The Oogstdagen-event is held every year in the month of August. It’s a combination of an exhibition of recent and new farm machinery, a classic farm tractor show, demonstrations and (fun) games. So for a change, here’s something completely different than the usual car and truck show reports.
This article highlights some of the machinery that can be seen on our roads and in our fields these days.
Here’s one Fendt 722 Vario tractor with three Krone EasyCut disc mowers.
The Fendt 722 Vario has a 220 hp 6.1 liter inline-six Deutz engine.
The linkage and PTO at the tractor’s front.
The rear mowers are fully retractable for driving on-road.
Here’s how the power goes to the rear mowers.
The combination is owned by Loonbedrijf Dekkers, a loonbedrijf is an agricultural contractor. The company brought some fine pieces of their machinery to the event.
This Fendt 716 Vario has the same Deutz engine as the 722 further above, yet with 165 hp. Fendt’s 700-series ranges from 145 to 240 hp. Fendt, an AGCO company, is highly regarded in agriculture.
The diesel fuel filler neck is on the right side, on top of the tank. The small filler neck on the left, with the light blue cap, is for the AdBlue fluid.
The 716 is towing a Krone Swadro 1400 rotary rake with four rotors. The tine arms can be folded mechanically.
It was not easy to capture the whole rig in one picture…Never mind, here are some bicycles to boot.
2012 New Holland FR9050 harvester.
New Holland harvesters and combines for the European market are built in Zedelgem, Belgium. As you can read the FR9050 at the show weighs a healthy 14,600 kg (32,187 lbs).
A New Holland T7.230 with a Krone ZX 450 GD self loading -or harvester filled- forage wagon.
The New Holland is equipped with a 225 hp 6.7 liter inline-six FPT engine, FPT stands for Fiat Powertrain Technologies.
The forage wagon, built by Maschinenfabrik Bernard Krone GmbH, is rated at a maximum GVM of 24,000 kg (52,911 lbs).
This picture shows how the wagon is attached to the tractor and the PTO drive shaft from tractor to wagon.
A John Deere 6115R with a laser guided Bos land leveler.
A Claas Arion 550 towing a Veenhuis tandem axle dump trailer.
Claas comes from Germany, the company builds all kinds of agricultural machinery. Their Arion 550 tractor is powered by a 4.5 liter four-cylinder DPS (Deere Power Systems) engine, good for 163 hp.
Jan Veenhuis Machinefabriek B.V. is a Dutch manufacturer of dump trailers.
This rig is used for driving lessons; since July 1, 2015 you need a tractor driving license when you want to drive on public roads with heavy farm machinery. If you already had a car driving license on said date, then you automatically have a tractor driving license. So the whole procedure is meant for the newcomers with a minimum age of 16 years.
Keep in mind that the machines have become big, powerful, fast (up to 50-60 km/h), heavy and more complex. And these behemoths are driven on all kinds of public roads very frequently. There were just too many bad accidents involving farm equipment, something had to be done.
Did I just mention behemoths?
Meet Mr. John Deere (a 7230R, 269 hp from its 6.8 liter engine)…
…towing a Belgian Joskin Trans-KTP 27/65 dump trailer with a payload capacity of 27,000 kg (59,525 lbs).
Strictly speaking this isn’t agriculture, but earth moving. It’s very common though that agricultural contractors also do that kind of jobs.
Are these super singles or what? Furthermore the Joskin trailer has hydraulic suspension and forced steering on the first and third axle.
Now let’s calm down a bit with this simple yet robust Deutz-Fahr Agrolux 4.80 e, sitting in the shade.
And a Massey Ferguson 5611 Dyna-4. MF is another AGCO brand.
A flatbed trailer used as a display for lawn mowers.
The smallest rolling machinery I could find were these Jonsered lawn mowers from Sweden.
Coming up next: classic farm tractors
Some nice haying equipment there! I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a disc mower, but they’re pretty spendy, even when well-used. But definitely lower maintenance and less finicky than sickle mowers!
That rotary rake looks a lot like a tedder, often used here to spread and fluff the hay for faster drying before windrowing and baling.
Are those Briggs and Stratton engines on the Swedish lawnmowers?
Yes.
I would not have expected that!
Interesting that the Jonsered lawn mowers available in the U.S. have Honda or Kohler engines.
http://www.jonsered.com/us/lawn-mowers
Interesting range of gear, my wheels and rollers endorsement and 50 tonne class 5 would cover anything in your display for road going purposes, yes here you also need a licence to cover the weight of the machine and 40kmh max speed on roads.
It’s interesting how tractors these days are so stylish-looking up front, but I suppose that’s not so different from the fifties and sixties. Living in a smallish country town, we often get large tractors driving down the main street, sometimes with various bits of agricultural equipment hooked up behind and retracted as far as possible. Everyone gives them a wide berth!
I remember the tractors on cotton properties in western NSW once they got them to the farm and fully assembled the last thing anyone tried was taking them on roads far too big, eight wheeled Steigers pulling 60ft wide equipment down rows of cotton were a common sight, on the other end of the scale was the stuff on orchards used as picking tractors I usually got issued something from the late 40s early 50s like clapped out David Brown implematics in red old Fordson Majors, once a 1938 david Brown with no exhaust system both loud and gutless Fergy petrols were popular as picking tractors but usually on their last legs.
Always enjoy your work, Johannes.
I am a big fan of working equipment. Thousands and thousands of families working, sharing good health to the masses. Grandpa was a dairy truck driver. Nice to see all the beautiful equipment that makes our days so prosperous and productive.
Thanks for the look at equipment I’m not very familiar with.
Thanks for the tour Johannes. The strangest thing to me is the small size of some of the equipment, such as the grader and the New Holland harverster – it doesn’t look like it would be used on row crops, do you know what it was used for?
It has been years since I have driven a tractor, the largest was roughly a 120-150hp John Deere which was luxury, having a cab, AC and effortless power. My cousin is taking over the farm from my uncle, and getting right into the high-tech side of things such as GPS controlled sowing and fertilising (using organic liquid fertilisers).
Here’s a NH harvester in action. Soon the major task of these machines throughout the country is harvesting corn silage (with another type of header, of course).