A farmer's ultimate ride
Paul Waldie
Globe and Mail Update Published on Wednesday, Dec. 09, 2009 8:15PM EST Last updated on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009 2:27AM EST
It has almost twice the horsepower of a Porsche 911, costs about as much as a nice house in Toronto and comes complete with heated seats, a state-of-the-art stereo system and lights that could illuminate an airport runway.
It's the New Holland CR9090 Elevation – the world's largest combine. The list price? Up to $600,000.
“It's like taking a combine into the league of a Maserati,” said Patrick Kennedy, manager of the Agritrade Show in Red Deer, Alta., where the machine made its North American debut. “We had to actually clean it every night because there were so many drool spots. It's on everybody's wish list.”
As North American farms become larger and more corporate, manufacturers have been outdoing themselves to produce more powerful machines, although it's a tough time to introduce pricey equipment. After a year of record grain prices, commodity markets have turned downward and farmers are cutting back.
Still, it isn't uncommon for large farms – some Canadian operations are 12,000 acres – to change equipment every year, constantly upgrading to newer models that can harvest more crops, faster.
“There's just this general growth pattern and farmers have to be more efficient, so they have to be able to do more acres with the same amount of help,” says Dave Kaun, who farms about 3,500 acres near Red Deer and has two, one-year-old combines.
By almost any measure, the CR9090 dwarfs its competition. It stands just under four metres tall, has close to 600 horsepower and comes with GPS automatic steering, cruise control and an advanced computer system that tracks and adjusts grain flows. Last year, the machine set a Guinness world record in Britain by harvesting 451.2 tonnes of wheat (more than 20,000 bushels) in eight hours, beating an 18-year-old record by 93 tonnes. And the CR9090 set the record on a single tank of fuel (of course, that tank holds more than 1,100 litres).
The combine, which is compatible with biodiesel fuel, has been available in Europe for a while and is making its North American debut in Canada.
“We just started taking orders,” said Kyle Jensen, a New Holland representative based in Red Deer, adding that the price tag isn't daunting for some farmers. “Lots of farmers buy a new combine every year. They upgrade every year to stay with the current model and within the warranty period.”
Combines have come a long way since the first rotary blade models were introduced in 1975, he noted. Today's machines are more fuel efficient and have bigger cabs with large touch screens that allow farmers to monitor almost everything the combine is doing, without having to stop and get out. The CR9090 even has a refrigerator in its cab (which measures nearly six square metres), heated seats and large HID lights to allow farmers to work late into the evening.
“You can run them a lot longer hours,” Mr. Jensen said. “And you can sit in the cab a lot longer than you could 20 years ago.”
Future models will likely feature telemetry systems, similar to OnStar, giving a degree of remote control to the machine.
The downturn in commodity markets have had an impact on farm suppliers. Large international combine companies such as CNH Global NV (which owns New Holland), Deere & Co. and Agco Corp. (owner of Massey Ferguson) have seen farm equipment sales plummet this year. CNH reported a slowdown in its agricultural equipment sales, down 23 per cent in its third quarter, year over year, and a 19-per-cent drop in the first nine months of the year compared with 2008.
Deere reported a $222.8-million (U.S.) loss in the fourth quarter, compared with a profit of $345-million a year earlier, and sales fell 28 per cent to $5.3-billion. The company said it expects sales to be down 10 per cent this quarter. Agco's combine orders are down 50 per cent and the company has cut production by 31 per cent. Over all, farm equipment sales are down 22 per cent this year in North America from 2008.
“The volatility in commodity prices and the expectation of lower farm income have contributed to a great deal of conservation in farmers' equipment purchase decisions,” Ag0co's chief executive officer Martin Richenhagen recently told analysts.
He was likely referring to farmers such as Don Boles in Three Hills, Alta., northwest of Calgary. Mr. Boles farms about 1,200 hectares and owns one combine, a Lexion made by Germany's Class Group.
Mr. Boles took in the New Holland CR9090 at the Red Deer trade show and, while he was impressed, he has no plans to order one. “I'm not likely to be buying anything right now,” he said.
But others like Mr. Kaun expressed more interest. While he is not sure if he will buy one, he said “I definitely think there will be a market for it ... It's awesome.”
