New Holland takes harvesting to next level

Making its global debut at Agritechnica 2023, New Holland’s CR11 combine harvester continues the legacy of its record-breaking combine harvester series.

New Holland said the CR11 has been redeveloped to provide higher productivity with minimal grain loss, improved residue management, and more automation to reduce the total cost of grain harvesting. It has been designed and will be produced at New Holland’s Center of Harvesting Excellence in Zedelgem, Belgium.

It builds on the success of the current New Holland flagship combine range, previously topped by the CR10.90, which has held the world record for the most wheat harvested in eight hours – 797.656 tonnes – for almost a decade, since August 15, 2014.

The CR11 runs a 775hp C16 engine, two 24-inch rotors, a grain tank of 20,000 liters and a 210l/sec unload rate.

The CR11 will feature New Holland’s new and improved Twin Rotor technology that the company said sets new standards and delivers the highest productivity at lowest grain crackage on the market.

With the goal of creating a zero-loss harvesting machine, New Holland engineers developed a new Twin Clean double cleaning shoe that has two cleaning systems behind each other, with two upper sieves, two lower sieves, two clean grain augers and two sets of pressure sensors to measure cleaning shoe load.

An industry first, the new Twin Clean is fully automated to guarantee even cross distribution of the cleaning shoe, for maximum capacity at loss levels close to zero, New Holland said.

A completely new Residue management system comes with a new chopper and chaff spreader system, designed to ensure the best chop quality and even residue spreading over up to 60ft cutting width. The Intellispread radar system, winner of a 2022 Agritechnica Innovation Silver Medal, automates the spreading to ensure full and even residue coverage behind the combine, regardless of wind effects, crop type or moisture conditions.

A new automated deslug procedure was designed to reduce downtime. While the CR11 combine is ready to be pushed for maximum throughput, New Holland recognises that it is impossible to completely eliminate any risk of plugging. In the unlikely event of a combine pluggage, the automatic deslug procedure will guide the operator through an unplugging procedure in a way that clears the combine in minutes rather than hours – without requiring the operator to exit the cab, hence improving operator safety.

The combine’s revised driveline has at least 25 per cent less drive components and all chain drives have been eliminated, hence further reducing downtime.

The CR11 will also feature the new Intelliview 12 display and IntelliSteer guidance system, together with other precision farming functions such as Telematics and Remote screen viewing.

Furthermore, NutriSense comes with a NIR sensor that monitors crop quality via the use of near infra-red light to analyse nutrients like protein, starch and oil contents, plus moisture levels, and can create maps of these for further agronomic analysis.

The CR11 has a completely new design that combines premium aesthetics with form and functionality, New Holland said.

A close collaboration between New Holland’s Industrial Design and Engineering teams, together with product specialists and brand marketing has resulted in an iconic, refreshed design that is stylish yet timeless. The flow of the harvest is underlined on the exterior body panels by the dynamic blue feature that runs across the body through the various functions.

Recognising the trends for reduced ground compaction in combination with transport width regulations, the CR11 offers a range of wider tracks and bigger tyres.

The machine on display at Agritechnica were fitted with Michelin Cerexbib 2 - size 900/65R46 tyres with a diameter of 2.32m that was co-developed by New Holland and Michelin. The longer tyre footprint and increased traction provide a reduced ground compaction with no precedents in harvesting, New Holland added.

“This preview of our new CR11 combine underlines New Holland’s readiness for the future and its ability to adapt to meet the changing needs of our customers worldwide,” said New Holland Agriculture brand president, Carlo Lambro.

“Beneath the radical new styling is a very special combine design across individual areas that, together, create a package that will not replace the current CR range, but add a whole new productivity layer on top of the current offering.

“Our whole team has done a fantastic job of taking our world record holding combine and coming up with something even better, and we are delighted to unveil it to the world.”