The first public presentation of the Fendt Katana 65 forage harvester at this year's Field Day in Wadenbrunn is being awaited with great suspense. “For a leading global agricultural equipment manufacturer and the premium brand Fendt it is a must to offer all key machines in the product portfolio. With the Fendt Katana 65, we have taken the last big step towards becoming a full-liner,” said Peter-Josef Paffen, Spokesman for the Fendt Management.

For these reasons, the AGCO Corporation decided to develop a forage harvester a few years ago and is employing the development expertise of the Marktoberdorf location for this completely new development. The newly formed forage harvester team used the existing development expertise from the tractor division at Fendt very intensively. The experienced engineers in the forage harvester development team received support from the professionals in tractor development, for example, for the hydraulics, electronics, engine and cab. This led to new ideas and enabled completely new approaches in the development of the Fendt Katana 65 forage harvester. The name Katana, which our engineers have chosen for the new product, signifies how high the aims for this development are. A katana is a Japanese samurai sword and stands for high performance, sharpness and precision.

The Fendt Katana 65 has already undergone several hundreds of hours of testing on the test bench and has already harvested thousands of hectares of maize and grass. Two prototypes have already been in real-life operation for two years with great success and prove to be extremely fuel efficient and deliver outstanding chopping quality with a high output.

Technical highlights

To attain the best flow rate and uniform crop flow, the core units of the Fendt Katana 65 have generous dimensions. The chopping drum, with a 720 mm diameter, is the largest on the market and the intake area with six rollers guarantees constant crop feed for all cutting lengths. For the corn cracker, Fendt has taken a completely different path than the competition, not only in the way it swings in and out, but, above all, in regard to efficiency. That makes it clear that, like in the tractor division, efficiency was also top priority for the development of the forage harvester. For the header, Fendt uses the tried and tested technology from Kemper, which is offered as a factory solution.

The machine is driven by a 650 hp 16-litre V8 engine from Mercedes. At first, only this model will be available for the market launch at the beginning of 2011. Based on the outstanding performance of the forage harvester in numerous test operations, further models are planned. For the forage harvester, Fendt also relies on SCR technology for compliance with emissions standard Stage 3b (Tier IV interim). For the developers, the main focus was efficiency, especially for the benefit of customers. As in the tractor division, exhaust after-treatment with AdBlue urea solution also offers huge benefits in fuel efficiency and cooling performance. Furthermore, the technology is also responsible for the exceptional engine dynamics and also significantly reduces CO2 emissions.

The completely new cab, designed especially for the forage harvester, meets the highest demands. When designing the electronics, it was also possible to take advantage of the expertise from tractor electronics development. In addition to the basic design with CAN bus communication, the multi-function armrest with the new joystick and the 10.4" Varioterminal were also adopted.

The Fendt rear axle suspension on the Katana 65 sets new standards in the field and on the road. Road-handling is also excellent at a top speed of 40 km/h and provides maximum driving safety and stability as well as the best ride comfort. Here, too, the development profited from knowledge derived from the tractor segment. After all, Fendt tractors are known for their industry-leading road handling.

For the official market launch at the beginning of 2011, Fendt will also present a concept, with which the Fendt Katana 65 – thanks to the new drive concept – will be able to save significant amounts of fuel during grass operations.

The Fendt forage harvester will be produced at the new AGCO production site in Hohenmölsen. The future assembly mechanics are currently working in Marktoberdorf setting up the prototypes, so that they can familiarise themselves with the machine from the very beginning.

About Fendt

Fendt is the leading high-tech brand within the AGCO Corporation for customers with the highest demands. Tractors and harvesting machines from Fendt are at work in enterprise-oriented farms and other interesting areas of application on fields around the world. Fendt is considered to be the global innovation leader for agricultural machines. Fendt customers therefore profit earlier than others from the newest technology for boosting performance, efficiency and profitability of their farming businesses. AGCO Fendt employs a workforce of 3,300 in the areas of research and development, sales and marketing as well as production, service and administration at the locations in Marktoberdorf and Asbach-Bäumenheim in Bavaria, Germany.

About AGCO

AGCO, Your Agriculture Company, (NYSE: AGCO) (www.agcocorp.com) was founded in 1990 and offers a full product line of tractors, combines, hay tools, sprayers, forage, tillage equipment, implements, and related replacement parts. AGCO agricultural products are sold under the core brands of Challenger^®, Fendt^®, Massey Ferguson^® and Valtra^®, and are distributed globally through more than 2,700 independent dealers and distributors, in more than 140 countries worldwide. AGCO provides retail financing through AGCO Finance. AGCO is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, USA. In 2009, AGCO had net sales of $6.6 billion.