Full Fendt power – this was the Fendt Saaten-Union Field Day 2018

The first visitors set off for the Field Day grounds before dawn, hoping to beat the crowds and to see everything before the summer heat became too much. As the early arrivals had a look at their first machines and strolled around the impressive hardware on show, others were still in the middle of long journeys. This year, Fendt fans once again came from far and wide, from Italy, the Netherlands, Ukraine, USA or Australia – all anxious to attend the grand Fendt Field Day in Wadenbrunn.

A special highlight of this year’s Field Day was the comprehensive Full-Line range, which was presented to visitors in a 100 hectare arena. Around 120 Fendt tractors and self-propelled machines, together with around 40 Fendt implements, were brought to the Wadenbrunn showgrounds near Würzburg. From classic tractor ranges including tracked tractors, plant protection and forage harvesting technology to combine harvesters, products from the complete Fendt Full-Line range were on display, with their features revealed to visitors by way of demonstrations and practical field exercises.

Evidence of the rapid expansion of the Fendt Full-Line family was provided at the start of the event by the Fendt grand parade of machines. After Rob Smith, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the AGCO EME Region officially opened the event, more than 40 machines rolled across the field as one, came to a halt in perfect formation in front of the big screen, and were then presented in brief. Six different themed hubs were available after the parade with further information on individual product categories.

The “Fendt Performance in Golden Harvesting” themed hub with the new high-power Fendt IDEAL combine harvester was without doubt the most visited tent of this year’s Field Day. Some posed for a photo in front of the imposing high-power combine, whilst some marvelled at the 12.2 m cutter or enjoyed a live demonstration of the combine’s innovative threshing system. Machine of the Year 2018 and winner of the renowned Red Dot Design Award thrilled visitors of all ages, and attracted an international audience to the Field Day. The two brothers Wayne and Bradley Tapscott, for example, travelled all the way from Australia. They are always on the lookout for high-power machines for their 12,000 hectare farm in Western Australia, and wanted to see the efficiency of the new high-power combine harvesters for themselves at the Field Day.

For farmer Niek Veldhuizen, the new Fendt forage harvesting technology was, more than anything else, the perfect reason to visit the Fendt Field Day from the Netherlands. “Our farm consists almost solely of grassland, so that’s why the new forage harvesting technology is of huge interest to us,” says the Fendt fan. On the vast show site, he and other Fendt fans and agricultural technology specialists watched very carefully as the mowers, loading wagons and other new products were put through their paces. The hub presentations gave a full introduction to the new Fendt Rotana baling-wrapping combinations and the new Fendt Tigo loading wagon models several times a day. “Reliability and technical innovation are always crucial for me, and Fendt is definitely the leader when it comes to this,” says Niek Veldhuizen.

Alongside the new Fendt IDEAL high-power combine harvester and the new forage harvesting technology, the new “Fendt Smart Farming” hub, which was dedicated to topics such as digital Fendt products, also attracted the crowds. Tying in with the Field Day “Future to the Field” theme, new digital solutions were presented here clearly and in layman’s terms, and provided visitors with an initial insight into the future of digital farming. Among those machines featured were the Fendt e100 Vario battery-powered compact tractor launched at IFAT and the Fendt field robot of the future, the Fendt Xaver.

As in previous years, this year’s Field Day was again a popular outing for families. Whether sitting in a Fendt 1000 Vario or waving to their parents from the operator’s cab of a Fendt IDEAL, our younger visitors had great fun with the show machines. Those who couldn’t quite manage to get onto the big machines went to the kid’s area, where even our smallest fans got the chance to take the wheel. A souvenir from the Fendt shop rounded off the perfect family outing.

For many years, the Field Day has attracted crowds of visitors to the Wadenbrunn showgrounds near Würzburg, and this year was no exception, with tens of thousands of visitors making their way to the Fendt event of the year. In order to cope with the flood of visitors, Fendt went for a whole new showground concept this year. “At the last Field Day four years ago, the Fendt product portfolio was still relatively manageable. But since then, and indeed since last year’s Agritechnica, a number of things have happened,” says Roland Schmidt, Vice-President of Fendt Marketing. “We now have a full forage harvesting technology and plant protection range in place, as well as tracked tractors, and we therefore had to completely rethink the showground concept and communications set-up.” As a result, this year’s show featured six different themed hubs, which allowed visitors to find out about individual products and aspects of the technology. A further benefit was the fact that the flow of visitors could be spread across a wider area, and Fendt fans could get a even better close-up view of their favourite machines. “We believe that we had 50,000 visitors this year. In all probability, there were even more than that, but this just proves the success of the concept from a customer perspective.”