A SEASONAL NEWSLETTER FOR OWNERS AND FANS OF EVERYTHING FENDT® WWW.FENDT.COM | SUMMER 2017 A VIEW FROM THE CAB PROFILE Collective Fendt Ownership “ THE THING WE LIKE THE MOST ABOUT THE FENDT BRAND IS THE THREE-YEAR ‘NO-QUESTIONS-ASKED’ WARRANTY AND SERVICE AGREEMENT. IF WE HAVE nown locally as the Hutterites, the Hutteritian Brethren, have farmed A PROBLEM WITH THE TRACTORS, IT’S TAKEN CARE OF RIGHT AWAY. “ Kthe prairies in parts of the Dakotas > ALBERT TSCHETTER, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE RIVERSIDE HUTTERITE COLONY and western Canada for nearly 100 years. Having first emerged as a distinct to run it against a John Deere … we just religious group in Europe in the early couldn’t see ourselves buying another 16th century, the Hutterites are still noted Deere,” Tschetter recalls. “The thing we for living on communal farms where they like the most about the Fendt brand is the share all of their possessions. In effect, all three-year ‘no-questions-asked’ warranty members living in one colony “own” the and service agreement. If we have a assets of that community collectively. problem with the tractors, it’s taken care of right away. For the Riverside Hutterite colony, based near Fort MacLeod, Alberta, those things “We also like the fast transport speed. in common include five Fendt tractors. Even though most of our own land is their own use. However, they also export It started in 2009 with the purchase of a close, we do a lot of custom baling. So alfalfa and alfalfa/grass mixes and they Fendt Model 818 from Hanlon Ag Centre we may travel up to 30 miles between grow fescue for certified seed production. in Lethbridge, Alberta. Since that time, custom jobs.” Other crops on the farm’s 10,000 acres the colony has traded the 818 for a Model Pointing out that the colony operates include malt barley, feed barley, peas, 720 and added four more Fendt tractors three Hesston by Massey Ferguson® big canola, wheat, oats and mustard. — an 822, 828, 936 and a 516 … the latter square balers that package up to 12,000 Hence, their Fendt tractors are used for being the most recent. bales each per year, Tschetter says the everything from tillage and planting to According to Albert Tschetter, vice plug-and-play capabilities of the Fendt feeding cattle. president of the 88-member Riverside tractors was another selling feature. “With all the wind we have up here, we Colony, the group owned nothing but “There’s no need for an additional monitor try not to work our land any more than the other brand of “green” tractors prior in the tractor and we don’t have to be necessary,” Tschetter continues. “So it’s to that first purchase. However, the tide moving monitors around,” he explains. mostly a no-till, one-pass operation. We began to turn when a tractor went down “We just plug the balers into the ISOBUS still have some John Deere 4-wheel-drive and it took nearly three days for their connections and we’re ready to go.” tractors that we use for heavy tillage,” John Deere® dealer to even respond. With nearly 800 beef cows of their own, he concludes. “But once the guys have “Once we had a chance to try a Fendt … the colony uses quite a bit of the alfalfa, experience with the Fendt tractors, they and after most of us had the opportunity timothy and fescue that they grow for don’t want to drive those anymore.” FENDT FEATURES PTO All Fendt tractors have only one gear step between the engine FENDT AGRONOMY crankshaft and the PTO shaft for unparalleled productivity and efficiency. (Fendt 1000 Series shown). Breakthrough PTO Futuristic Farming By Darren Goebel, AGCO Director of Global Commercial Crop Care Gear Step hether we realize it or not, PTO stub each plant in a field is, in Wessence, its own sensor. Its unique surface and texture provide a sort of data signature in the form of Much More Than A PTO reflected light. Multi-spectral imagery captures those reflections and, in turn, t’s ironic that Cockshutt, which is extremely smooth start up, regardless of can provide insight to the health of one of the early predecessors to the load, while engine speed is adjusted the plant. However, with the advent of Ithe AGCO brand, was credited with automatically, as needed, upon PTO unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and introducing the first independent or actuation. satellites, agronomists have a new tool “live” PTO. Today, AGCO continues to The Fendt PTO system is designed for for measuring plant health. lead the industry in PTO performance efficiency, too. In fact, there is only one and versatility with the Fendt brand… When you view a normalized difference gear step between the engine crankshaft vegetation