Jurgen Herold, a Bavarian contractor, tests the new John Deere 8000 series forage harvester at a biogas plant. The video covers the machine's fuel efficiency, cut quality, and performance, with input from engineering and marketing teams on its global development and testing.
Jurgen Herold, a contractor from Bayreuth in Bavaria, was the first customer to take delivery of the new 8000 series. We visited him after a few weeks when he was chopping whole crop for a biogas plant. We're at Stefan Kausler's biogas plant in Funkendorf with an installed capacity of about 650 kilowatts. We've been harvesting Triticali whole crop silage with a rye mixture. Of course, the customer expects a high quality, a good quality of cut and a clean stubble field. And with this machine it's possible to achieve a very short length of cut. Jurgen had high expectations for the new 8000 series. He was looking for reliability, durability and excellent fuel economy. So was he satisfied with the performance compared to his previous machine, in contrast to the old 7750i series? Right from the start of harvest, even in grass, we noticed that the new machine could achieve a higher throughput. With its engine characteristics, it's possible to achieve a 20 to 30% higher throughput than with the other machine. And now with the whole crop silage, it's clear that it's simple and quick to chop. My expectations have definitely been met. When I received the machine in Zweibruchen, I requested that the fuel consumption to throughput ratio should be further reduced on the new machines. Fuel is expensive and I feel that this machine with its higher throughput, can deliver a shorter length of cut using the same amount or even less fuel. Several members of the the engineering and marketing teams were also closely watching the activities. They hoped Jurgen would be the first of many satisfied customers. On the one hand, we have the end customers of the contractors, namely biogas plants or dairy farms. And on the other hand we have the contractor. And for all of them, of course, performance and efficiency is especially important. Also, as you can see here today, the harvest quality is important. The biogas plant needs its whole crop silage to be cut at three millimetres and we can do that with the new 8000 series. We've spent many years developing this machine and it has become better bit by bit. We wanted to bring the machine to market when it was ready for it, and we can now proudly announce that is the case. The machine is ready. The first choppers are now being used by customers and they're very enthusiastic. Now we're looking forward to a successful commercial launch. I would certainly recommend this machine. That's clear from its appearance alone. You can see that the structure of the machine is really well thought through. I think that in future we will have a lot of fun with it. Developing the 8000 series has been an amazing journey. Over the past five years, we've tested for more than 20,000 hours. From the high altitude plains of Arizona to the rolling hills of New Zealand, from the dense maze of Italy to the lush, thick grass of the uk, and from the biogas plants of northern Germany to the beef farms of Argentina. We wanted to say a big thank you to all our customers. We couldn't have done it without your help, advice and encouragement. The new 8000 series now sets the standard for a new generation of forage harvesters. Thank you.
