John Deere has added two models to its 9000 Series self-propelled forage harvester range – and both the 9500 and 9600 will be powered by an all-new 18-litre John Deere engine of 700 and 750hp, respectively.

The 9000 Series foragers are known for HarvestMotion, the company’s unique low engine rpm concept which boosts productivity and efficiency, with 10% more performance and 10% lower fuel consumption. Building on this, the 9500 and 9600 will use the new JD18X engine, which requires no DEF.

This award-winning engine design introduces HarvestMotion Plus, which delivers an exceptional torque rise and even more power at low rpm. It also produces extra power up to 766hp on the 9500 and 787hp on the 9600.

John Deere reckon that this will provide customers with a 10% lower fuel cost per harvested tonne and 33% lower oil cost compared to other machines in the same horsepower class.

The new 9500 and 9600 foragers also come with a new, 20cm longer eight-row spout design, while servicing has been made easier by additional openings to help increase machine uptime.

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A large crop channel width of 850mm is tailored to handle the big potential throughput of these machines and because of the higher engine horsepower, these new foragers feature a reinforced drivetrain and improved mainframe. The proven DuraDrum cutterhead is also designed to handle the big crop flows.

They are available with John Deere’s complete range of ISG (Intelligent Solutions Group) precision farming systems, for improved operator comfort and cutting quality. These include:

• HarvestLab 3000 NIR (near infrared) sensor – view and document real-time measurements of crop yield, moisture and other constituents such as protein, starch, fibre etc as totals or in convenient site-specific maps;

• HarvestLab 3000 with AutoLOC automatic length-of-cut settings and silage additive dosing on the move, based on dry matter content;

• The same sensor system can be used in stationary mode for analysing clamp silage in order to manage feed rations more accurately, and for analysing the constituents in manure (eg N, NH4, P and K) when operating a slurry tanker;

• AutoTrac automatic steering;

• MachineSync that automatically co-ordinates trailer speed and position with the forager;

• RowSense feeler guidance allows the forager to automatically follow maize rows;

• Active Fill Control (AFC) for automatic filling of trailers;

• And the JohnDeere Operations Center web portal for active fleet m.