Best windrower ever? High Praise. In This Issue: MacDon engineering honored

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1 issue 3 Fall 2007 w w w.macdon.com G e t t i n g T h e M o s t F r o m Y o u r M a c D o n M a c h i n e Best windrower ever? California farmer gets 30% productivity jump. In This Issue: High Praise. MacDon engineering honored at AE50 s. DNA of an award Behind the scenes of MacDon s two award winning machines. Grrr...8! MacDon R80 s speed impresses. Get set, go! Win the ultimate racing experience. Brad Schnoor, Chowchilla, ca Hay producer

2 Do you feel the need for speed? contents 3 MacDon s R80 winning fans across America. 6 High Praise. MacDon Machines honored at AE50. 8 Behind the Award: Developing the M Behind the Award: Developing the FD California Dreaming No More MacDon Auger Windrower Best Ever? Take a MacDon factory tour for a chance to win the ultimate racing experience. MacDon factory tours have always been special events for those able to make the trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where MacDon s factory is located. Those who make the trip will also receive a chance to win another trip this one to Kansas City, Missouri. There, they will be able to strap on a helmet and get behind the wheel of an authentic NEXTEL Cup car and drive it on a real NASCAR circuit track under real race conditions. Seeing as how MacDon is now producing some of the fastest harvesting equipment on the planet, we thought that it might be nice to celebrate this by putting one of our customers behind the wheel of an authentic race car, said Paul Jeffrey, MacDon U.S. Sales Manager. The prize includes airfare, accommodation and one day at the Kansas City Speedway with The Racing Experience, a company who has been hosting authentic racing experiences to the general public for 14 years. Participants receive classroom instruction before heading out on the track in groups of eight to ten cars. Drivers are allowed to draft and pass, so excitement is guaranteed. Winners will also have a chance to tour MacDon s U.S. headquarters in Kansas City. If this sounds like fun to you (and why wouldn t it?) then consider getting yourself up to Winnipeg for a factory tour in the near future. Who knows? You may also soon find yourself clocking 165 MPH on a straightaway with someone tight on your six. Yee-ha! Performance Performance is a publication of MacDon Industries LTD. For more information on any of the products mentioned in Performance please visit All materials copyright of MacDon Industries Ltd. For reprint permission please contact: MacDon Industries Ltd. 680 Moray Street Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3J 3S3 t. (204) f. (204) MacDon, Inc N. Pomona Avenue Kansas City, Missouri United States t. (816) f. (816) MacDon Australia Pty. Ltd. A.C.N P.O. Box 243 Suite 3, 143 Main Street Greensborough, Victoria Australia 3088 t f Get MacDon Performance Free To register for a free subscription to MacDon Performance, or remove your name from our mailing list, go to or call (204) Visit macdon.com for more information. 2 Fall

3 MacDon s R80 Winning Fans Across America The R80 is MacDon s first rotary disc mower ever, but from the rave reviews it has been getting you would think that MacDon has been building them for decades. The high performance rotary disc mower was unveiled to the public during MacDon s Cut Across America Tour 2007, which stopped in more than 25 states and provinces. During the tour thousands of farmers had a chance to try the machine, sometimes in side-by-side trials against their own machines, under some truly challenging conditions. According to MacDon representatives who took part in the tour, some of the initial reactions to the new R80 almost bordered on giddy. Many of the operators just couldn t believe how fast they were cutting, especially in wet, heavy crop. One good example was Clyde Sandine of Salem, South Dakota, where he is a farm manager for an operation that harvests native grass, corn and soybeans. Continued Fall

4 R80 Winning fans Cut Across America is returning in Visit macdon.com and register today for your chance to test drive an R80 yourself! 4 Fall

