​Farmer sets two new grain maize harvest world records with CLAAS

With a grain maize harvest of 1,111 t in eight hours and 1,620 t in twelve hours, the family-owned Stewart Farms Partnership from Yorkville, Illinois simultaneously set two new Guinness World Records using a CLAAS LEXION 760 TERRA TRAC.

Back in 2010, a CLAAS LEXION achieved a record for harvesting grain maize over a ten-hour period on Stewart family land. At that time, the final volume was almost 1,300 t. However, the LEXION 760 has changed quite a lot in recent years. Increased power output, a larger grain tank and a more efficient cooling system made the new record attempt easier than that of 2010. The record-breaking crew also had access to CEMOS AUTOMATIC, a unique and powerful driver assistance system in the LEXION. In addition to adjusting all the threshing settings, the system also uses CRUISE PILOT to determine the ground speed, thereby always ensuring optimum utilisation.

The requirements have also changed. The current Guinness World Record rules stipulate eight and twelve hours for harvesting records. The team decided to target both these records and also therefore broke the existing ten-hour record, almost in passing. This meant that a comparison could be made between 2008 and 2018.

Record deployment of 135 t per hour

The record attempt began just before 9 am on 26/09/2018. The LEXION 760 TERRA TRAC used a 16-row corn header with Bob Stewart behind the wheel. The conditions were not exactly ideal. 12 mm of rain had fallen the day before. The first semitrailer took away maize with 17-18% moisture. It was a major challenge to provide enough trucks to ensure continuous removal.

After eight, ten and twelve hours, the load was removed and taken to the edge of the field until the machine was completely empty, thereby allowing the exact interim results to be determined. After eight hours, there were 43,739.68 dry bushels, the equivalent of 1,111 t. Two hours later, the figure was 54,302.97 dry bushels or 1,379.35 t. The existing ten-hour record was therefore beaten by about 6%. After another two hours, the final result was confirmed: 63,770.1 dry bushels or 1,619.8 t. During its record-breaking deployment, the LEXION 760 TERRA TRAC had therefore achieved a throughput of almost 135 t per hour, or a truck load every twelve minutes.