Case IH focused on innovating equipment that creates value

DECATUR, Ill. — Case IH is focused on developing equipment with a purpose that creates value for farmers.

“Behind the innovation, there’s purpose,” said Kurt Coffey, vice president for Case IH North America.

“We’re not just innovating for the sake of innovating,” Coffey said at the Case IH exhibit lot at the Farm Progress Show. “When a customer has a challenge, we design, innovate or make an adjustment to fix those pain points.”

Case IH is celebrating the “Year of the Tractor” during 2023 and introduced the Steiger 715 Quadtrac at the show. “It has much higher horsepower compared to our prior tractor at 645 horsepower,” the vice president noted.

At a recent field testing near Fargo, North Dakota, a farmer was working wheat stubble with his Steiger 620. “He switched to the Steiger 715 and went from 7 to 9.9 mph,” Coffey said. “The No. 1 issue for most of our customers is labor scarcity and time management, so he had a 30% improvement in productivity by that simple shift.

“He is doing more with less and he’s also doing it more sustainably because his footprint on fuel has gone down because he’s a more efficient operator,” Coffey said. “We’re sold out for 2024 orders for the 715, so we’re pretty excited about the customer demand for this tractor.”

For the Case IH combines, Harvest Command combine automation technology also helps farmers who struggle to find skilled operators to run the machines. “You can put a relatively untrained operator in a combine, hit a button and the machine through automation adjusts in the field,” the vice president said.

Over the last 30 to 40 years, Case IH has focused on capacity, simplicity of the combine and grain quality. “But this automation feature allows farmers to do more with less,” Coffey stated. “When they have labor scarcity, they can put an untrained operator in the machine and have best-in-class grain quality.”

Case IH equipment is built by farmers. “We counted the number of acres under management by our employees and at a million acres we stopped counting,” the vice president said. “We have the empathy coming from a farm to solve real-world problems and that’s what this entire lot is about — features and solutions that solve real-world problems”

This year is special for the Case IH company as it celebrates 100 years of Farmall tractors. “When you look at sub-brands, I would say Farmall is one of the most famous,” Coffey stated. “There have been millions of Farmalls sold in the last 100 years.”

Innovations for Farmall tractors continue as Case IH introduced the Farmall 75C Electric tractor at the Farm Progress Show. “The zero emission is amazing and proof of our commitment to sustainability,” Coffey said.

“The tractor has cameras that triangulate so you can see through the loader,” he said.

“When you lift the loader, you have a display where you can see through it which is efficiency but it’s also safety. I’m a daddy of four kids, so anytime you can produce products that make you safer, it’s exciting.”

The electric tractor has a four-plus hour run time. “That allows us to get a reasonable duty cycle for many of our customers who are doing chores, loader work or mowing around the farm,” Coffey said. “On my farm in the Charleston area, we have five to seven tractors that are 100 or lower horsepower which are used around the farmstead.”

Work continues to make farm equipment fully autonomous. “Unlocking of processes through automation along the way is the required building blocks before you can get to full autonomous,” he said.

For example, a sensor has to know if a machine has a clod of dirt that is causing a clog to shut down the machine so it can be fixed. “Those building blocks are critically important,” Coffey said. “I believe Case IH is at the tip of the spear on automation processes and I know our harvest automation is best in class.”

During the show, farmers had the opportunity to learn more about the power of unlocking data for their operations and remote servicing at the Connect Room with AFS Connect.

“You may have four machines running and one that looks a little off,” Coffey said. “So you can look at that machine either physically or remotely to mitigate down time.

“Technology is the cornerstone of everything we do because technology is what unlocks the power of the machines.”

For more information on Case IH equipment, go to www.caseih.com.