5 we cut 25 acres in two hours or less a third of the time it would have taken with my current equipment. Shortly after we began cutting, it started to rain, said Sandine. With my old unit, we would have been down for the rest of the day. But with the R80, we were back in the field about half an hour after the rain stopped. The wet conditions didn t phase the R80 one bit it went through my wet crop like a hot knife through butter. There was no bunching and it floated on the ground really nicely. In the conditions we were cutting, it was unbelievable: we were running seven or eight miles an hour non-stop. That s over twice as fast as my old unit. Steve Schovanec of Hunter, Oklahoma, who, as a one man operation, farms and custom cuts 4,500 acres had a similar experience. I had a field of heavy Bermuda grass hay and my current equipment just couldn't cut it, said Schovanec. I was running at one to two miles an hour and burning up a lot of fuel. When they told me that the MacDon unit could run between five and seven miles an hour in the same crop, I thought: I m not going to believe it until I see it. Sure enough, we cut 25 acres in two hours or less a third of the time it would have taken with my current equipment. Schovanec was also impressed with the quality of the windrow formed by the R80 and its crimping action. The amount of material that you could push through the crimper kind of amazed me. It was sucking it all through and still had enough power to cut it off smoothly. Some of the guys who got a chance to run the R80 must have thought they were at Daytona. We were able to fly through the fields at 12 miles an hour, said Denver Pugh who farms 2,800 acres of grass seed and grain near Shed, Oregon. Even in our rough crops, we were able to go about eight miles an hour. But Pugh also liked other things about the R80 mounted on MacDon next generation tractor, the M200. Because the R80 is hydraulically driven, we expect to spend much less time on maintenance. The transport speed is also a big plus. On the highway the M200 with the R80 was really smooth at about 22 miles per hour no jerky motions, no header hop. That kind of speed really saves a lot of time when you re going from field to field. MacDon s R80 Disc was designed to deliver optimum productivity in hay and forage plus lower daily and annual maintenance requirements due to fewer moving parts. The MacDon R80 is also available in a pull-type model in 13' and 16' sizes. Fall

6 ae50 awards They wer em against s easured im doing simil ilar machines ar AE50 s jud jobs by the ge top engine s who represent er respectiv s in their ef are people ields. These w design wh ho know superior en they s ee it. HIgh Praise. MacDon Machines Honored at AE50 As a company, MacDon has always measured its success by the satisfaction of its customers. Still, it is always nice to be recognized by your industry peers, and when you walk away with a top engineering award from the prestigious AE50 competition, well, that makes you feel pretty special. So imagine how MacDon s entire engineering, design, development and field testing team felt when it walked away with two top prizes from the 2007 AE50 Awards. Conducted by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, the AE50s honor the top 50 outstanding engineering innovations around the globe for the agricultural, food and biological systems industries. This year the conference in Minneapolis drew 1,800 engineers from around the world where MacDon was recognized for its ground breaking design on its M Series tractors, featuring Dual Direction technology, and its all-new FD70 FlexDraper. When we started developing these projects back in 2001 we weren t even aware of these awards, said Richard Kirkby, Product Manager for MacDon. These awards have been going on for two decades, but we have only entered the competition three times; in 2004 with our 974 FlexDraper, for which we also won, and twice this year. That makes it three for three for MacDon. Not bad when you consider the stiff competition the company was up against. According to Kirkby, the awards attract the best of the best in agricultural engineering, and MacDon s two entries this year were in the category of Complete Machines, which placed them in competition with the top machines produced last year, world wide. Fall

7 M150 F D7 0 MacDon Awards Fall 2007

8 ae50 awards Behind the Award: Developing the M150 In addition to fast operation in the field and on highways, M Series tractors also save operators time thanks to simplified maintenance requirements and smart design that provides easy access to most serviceable components. back row (left to right) Brent Gabriel, Len Bergman, Don MacGregor, Jeremy Blixhavn; front row (left to right) Bernie Penner, Richard Kirkby, Jim Dunn, Jerry Schulz 8 Fall

