John Deere and soil cultivation specialists Bednar have set a new cultivation record of 769.4 hectares in 24 hours, beating the previous record set in 2007 by 125.4 ha. This result was achieved using the 691 hp John Deere 9RX 640 and a prototype of the Bednar Swifterdisc XE Mega with a working width of 18.40 metres.
Thanks to low fuel consumption of only 3.1 litres per hectare and the 1,490-litre fuel tank, only one refuelling stop was needed, reducing downtime to a minimum. With an output of 32.6 hectares per hour and a working speed of up to 21 km/h, the combination performed impressively throughout the test.
Even minor and unforeseen challenges couldn’t stop the team from reaching their goal. Regular driver changes and a small leak on the prototype implement were resolved without major time loss. “We were looking forward to the challenge and were confident we would trump the existing record jointly with Bednar,” said Marcus Luchmann, Product Marketing Manager Large Tractors, EU27 at John Deere. “At the same time, the record setup helped us to prove our 9RX top model’s pulling performance and low fuel consumption in the field.”
The 24-hour test involved a total of eight employees from Bednar, John Deere and John Deere dealer IPSO.
