Philipp Lotzer, a German farmer and contractor, explains why the John Deere 7R tractor changed his work. He covers its comfort, fuel efficiency, and steering, plus the support from his dealer.
If I had to describe the 7R in three words, they'd simply be comfort, fun and satisfaction. My name is Philipp Lotzer. I'm a farmer but also a contractor.
In the village of Jarsdorf in the north of Germany.
We operate a farm with 400 milking cows at three different locations. We have 300 hectares of arable land with soil points of 15 to 40 points approximately. I've been running a contracting company since.
2019 where we exclusively run John Deere machines. The main focus is spreading liquid manure, but we've also been chopping corn since this year. We have 12 John Deere machines in total, plus machines for ground maintenance, which we also do. As we have farms at three locations, we also have to maintain a relatively large amount of land. The oldest John Deere tractor we have is from 2006, which currently has 18,000 hours. I mainly use the 7R tractor for.
Field work because I can put ballast on it. On the one hand I can add ballast by using rear axle weight, but on the other hand I can use the nice easy ballast. I just drive under it, lift the weight and I can start working the field. We also use the 7R in transportation, corn transport, grass silage, transport, grain handling. The handling of easy ballast is excellent. After working in the field, you just need to remove the easy ballast 1.7 tonnes less, which saves me diesel again. The 7R is very comfortable thanks to.
The superb seat, the massage function, the air conditioning system, the seat heating and the swivel function. We have foot pegs that we can.
Put our feet on.
We also like the good sound system. The 7R also has good lighting. My employees just enjoy the ride. The reactive steering system is a big advantage and has simply made operation easier. All the transporting we do like corn.
Silage, transport, grass signage, transport, general transport as well has simply become much better. You can now drive out of a bend and the steering system automatically straightens the steering wheel for you. The straight line stability of the machine is excellent. I can let go of the steering wheel and it just drives straight down the track. I have also been able to achieve very low fuel usage with the 7R, which has helped me to save a lot of money in comparison to the competitors. High area coverage also means that people have more fun driving the new 7R. I'm very satisfied with my local John Deere dealer. My dealer is always there when I call. No matter what time of day. They always solve problems immediately.
There's nothing they can't do.
I had a particular incident this year.
When I called my dealer, Rabo Ag Machinery, at 11pm to say that the brakes on my liquid manure tanker would not release.
Within two hours, they'd nearly got it working again and I was able to carry on through the night.
