HarvestersHow a used forager makes harvest more effi­cient

In the hilly fields around the small town of Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise in the French depart­ment of Rhône, every minute counts during the harvest season, partic­u­larly for Florent. Within this short weather window, he must harvest all his customers’ grass and maize. “At the same time, we lose a lot of hours due to the travel distances between the many small, widely scat­tered plots,” he explains. To finish the harvest on time, he needed to increase his fleet of machines to include three forage harvesters and two combines.

But it was diffi­cult to make the figures stack up. Florent already had one machine; a new John Deere 8300 forage harvester on finance, so a third new machine was not finan­cially feasible. “The costs were simply too high, so I looked around for a used machine. The price was attrac­tive, but this option didn’t offer secu­rity or a guar­antee,” Florent says. And with no guar­antee, the risk of a break­down during those crit­ical harvesting days would be fatal.

A no-brainer

While searching for a solu­tion, Florent came across John Deere’s Factory Certi­fied Used (FCU) programme. The concept is that used machines are completely over­hauled by experts at the factory and sold with a warranty.

It was a no-brainer for Florent. “This offer gave me much more confi­dence in the price compared to conven­tional used machines,” he says. FCU machines are avail­able at 50-80% of the new price but offer the same attrac­tive condi­tions as a new machine, thanks to their inte­gra­tion into John Deere Finance.

Where machines get a second life

To under­stand why Florent has so much confi­dence in his new used machine, it helps to take a look inside the John Deere factory at Zweibrücken in Germany. It’s here that a team of expe­ri­enced factory workers carry out the complete over­haul of the used machines.

Under the lead­er­ship of Stefan West­phal, Admin­is­tra­tion and Plan­ning, and Jonas Kuhlmann and Nicole Schieler, Logis­tics and Parts Manage­ment, machines that have often clocked up as many as 2,800 hours are completely stripped. “Every forage harvester is completely cleaned and fully disman­tled before we put every single part through its paces,” says Philippe Stein­mann, Go to Market Manager for Hay and Forage.

The trans­for­ma­tion process

What happens in Zweibrücken is far more than a simple repair – it is a tech­nical upgrade to the latest state-of-the-art tech­nology.

The Finale: Tested Like a Brand-New Machine

Before Florent could take delivery of his FCU machine, the team had to prove that it was more than just cosmet­i­cally refur­bished. Like every used machine, it under­went the same baptism of fire as a brand-new machine straight off the produc­tion line. The finale of this quality assur­ance is the dyno testing on the factory’s test bench. Here, the forage harvester is rigor­ously tested under full load – does the engine deliver the full rated power? Do the hydraulic systems work precisely? Are the newly installed soft­ware updates fully compat­ible with the mechanics?

However, the testing does not end in the work­shop. Every machine must also prove itself on a special test track. Under real-world condi­tions, it ensures that the chassis, steering, and all controls – from the new joystick to the seating comfort – func­tion perfectly.

At the heart of our quality assur­ance process is dyno testing on our in-house test stand.

Every machine must prove itself on a special test track.

Used Machinery with Confi­dence

For Florent it’s a win-win. “The offer convinced me because I got a certi­fied used machine at an attrac­tive price. When the harvester arrived at my farm, I was pleas­antly surprised,” he says. “It looks great, the cab has been refur­bished, and new parts have been installed where it matters.”

The contractor now has the capacity for those crit­ical harvest weeks with the secu­rity of a one-year factory warranty and the certainty that his machine is ‘made by experts for profes­sionals’.