This year’s big multi-test is all about the latest 200hp tractors.

Our group of five is assembled from two of the world’s biggest manufacturers – CNH, owner of Case IH and New Holland, and Agco, which has Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra under its belt.

These global conglomerates are gobbling up popular brands to grow market share and streamline production, but their strategies towards world domination differ.

Take Agco, for instance, which uses a distinct pecking order to sell its different brands. Fendt is the prize pony, Massey goes for mid-range and mass sales, while Valtra has traditionally offered a less-mainstream alternative. Some of the key components are shared – Massey and Fendt use the same transmission, for example – but they still feel like very different tractors.

See also: Seven 100hp loader tractors on test

Case and New Holland work differently. Though CNH dresses its twins in different outfits, under the skin there’s nothing to tell them apart. So, to avoid pointless comparisons between two identical tractors, Case sent a smaller, lighter-weight Puma, rather than the one that would have matched the butcher T7 pound for pound.

The test criteria we used were simple. Each competing tractor needed a brand-new Tier 4f engine to meet the latest emissions regulations, a CVT gearbox, air brakes, and a cab specced up to the eyeballs with almost every conceivable optional extra.

The tractors

• Fendt 720 Vario
• New Holland T 7.230
• Case IH Puma 175 CVX
• Valtra T 214 Direct
• Massey Ferguson 7720 Dyna

The test

To make sure we gave each tractor a thorough assessment, our test was split into two parts.

Part one assessed the machines from a driver’s point of view with a week-long grilling at our test farm in western Germany, with the help of our colleagues at European partner magazines Top Agrar, La France Agricole and Boerderij.

Tasks mimicked typical on-farm duties for a 200hp tractor and included ploughing, primary cultivations, pto work and haulage.

The next part of the test involved sending the tractors to the DLG test centre in Umstadt, Germany.

Here they were hooked up to various scientific instruments to see how accurate the manufacturers’ claimed performance figures were.

Download the PDF of tractor specifications to see how each tractor got on