Shanghai - The delivery last year of seven New Holland FR500 forage harvesters to a farm in Inner Mongolia set a new record as the highest-value procurement of agricultural equipment by a planting cooperative in the region. This purchase was also a big vote of confidence in the performance, durability and affordable running costs of the New Holland machines, which were chosen for their exceptional capability of working in tough conditions.
The seven New Holland FR500 forage harvesters were bought by the Pingfa Cooperative, which farms more than 20,000 mu (1,300 hectares) near Hohhot, the administrative and economic centre of the Inner Mongolia, one of the autonomous regions of China. This area can be difficult for farmers because of its semi-arid climate. The long winters are cold and very dry, summers are hot with some humidity, and spring is known for its strong and dusty winds. In this challenging environment, the Pingfa Cooperative was founded in 2014 to plant and harvest corn to produce organic silage for feeding dairy cows - an increasing need in China, where population growth is pushing-up food demand and income growth is further increasing high quality dairy consumption.
The Pingfa Cooperative provides its organic silage to China’s two biggest dairy producers, which both produce milk, milk powder, yoghurt, and ice-cream. The largest, the Yili Industrial Group, owns and operates more than 100 dairy factories and is the eighth-largest dairy producer in the world. The second-largest, the China Mengniu Dairy Company, operates 33 factories and, like Yili, is a famous brand name in its home country.
The President of the Pingfa Cooperative, Yun Yaofeng, commented: “The New Holland FR500 is a high-end forage harvester but also affordable. We selected the FR500 for its world-class cost-performance, safety, operating results and reliability. It is convenient to finance and promises high yields and a good payback. We were also encouraged to make this purchase from Xinyang Farming Machinery Equipment Co. because of the excellent training New Holland and the dealer provide in operating and maintaining the machines, which will save us time and money. Today we are very satisfied with our choice.
The Head of New Holland Agriculture in China, Zhang Weihong, said: “Since the introduction of the first New Holland self-propelled forage harvester in China in
1998, there have been significant breakthroughs. The latest New Holland Forage Cruiser has the industry’s largest chopping roller and an extremely versatile crop processor, with herringbone cutters to ensure excellent chopped quality at all chopping lengths. Compared with other products, the FR range provides users with higher harvesting quality and lower cost. Meanwhile, through our dealers we provide with full package solutions to our customers: from the operator training to the winter maintenance, in order to ensure higher productivity and less down time”.
Helping Chinese farmers produce the highest-quality cow feed
The Chinese government has introduced a number of initiatives in recent years to encourage farming modernisation and mechanisation. Signs of progress include a gradual shift away from pull type forage harvesters to self-propelled harvesters such as New Holland’s FR models. All three models in the FR range have a cutter head of 710mm diameter and 900mm width, 750mm-wide crop processing rolls, and a wide range of headers, including corn headers, pick -up headers and direct cut header. All also offer industry-leading chop quality and consistency plus unsurpassed throughput, making them the most efficient and productive machines on the market.
The FR range offers in China 450 HP FR450, 498 HP
FR500, 591 HP FR600. The Pingfa Cooperative identified the second-most affordable of these models, the FR500, as big enough to meet its needs. The New Holland FR500 is powered by a 12.9-litre Cursor 13 engine. The Power Cruise™ technology enables further fuel savings in the field, and the ultra-low road-mode engine speeds can further reduce fuel consumption by as much as 20 per cent.
One popular FR500 feature is the two-position VariFlow™ system, which enables operators to alter the location of the blower according to the crop being harvested, which is excellent for the customers to harvest both corn silage and grass-alfalfa mix. Another renowned feature is the patented HydroLoc™ system, which guarantees constant chop length independent of throughput and crop type. Automatic adjustment maintains best-in-class chop quality and, when combined with uniform kernel cracking from the most efficient crop processor available, the highest-quality cow feed.
New Holland also helps Chinese producers of forage grass and silage by offering a full range of mechanised equipment to accompany the specialised harvesters. These include high-quality machines for mowing, raking, baling, and silage packing. Equally important is the famously professional service and technical support that New Holland provides all of its customers. This emphasis on long-lasting business relationships helps explain why New Holland’s Hay & Forage equipment is so popular with farmers throughout China.