9 MacDon s engineers were given A clean slate back in 2001 when they first started dreaming about what the next generation of windrowing tractors would be like. This time there would be no compromises, no backward compatibility, no need to adapt the tractor to the requirements of older generation headers. All of the energy and focus of MacDon s engineers could be channeled to achieve one goal: increased productivity measured in terms of machine and operator performance. Our objective was to increase productivity, not just incrementally but by a large margin, said Richard Kirkby, MacDon Product Manager for the development of M Series tractors. We wanted a bigger, faster tractor to meet the increasing demands placed on machines and people by today s larger farms. We wanted to cut in the field at 10 MPH or more. We wanted faster transport speeds of up to 23 MPH so that operators would spend less time getting to and from fields. We wanted to attach and detach the headers quickly. We wanted a higher and a wider stance on the tractor so that it could handle more crop. We wanted a more comfortable work environment and better visibility for the operator. Basically we wanted it all a tractor that gave the end user increased productivity, a quieter environment and easier, more intuitive operation. One of the first decisions made was to pursue the Dual Direction concept, as this was seen as a way to make higher transport speeds possible with the header attached. Without Dual Direction, which rotates the operator station 180 for transport and allows the tractor to be driven with the engine in the front and the header in the back, a windrower can not easily travel on the highway above 16 MPH due to stability issues. By perfecting Dual Direction technology the team was able to break through this barrier. (For more, see MacDon s Dual Direction Technology Moves Windrowing Into The Fast Lane in the previous issue of Performance visit macdon.com to download.) Another challenge faced by the design team was the tractor s frame itself, which had to be higher and stronger to match the increased productivity goals for the machine. Cutting more, faster would require larger headers, bigger engines and higher field speeds overall. Higher field and highway speeds, of course, placed additional stresses on the frame structure. The goal was to provide the machine with an efficient frame design that both incorporated strength and minimized weight. We also wanted a design that could accommodate changing engine requirements as manufactures came out with newer, larger models. According to Kirkby, when MacDon s design team started work on the M Series tractor in 2001 they were still operating under the tier-1 engine emission standards, but now as the tractor is released it is equipped with a tier-3 engine. The change required redesigning the frame to accommodate a larger cooling system necessary for dissipating the heat generated by the tier-3 engines. But these adjustments are really only the tip of the iceberg on a tractor where just about everything has been touched in some way. The engineering team even considered shipping issues in their design, and the tractor has been built so that two units can fit in one shipping container reducing transportation costs for sales outside North America. Computer technology also changed significantly during the time we were developing the tractor and we were able to introduce a whole new computerized user interface that gives the operator much more on-the-go control of field adjustments. So how did MacDon s eight-person design team react to winning an AE50? The award is a nice validation of the path we embarked on more than six years ago, said Kirkby who added that the team was particularly happy with the fact that almost all of the goals set by the team were achieved in the finished product. But, despite the accolades the machine has received, Kirkby says what has most pleased the team are the reactions it has received by producers who have had a chance to try it in the field. In some cases we ve had farmers who have demoed a unit refuse to give it back. They ve basically asked how much do you want and have wanted to write a check on the spot. Change from field to transport mode in 3 seconds flat! Fall

10 ae50 awards Behind the Award: Developing the FD70 The FD70 FlexDraper s ability to switch from flex to rigid with a quick mechanical adjustment has allowed some custom cutters who used to run their combines with three headers one for corn, one for beans and one for grains to run with only two, saving them the purchase and transportation costs of a third header. back row (left to right) Christian Rothney, Doug Rogalsky, Ben Van Liere, Rheal Remillard, Jeremy Blixhavn; front row (left to right) Bernie Penner, Frank Talbot, Dan Cormier, John Enns, Jason Strobbe. 10 Fall

