AGCO’s 2020 Fendt Momentum Crop Tour To Hit 5 Locations Across 4 States

---

Fendt parent company AGCO announced in early June that it will stage a 2020 Fendt Momentum Crop Tour in four states this summer. AGCO says the planter will be available for the 2021 planting season. (Photo courtesy of AGCO.)

Fendt parent company AGCO has announced a 2020 Fendt Momentum Crop Tour that will take place this summer and will feature the clean-sheet Fendt Momentum Planter. The tour will include a new soil compaction segment consisting of demonstrations of how tire inflation, planter weight management, and controlled traffic methods can reduce compaction and help produce optimum yields and higher ROI for growers. AGCO introduced the Momentum in late January and will begin taking orders in North America this summer, with deliveries beginning in time for the 2021 planting season.

Virtual Attendance

AGCO says after a wet planting season and late harvest last year, many growers faced planting delays this spring due to excessive rain. Tire-track soil compaction and pinched rows are yield-robbing issues many grappled with due to wet conditions along with impacts related to using high-capacity, central-fill planters. AGCO will demonstrate how the Momentum’s automated technology can tackle these and other issues at five corn plots planted using pre-production Momentum models in five demonstration locations across Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Ohio.

AGCO Crop Tour program is in its fifth year, but unlike past years when growers attended demonstrations in person in July and August, AGCO will make agronomic data from this year’s tour available digitally due to COVID-19 pandemic-related health concerns. Growers can visit the Fendt Momentum Crop Tour website as well as AGCO and Fendt’s social media outlets for plot progress, event updates, harvest results, and more.

Beating Soil Compaction

AGCO says studies indicate compaction can account for 1.5% yield loss. The Momentum, however, “is the only planter that addresses compaction by the planter,” the company says, by way of in-line center tandem wheels, an automatic tire pressure regulation system that makes in-field pressure adjustments, and weight-transfer cylinders that automatically lift frame elements. The Momentum is available in eight models from 16 to 48 rows and features dual 65-bushel seed tanks, a 1,000-gallon (3,785-litre) liquid fertilizer tank, and a patented vertical contouring toolbar that flexes up and down 65.9 inches (1.7 meters) for automatic contour adjustment.

Source: AGCO