Today Versatile, a division of Canadian company Buhler Industries, formally entered the highly competitive North American combine market with the release of the Versatile RT490 combine. This is the first new combine that the farm equipment industry has seen in over a decade.

The combine is just the latest in a series of line extensions orchestrated by Dmitry Lyubimov, president of Buhler Industries. Lyubimov has taken the Versatile brand name, long-known for its 4-wd tractors, into new markets, including sprayers, tillage and seeding equipment. This latest move to combines is designed to cement the company’s future as a full-line manufacturer of farm equipment.

The new Versatile RT490 combine is modeled after the Russian combine Torum, which accounts for 80% of combine sales in Russia, Lyubimov says. Like the Torum, the Versatile combine, painted red, features a unique threshing system called a “rotating concave” rotary system. The 360-degree concave moves counter to the rotor to make full use of the thresher and separator and increase the amount of grain that gets processed, the company claims.

The combine has a four-stage feeder house with an inclined chamber and four feeding beaters. This design provides a more uniform flow of crop to the rotor than traditional feeder housing to maximize threshing capacity, Versatile says.

A 340-bu. grain tank comes standard. Hopper extensions, also standard, are controlled from the cab for transportation or storage.

The RT490 combine is powered by a 490-hp Cummins QSX 11.9L engine that meets Interim Tier 4 emissions standards.

Adam Reid, Versatile director of marketing, says this Class VIII combine has been thoroughly tested, both here and around the world, in nearly every crop grown in North America, including cereal crops, corn, pulse crops and rice.

Like other products in Versatile’s product lines, the combine will be marketed under the niche of being reliable, durable, and easy to service and maintain, Reid says. “The RT490 is simple and convenient to operate and maintain,” Reid says. “The number of lubrication points and mechanical drives that need adjustment is minimized and are easily accessible.”

The combine will make its debut at Canada’s Farm Progress Show, which runs from June 20 to 22. Farmers can register to attend one of six Versatile All-Star Events being held this summer to see the full lineup of Versatile farm equipment.

For more information, visit www.versatile-ag.com.