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Irish farm manager Joe Barrett bought a new John Deere 9780i CTS (cylinder tine separation) combine equipped with a 625R (25ft) cutting platform for the 2006 season, from local dealer Lyons & Burton Ltd. This replaced a six year old 2264 six straw walker machine. The new combine was used to harvest around 800 acres of winter and spring wheat and barley at Jimmy McEvoy’s farm near Naas, Co Kildare.
“We were looking around for a machine to replace our older combine,” says Joe. “I believe straw walker machines have had their day, and that rotaries are going to be the answer in future, particularly for speed of harvesting.
“Last year the weather conditions were very difficult, so we never really got a long day in, but we often ended up cutting more in the evening with the new combine than we could in a day with the older machine. We were sometimes cutting up to 10.30pm or even as late as 11pm, without any problems.
“We averaged up to 4 tonnes an acre going at speeds of around 8 to 10kph most days. I was particularly impressed with the way it handled the crop at speed, the cutting mechanism is very efficient and there was more than enough power to drive the knife. The CTS is also a tidier machine to get around for servicing, and handier to move around the farm – it’s much more manoeuvrable, especially round the tighter corners of a field.
“The grain monitor is handy for moisture and weight readings if required, but more importantly you don’t have to get out of the combine to change the crop settings, it can all be done automatically from the cab. This is a very good time saving feature, it just takes a few seconds to set up and away you go.
“All in all I couldn’t fault our new John Deere CTS combine, it did exactly what we wanted it to.”
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