HarvestersNew Stan­dards In Harvesting Automa­tion And Produc­tivity

Advanced harvesting automa­tion systems and the latest John Deere engines provide the new S7 combines with higher produc­tivity and effi­ciency. The S7 also features inte­grated addi­tional func­tions for preci­sion farming.

August 2024

Interview: Karl-Heinrich-Schleef
Photos: John Deere

Mr Edwards, what are the most impor­tant aspects of the new S7 combines?

The S7 combines offer advanced harvesting automa­tion through optional tech­nology pack­ages which include solu­tions like Harvest Settings Automa­tion, where auto­matic adjust­ments of five internal combine settings take place during harvest; based on grain loss, foreign mate­rial, and broken grain limits. Also new to the S7 is Predic­tive Ground Speed Automa­tion. This senses the crop through several different sources, including satel­lite biomass maps and live camera feed­back. The S7 uses this live camera feed­back to detect crop height and/or down crop to further adjust the ground speed in real-time.

The new S7 combines set new stan­dards in harvesting automa­tion and produc­tivity.

Jonathan Edwards

What about the preci­sion farming capa­bil­i­ties?

The new cab – the same as in the flag­ship X9 – features the G5Plus Command­Centre, enabling smart farming func­tion­al­i­ties like Auto­Trac, Auto­Trac Turn Automa­tion, Docu­men­ta­tion, and Data­Sync. Addi­tion­ally, a new high-defi­n­i­tion corner post display with a user-friendly inter­face and digital read­outs of combine perfor­mance enhances the overall oper­ator expe­ri­ence. The inte­grated StarFire receiver ensures excep­tional signal stability and 2.5cm pass-to-pass accu­racy. The inte­grated preci­sion agri­cul­ture capa­bil­i­ties are compli­mented by JDLink, providing two-way connec­tivity for auto­matic uploading of crop and machine data to the John Deere Oper­a­tions Centre and for remote moni­toring in real-time. This connec­tivity is essen­tial for maximising uptime.

What else has changed to improve harvesting perfor­mance?

The new S7 combines are equipped with the latest gener­a­tion JDX engines. The field-proven John Deere engines deliver strong results across all harvesting condi­tions. In addi­tion, the new S7 adopts the X9 residue manage­ment system to further enhance overall effi­ciency. The unloading auger for the S7 also comes with the adjustable spout, which can be controlled from the cab for easier and more accu­rate filling of the trailer.

From 1.5t/h to75t/h:
The Devel­op­ment of John Deere combines in Zweibrücken

Sixty years ago, John Deere produced its first combines in Zweibrücken. The recently completed 150,000th anniver­sary machine is an S7 900, part of the new digital S7 series.

A lot has changed over the past six decades: The first combine built in Zweibrücken, the MD150, had a capacity of 1.5 tons of grain per hour. In compar­ison, the anniver­sary machine from today’s S-series can thresh an impres­sive 75 tons per hour.

In the produc­tion of 150,000 machines, over 1 million tons of steel and more than 1 billion indi­vidual parts have been used. This is equiv­a­lent to about 150 Eiffel Towers!