index (NDVI) or a normalized enough, in fact, to handle virtually any and the PTO shaft for unparalleled implement and application. difference red edge index (NDREI), productivity. Overload protection also it’s simply a calculation of visible and For starters, every Fendt model features prevents abrupt engine stalling through near-infrared light reflected by that at least two speed selections as standard the PTO. vegetation. We’re essentially looking at equipment. The 500 and 700 Series, for “One feature that you won’t find on the intensity of photosynthesis occurring example, feature a 540 and 1,000 RPM other tractors, though, is the ability to in the plants. More specifically, the PTO that includes electrohydraulic sync the PTO with the 3-point hitch via red spectrum of an NDVI map is highly speed pre-selection. However, the 700 the Varioterminal™,” says Josh Keeney, sensitive to low chlorophyll, while the Series also includes a 540E (economy) Fendt Tactical Marketing Manager for red edge spectrum is sensitive to a wider setting to reduce fuel usage, noise and North America. “This allows the operator range of chlorophyll. Other than that, vibration when powering light loads. to select a switch-off point at which the the two types of images basically do The 800 Series and 900 Series, system will automatically switch the the same thing—reflect photosynthetic meanwhile, provide customers a choice PTO on and off at a predefined linkage activity. In practice, then, red areas in of a 540E/1,000 PTO or a 1,000/1,000E position. This feature is particularly NDVI images could indicate a dead crop, PTO to best match the customer’s valuable when turning around at bare soils or even a building. typical applications. Even the powerful the headlands with a 3-point-hitch- Traditional NDVI and multispectral 1000 Series provides the operator with mounted planter or sprayer.” images have been around for many two settings — 1,000 and 1,000E. While Keeney points out that because the PTO years. But there’s a lot of work going into the former provides 1,000 RPM at 1,614 is fully integrated into the Variotronic continued utilization of very specific engine RPM, the economy setting system, the operator can also assign portions of the visible light spectrum, provides rated speed at the PTO shaft at a button on the joystick for PTO on only 1,255 engine RPM. and off control. The operator can also Healthy plants absorb most of the visible light select a preset engine speed, which is that hits them while reflecting a large portion of NIR (near infrared) light. “ …ONE FEATURE THAT YOU WON’T FIND actuated when the PTO is enabled on the mudguard. ON OTHER TRACTORS, THOUGH, IS THE For even greater efficiency, all models ABILITY TO SYNC THE PTO WITH THE 3-POINT except the 1000 Series are available with HITCH VIA THE VARIOTERMINAL.” a front PTO, which features a 21-spline > JOSH KEENEY shaft, counter-clockwise rotation and a FENDT TACTICAL MARKETING MANAGER 1,000-RPM output speed. NORTH AMERICA Like the rear PTO, the front PTO on and off control can be assigned to “go” and “end” functions on the joystick. So, In all cases, PTO-driven implements whether the front PTO is used alone with can be powered at a constant speed, a snow blower or used in combination while driving at variable ground speeds, with the rear PTO on a triple mower, thanks to the Fendt Vario® CVT and TMS Fendt’s PTO system adds a new level of (tractor management system). Equally time and cost savings that only a Fendt important, modulated and electronically tractor can provide. controlled engagement ensures 2 2017 FENDT NEWS FENDT DEALER PROFILE such as how the use of red edge (NDRE) Hanlon Ag Centre is more accurately pinpointing in-field nitrogen deficiencies. Builds Momentum Meanwhile, scientists continue to work on hane Mann describes Fendt tractor ways to identify wavelengths that help us sales at Hanlon Ag Centre in tell specific weeds apart. As an example, S Lethbridge, Alberta, as being a little we can definitely see a difference in like a snowball rolling downhill. It keeps the reflectance of waterhemp versus growing a little every year and continues soybeans, yet, we still can’t tell waterhemp to follow new paths. from velvetleaf. As one of four co-owners of the company, This year marks the first that AGCO’s Crop Mann has been selling Fendt tractors Tour will fly drones over fields to collect since 1998, when he says it was like imagery, using reports and analytics to pulling teeth to talk a potential customer provide production methods and tools. into purchasing a Fendt. Today, he says Use of this technology may not allow a fix the tractors practically sell themselves.