11 It s not every engineer who gets to work on a machine that has the potential to change an industry. If early feedback proves prophetic that is exactly what the 10 individuals who comprised the FD70 s development team will have done. As MacDon s second incarnation of the flexible draper header concept (the 974 FlexDraper was the first, which also won an AE50 award), the FD70 is surprising many by just how much more productive it is proving to be over conventional flex auger heads. For most producers out there the idea of harvesting with a draper flex head is completely new, said Jason Strobbe, Product Manager for MacDon. With many of them it is something that they have to see before they will believe it. But for MacDon s design team back in 2001, when work was started on the FD70, there was never a doubt that a flexible draper head was the way to go. Back then it was easy to see that as combines continued to get bigger, there was no way that conventional flex heads could keep up. The simple fact is that flex augers are challenged as header widths get larger due to weight and poor performance resulting from a less than optimal reel to cutterbar relationship. According to Strobbe, MacDon knew that the long-term solution would be with drapers, so when the company set out to create the next generation of combine headers, producing a flex draper was its ultimate goal. With MacDon s Harvest Headers we had already proven that [for rigid heads] draper technology was the way to go to maximize combine efficiency and productivity, said Strobbe. Foot for foot, a draper will outperform an auger. It was, therefore, no great leap to see the necessity for a flexible draper. that can handle most ground contours. The MacDon flex draper concept is similar to running three smaller headers together, all of them 15 feet or under. In practice MacDon s three-section concept is both simple in design and effective in execution so effective that most producers experience an immediate increase in capacity of at least 20% over their current headers, and some are even seeing productivity jumps as high as 40% or more. When we first started doing demos with the 974, MacDon s first flex draper, operators were noticing a large improvement in both capacity and ground following performance over their auger headers. Now, when these same guys run the FD70s against the 974s they are operating, they are telling us that the productivity increase over the 974 is even greater than what they noticed between the 974 and their augers. Some of our soybean customers are telling us that the header will pay for itself in just one year. Strobbe reports that the reason for the dramatic increase is that the team was able to incorporate the many lessons learned from the development of the 974 into the FD70. Improvements have been incorporated just about everywhere on the header, especially at points of contact with the crop. As a result the FD70 both feeds better and follows the ground closer. The reel s performance is also much improved and operators feel they can increase their ground speed significantly over what they were running at before; so much so that customers with Class 8 machines are telling us that they are close to maxing out their combines capacities, but their FD70 headers are nowhere near capacity. The challenge then for MacDon s design team was how to make a draper flexible. If they followed the flex auger concept of having the head articulate over its entire width, they would have the same problems in maintaining the close reel to cutterbar relationship required for peak performance in challenging crop conditions. Their solution was as innovative as it was original; instead of making the entire header flexible, MacDon s engineering team created a three-section frame where flexing only occurred at the pivot points. When you think about it, flex heads only became necessary when headers started getting wider than 17½ feet, because anything under An amazing 10" flex range! Nothing hugs the ground like this header. Fall

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13 California Dreaming No More Chowchilla farmer s search for a better hay windrower ends with MacDon s new M150. Brad Schnoor was fed up. The Chowchilla, California, farmer who harvests and custom cuts 3,700 acres of alfalfa, wheat hay and oat hay eight months a year, depends on his four windrowers to keep his operation humming. The problem was his windrowers themselves weren t humming. We run our machines 10 to 11 hours a day about 20 days a month, said Schnoor who says that they do seven to eight cuttings of alfalfa a year. With [our previous] machines we had probably only three out of four machines running a day. They were down so much I made them take them back. That s when he went out and got four of MacDon s new M150 windrowers with Dual Direction technology. Mounted with MacDon s next generation A40-D auger headers, he bought them hoping that they would be more dependable than his previous machines, but also wanted to see if they lived up to their advanced billing of increasing productivity. And, boy, did they. My guys say these are the best machines that they have ever Operated. These new M150 swathers are just fantastic! We are gaining 30% in overall productivity. We probably picked ourselves up a couple days a month since we got them. Brad Schnoor says that his MacDon M150s, purchased from his dealer Leroy Inman of Merced Hesston, have increased his field speed by 50% and his overall productivity by 30%. Schnoor reports that the productivity increase is primarily due to three factors an increase in field speed of about 50%, less down time, and less time spent transporting. Continued Fall

