Darth Vader: Fendt IDEAL 9T in the Profi test 2022

The IDEAL 9T combine harvester captivates with its performance and practical details

Profi, the renowned agricultural technology magazine, tested the Fendt IDEAL for the first time since the launch at Agritechnica 2017 in a season long, long-term test. After various driving tests & short impressions from different magazines over the last few years, an independently conducted long-term test with impressive results is now available for the first time!

IDEAL 9T in testing. Source: Profi special printing from 02/22

High outputs, large sieve areas and excellent threshing performance

The newly developed large-scale combine harvester from AGCO convinces not only with its technical data, but also the threshing power, grain quality, the grain tank capacity, as well as the unloading capacity are impressive! The drivers are also excited about the comfort and quiet running of the machine!

IDEAL 9T during harvesting on the test farm. Source: Profi special printing from 02/22

Impressive throughput and grain quality

“In a heavy wheat crop (grain/straw ratio of 1:1.27!) of the Pionier variety with a grain yield of just under 9 t/ha, we were able to drive grain throughput of up to 60 t/h at under 1% loss (grain moisture 16.6%; straw moisture 18.5%). With the grain/straw ratio, we are therefore talking about a total throughput of almost 140 t/h!”

_{Source: Profi special printing from 02/22}

IDEAL 9T on the test farm. Source: Profi special printing from 02/22

Good marks for cutterbar attachment/detachment

The IDEAL 9T was tested with a 35-foot Geringhoff Truflex belt cutterbar on the test run. Thanks to V-shaped guides and a combined hydraulic/electric coupler, attaching and detaching the cutterbar is quickly done.

_{Source: Profi special printing from 02/22}

Comparison test of 05/08/2020 in association with the DLG TestService team.

We just had to know!

With the help of the DLG, we pitted the Fendt IDEAL 9T against a competitor putting them both through their paces under the same conditions and criteria. Here were two mighty machines competing against each other, both equal in terms of their threshing capacity. The measurements focused on output, loss, broken grain and straw quality. The Fendt IDEAL 9T delivered not only good but excellent results in all these aspects. More output with lower losses, significantly less broken grain and far better straw quality.

More output with lower losses!

The Fendt IDEAL 9T delivered a significantly flatter climb of the loss curve in the tested output range of 65 t/h and above than the competitor. Most importantly, the graphic shows that the IDEAL unleashes its full potential in the upper power range, at low levels of loss. So, we can see that it achieves a grain output of 89 tonnes at a loss of 1.01%, while the competitor recorded a loss of 3.36% at a grain output of 87.7 tonnes. It is in the high grain and overall output rates that the IDEAL demonstrates its true strengths compared to the competitor. With an expected loss threshold of 1%, this represents a healthy added performance of 21% per hour!

Consistently lower broken grain content!

The Fendt IDEAL 9T also produced impressive results when it came to broken grain content. The percentage of broken grain was in the negligible range of 0.1% to 0.3% and that was in very dry threshing conditions (12.1% grain moisture). The percentage of broken grain of the competitor was between 0.8% and 1.5%. If you have 750 ha of field to thresh every year, that is an average of 0.8%* less broken grain which equates to €8,000 more yield a year (based on a yield of €185 per tonne of harvest).

_{*The share of broken grain of 0.8% represents the mean value across all measurements.}

Better straw quality due to gentle threshing!

The length ranges are worked out when the straw filters through the cascade sieve. In the tested range of long straw that was higher than the biggest measurable range, the IDEAL achieved a 2.65x higher content than the competitor. The IDEAL promises farmers more bales per hectare and, with that, greater yield.