This spring, John Deere has been showing off next year's new product lines, which include a new, S-700 combine series. This morning at the Harvester Works in East Moline, company employees hosted dozens of reporters from all over the country for Deere Media Day.
Randy Sergesketter is the Senior Vice President of Global Crop Harvesting. He says the 2018 combines will help farmers harvest smarter. One innovation in the new S-700 series is what Deere calls "https://youtu.be/fFhrfhSvFDg" target="_blank">Combine Advisor." It's designed to make it easy for farmers to set up, optimize, and automate their combines to get the best yield.
Another improvement is automated calibration to allow harvesting to continue without interruption for manual calibration. Cameras have also been added so operators can see the grain as it enters the tank. And Deere introduced a universal command center display and control arm in the cabs of combines, tractors, and other machines. The goal is to minimize training time by giving operators the same, portable software and display to use in each different piece of equipment.
Deere also unveiled other 2018 products and services. For example, new front end equipment will be available, such as a more durable corn header and draper. Drapers are used to harvest smaller grains, such as canola and wheat, which may require wind rows.
Some employees laid off from the John Deere Harvester Works have been called back to work as the company prepares to manufacture the new line. Doug Roberts is the Director of the Global Combine and Front End Equipment Product Line. He says employees at Deere Product Development in Silvis continually work to design, build, and test new products, services, and solutions to problems customers face.
Harvester will switch to the new, S-700 combines and headers next fall. The company showed John Deere dealers the 2018 product lines a couple of weeks ago.
