Patrick Bockowski, a contractor and farmer, explains the new reactive steering system on John Deere 7 Series tractors. He walks through how it improves handling during corn harvest and discusses the cab comfort and Operations Centre app that come with the machines.
Got my fingers on the post. Avocado and toast, leather seats, jet plane always ready to go. Catch the sun tan on the roof of the yacht.
Today we're with the Boczkowski family, a contractor for corn harvesting. Okay, Patrick, let's start. Start from the beginning. Is agricultural contracting your only business or do you also own a farm? Hello, my name is Patrick Bockowski. I own a 270 hectare farming business shared with my father and my brother. We also work as a contractor, including corn harvesting, corn planting, harvesting corn for grain, cereal harvesting, spraying, fertiliser, spreading and seeding. Right behind us is the 7R350 which you're using as a long term demo tractor. Do you have any other John Deere tractors or machines in your fleet? Our first John deere was the 8300i self propelled forage harvester with a 10 row header. Then we bought a second generation 7R tractor, the 7R 250 and then also a 670i T series combine. The long term demo tractor behind us has the stepless autopower transmission. I think this is the perfect time to compare it with the E23 transmission in your 7R tractor. How would you describe your experience? After several hours, I'm quite impressed. With that transmission you can accelerate much faster. This is ideal when. When driving alongside a harvester, I can quickly stop and quickly accelerate. Depending on the size of the corn, which can vary. Basically, I can align the speed better during the harvest. The overall driving experience is much more comfortable. The 7 Series has also seen several changes to the steering system, such as larger steering cylinders and of course the reactive steering feature. Could you share with us how you feel? How do you feel about the new reactive steering system and how it compares with the previous steering system? The reactive steering really works well. It's much easier to drive the tractor at higher speeds. There's no swaying. I'm really surprised that such a good solution has been put into a tractor. When I'm passing a curve, I don't have to keep the steering wheel straight to make sure I don't miss the road. Instead, the tractor follows the path itself. It feels great. The 7R350 compared to our 7R250 stands out with its 9 litre engine and of course more horsepower. I thought it would consume more fuel, but when we hooked up a disc Harrow, it used 1 litre less per hectare. And how about operators comfort? How would you rate the Cab in the 7 Series? The cab is very comfortable. The leather seat has a massage function, ventilation and heating. There's a fridge. CarPlay. I use CarPlay a lot. For example, when I'm using navigation to drive, I have many phone calls a day from our customers and so I don't have to keep switching from navigation and back. Instead, I can see it on the tractor's display and drive safely. Another thing is the Operations Centre app. Do you as a contractor also use it? How useful is it in your daily work? What are the advantages? For example, when we're harvesting for a farmer who has several fields and we move from field to field, I can now check the location in the app. Instead of searching in the field or making many phones about where the harvester is, the guidance function of the app takes me to the field where the harvester is. We don't have to constantly look for each other. The same goes for my brother. When he's harvesting, he can see how long it will take me to get to him. With a trailer, it makes work much more easier. How about monitoring the progress of work? Do you use that feature which shows you the performance of the machine? We've had this situation during harvest when I had a look in the app and saw that one tractor had been idling for half an hour. So I called the operator and it turned out he'd broken down but couldn't reach us. But with the app we were able to react sooner and get to him. Well, thank you so much for this and good luck with your corn harvesting. Thank you.