14 california dreaming we can really fine-tune the header on-the-go right from the cab. The M150 s spacious, ergonomically designed cab places all header functions at the operator s fingertips. Schnoor says that this feature saves his employees significant time as they no longer have to get out of the cab to manually make header adjustments. In alfalfa under good conditions we re moving up to 5 MPH, whereas before we were cutting at 2.5 MPH on average. We are cutting cleaner and not stripping the hay. In oats we are cutting at 3 MPH in five to six ton crops compared to 2 MPH before. He says that harvesting speed has also jumped for him because they can control just about everything on the header from the cab, thanks to MacDon s computerized header control system which places all header controls at the fingertips of the operator. No longer do his operators have to stop their machines and get out of their cabs to make adjustments to the headers. We can really fine-tune the header on-the-go right from the cab. This allows us to easily lighten up the pressure on one side of the header so we don t plough the dirt. We also run on a lot of borders and we used to run out the edges of our swathers, [so this ability] really helps save the end shields. Schnoor says that the ability to adjust things from the cab also saves time when moving from crop to crop. We can also quickly jump from oats to sudan to alfalfa. That s one thing that we couldn t do with the other machines, which took about an hour to change the reels and make adjustments when moving to another crop. He is also very pleased with the reliability and serviceability of his new machines, especially compared to what he had before. He says that the way everything is laid out for quick access makes maintenance much easier. Our down time is minimal now. It takes much less time to grease, fuel and oil the machines in the morning. It also seems like we are having less sickle and guard wear. These machine are built to last. The M150 s Dual Direction capability is also proving to be a big factor in improving his operation s productivity. Unlike conventional tractors which are difficult to control on the highway at speeds above 16 MPH, MacDon s patented Dual Direction technology allows the operator to rotate the operator s station 180 to face the back of the tractor, placing the tractor in transport mode. All controls move with the operator, so that forward stays forward on the control column. The result is a tractor that has proven to be much more stable allowing it to travel at speeds of up to 23 MPH. Best of all, there is no need to detach the header and transport it on a flatbed, saving some operations even more time and labor when moving from field to field. They are quicker for getting from ranch to ranch. They are also a lot more stable because of the Dual Direction. The drivers like them because they can see the oncoming traffic better. Overall the increase in productivity has allowed Schnoor to take on more custom cutting jobs. In fact, on the day that he was interviewed one of his neighbors had asked him to come over and cut his hay crop, which was too damp for the neighbor s own machines to cut. Other neighbors have just gone ahead and purchased some units for themselves. We are seeing a lot of our neighbors changing over to them based on how well they were working for us. But increased productivity isn t the only reason to love the M150 s according to Schnoor. He says that they are very operator friendly and that the machine is much more relaxing to drive thanks to the way the controls are set up and the excellent visibility from the cab. He has even seen his fuel costs reduce significantly since switching. We can turn those engines down and we can run them at 80%. We are saving 18% on fuel costs alone. All of this, of course, adds up to a tractor that Schnoor and his team of operators are not sending back to the dealer like the last ones they had. My guys say these are the best machines that they have ever operated. I m extremely happy with them. 14 Fall

15 over the past forty years windrowers haven t changed too much, but with the M200 SP Windrower, MacDon is offering a completely new concept. Its design has a lot of advantages. The M200 s Dual Direction function is really handy for us because it saves the time of loading and unloading the windrower on the trailer. In transport mode, the M200 handles really well; it drives just like a tractor. We re also very pleased with the extra flotation provided by the unit s bigger tires. This allows us to make it through lowland areas where the water table is high without getting stuck. To date, we re really happy with our M200 SP Windrower. We expect it to have a much longer life than other windrowers on the market today and to hold its value better because of the innovative design. For the dealer nearest you visit The M200 SP Windrower is a revolutionary machine. David Shoemaker Ord, Nebraska Harvests 5,000 acres of alfalfa, corn, sorghum and wild hay Owner of a M200 SP Windrower with R80 Rotary Disc w w w. m a c d o n. c o m MF Fall

16 Here s your for the MacDon Factory Tour Event. Tour one of the world s finest state-of-the-art agricultural manufacturing facilities in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Attend for a chance to win one of two Ultimate Racing Experiences! Ride in real NASCAR Nextel Cup vehicles! All those who attend a MacDon Factory Tour Event will be entered to win a day at The Racing Experience near Kansas City, Missouri where winners will race authentic NASCAR Nextel Cup cars at speeds of up to 165 MPH. Also tour MacDon, Inc. in Kansas City. For more information on this contest go to or contact your dealer today. Trademarks of products are the marks of their respective manufacturers and/or distributors. MF10229 Printed in Canada 11/2007 Part #147505