Automatic, intelligence-driven technology has come a long way in agriculture. “A.I.” might still seem like a futuristic concept, but it’s already at work in the field.

“The agriculture industry is focusing a lot on convenience and efficiency,” says Blake McOllough, a combine product manager for CLAAS, adding producers are looking for machine advancements to help them farm more efficiently.

McOllough says the company’s LEXION combine has featured an intelligence system, CEMOS AUTOMATIC, since 2013. The system autonomously and automatically controls combine settings and adjustments. It’s a self-learning system, too, that tests alternative settings to ensure the machine is running at maximum efficiency.

The new LEXION 8000-7000 series offers even more in-cab conveniences, says McOllough, that allow operators to make multiple adjustments with the push of a button.

These conveniences include in-cab adjustment of individual threshing and separation speed, intensive threshing segment, concave blanking plate, and rotor cover plate.

How does the CEMOS AUTOMATIC system make these adjustments on the fly? Torey Hadland, a regional sales manager for CLAAS, says all combines have sensors placed at key points throughout the machine, but the CEMOS AUTOMATIC system monitors those sensors and makes adjustments automatically, while transmitting the data directly into the cab.

“What I tell farmers is that CEMOS AUTOMATIC sets the combine close to where most users set it, but it automatically changes those settings as conditions change,” Hadland explains. “Most operators make changes in the morning and in afternoon, or when it gets hotter, for example. This means there’s less fatigue on operators. It’s also easier to train seasonal people. You just have to set the combine and it does the work.”

The LEXION combine’s threshing and separation system, previously named the APS HYBRID system, got a new name with the new line of machines: the APS SYNFLOW HYBRID system. “We enhanced features of the system and tweaked a couple of things like the flow through of the crop, and with these changes we’re expecting about a 10 percent higher throughput,” says Hadland.

The series also offers the industry’s largest grain tank, which CLAAS paired with a faster unload speed.

Hadland says farmers need to invest time in learning to run the newer, intelligence-driven systems. “It is a learning process, but the guys who get into it have faith in the machine and will achieve maximum machine performance.”

To learn more about the new LEXION 8000-7000 series combine, visit claas.com. 

_{This article was written by Top Crop Manager magazine and originally published on} TopCropManager.com _{in August 2019.}