There are few machine and model updates for this year’s Ultimate Guide to combine harvesters – but there are some subtle changes to the tables themselves to make some of the detail more accessible.

Header options now lead every manufacturer’s section, and details of each combine’s ground drive transmission, rear drive axle options and track details have been added at the end of each range listing.

The pricing presentation has also been changed; instead of a total price for a base combine and the recommended cutting table, the two are now separated.

This not only ensures like-for-like pricing of every manufacturer’s product, but it also means readers can price up different combine/header combinations.

Claas Evion

Notable as the only all-new or even substantially upgraded combine in this year’s guide, the Evion is an entry-level machine that nonetheless has features – as either standard or optional equipment – filtered down from the Trion and Lexion harvesters.

Two of the three models are available in the UK – the 205hp 410 Classic with 5,600 litres of grain holding capacity, and the 231hp 430 Classic with a 6,500-litre tank.

A “power-as-needed” Cummins engine and three-speed hydrostatic drive combination promises up to 10% fuel saving versus conventional setups, says Claas.

Both models have a 1.42m wide, 600mm diameter threshing cylinder but no APS initial threshing unit to precede it, unlike all other Claas combines, while a beater and then five walkers provide a total separation area of 6.25sq m to complete the grain extraction process.

In-cab technology includes the isobus-compliant Cemis 700 touchscreen display, which provides visual and audible early warnings of an impending blockage at the walkers.

An optional upgrade monitors crop flow and deactivates the cutting table and feeder to stop material coming in if a blockage or serious drive belt slippage is imminent.

Fendt

While the two-wheel drive ParaLevel version of the 5275C MCS Plus has been dropped to standardise on the four-wheel drive model that better copes with the hilly ground for which this version is equipped, Fendt has introduced an Integrale alternative.

ParaLevel and four-wheel drive compensate for sloping ground, with front drive axle adjustment side-to-side to keep the machine level on up to 20% slopes, whereas the Integrale version has hydraulic rear lift as well, compensating slopes of up to 30% incline when working uphill and 10% downhill.

The 5275C is a five-walker harvester with a 1.34m wide, 600mm diameter threshing drum and MultiCrop Separator (MCS) peg drum that complements the walkers but can be raised out of the crop stream in dry, brittle-straw conditions.

Its new Integrale configuration mirrors the package available on the larger six-walker 6335C combine.

Massey Ferguson

Agco’s Ideal 7 single-rotor combine has a power boost to 476hp © Massey Ferguson

The MF listing indicates some power upgrades, with the 7300 S Activa models gaining a 17hp lift in peak power from 243hp to 260hp, and the six-walker 7347 S going from 260hp to 276hp for harvesting, and then on to 306hp when unloading on the move.

This year’s listing also sees the two-wheel drive five-walker MF Beta 7360 MCS ParaLevel model removed while the four-wheel drive version remains in place.

The Atrak version of the larger six-walker MF Beta 7370 is also dropped as the sole model outside the flagship Ideal line-up with a tracked undercarriage.

The 7370 therefore continues on wheels alone, like all other Beta models, sporting a 1.6m wide, 600mm threshing drum, followed by a 380mm beater and the large diameter MCS separation cylinder that can be adjusted from maximum to almost zero effect to suit different harvesting conditions.

Among the MF Ideal machines, the Ideal 7 wheeled model and its 7T TrakRide counterpart have gained a power boost.

In place of 392hp for harvesting plus a boost to 451hp max when unloading at the same time, the Agco six-cylinder engine now serves up 430hp and 476hp for these situations, respectively.

New Holland

New Holland’s CR7.90 is now available on SmartTrax tracked running gear © New Holland

Despite reports of a potentially higher-output combine seen testing in disguise in Britain this year, there is only one new model configuration added to New Holland’s 2024 harvest line-up so far.

The 460hp CR 7.90 Revelation SmartTrax is an additional tracked model in the CR rotary threshing and separation family, this being the version with a pair of 430mm diameter, 2.64m longitudinal rotors.

SmartTrax is a triangular-configured assembly, available with 610mm or 760mm rubber traction belts, that complements the CR’s 30kph two-range electric shift hydro transmission.

Only the SmartTrax Terraglide version has suspension, and that is reserved for the range-topping CR10.90 Revelation.