features such as HydroLoc™ technology that ensures constant chop length regardless of crop type and variations in load, and the exceptionally strong cutterhead with a wide range of configurations to match every need – from conventional or shredded silage to biomass.

The FR Forage Cruiser leverages advanced technologies to deliver the best quality silage for livestock feed and biomass plants alike. These include the industry leading ActiveLOCTM technology, which automatically calibrates the chop length to ensure the most nutritious silage depending on the actual moisture of every individual swath. The award-winning NutriSenseTM  NIR sensor nutrient analysis technology provides valuable crop nutrient data collected by the forage harvester, which can be visualized on the MyPLM Connect portal, helping farmers make informed decisions to market their crops most profitably, and tailor inputs for enhanced future yields.

The FR Forage Cruiser also offers all the advantages of New Holland’s MyPLM Connect telematics, which keeps the farmer connected to the machine at all times, enabling them to send and receive real-time information that helps operate more efficiently, productively and profitably.

Brad Wenger, Product Marketing Manager for Self Propelled Forage Harvesters, New Holland North America, said: “Precision technology solutions on our current FR Forage Cruiser have evolved greatly from the pull-type forage harvester allowing the operator to control a wide range of parameters on the machine to produce high quality silage. Whether the crop is for livestock, biogas, or even hemp production, the FR Forage Cruiser allows customers to fuel their business with the optimal crop quality and precision data across all applications. The NIR technology provides a granular measurement of key nutritional values to support a profitable and sustainable forage business.”