Farming Monthly National June 2017 | Page 33

| Machinery Kubota a Balmoral 2017 CLAAS to build a new test centre Visitors to Kubota UK’s stand at this year’s Balmoral Show could take advantage of the machinery manufacturer’s enticing spring cash back incentive scheme. he company was offering a fantastic £300 cashback on the purchase of its powerful GR2120 ride-on mower and £200 cashback on the economic and versatile GR1600. In addition, visitors to Northern Ireland’s premier countryside show were be able to see first hand Kubota’s high performance range of groundcare machinery on its stand. This included its prestigious domestic lawncare products and solutions for the professional groundcare market. Kubota’s recently launched L1361 Tractor was a show highlight too as it made its debut appearance at the show. This 36.6 T www.farmingmonthly.co.uk HP compact utility tractor offers unrivalled versatility, productivity and efficiency. Featuring a powerful three cylinder Kubota D1803-M-E2 engine, manual or three range speed hydrostatic transmission and a 38 litre capacity fuel tank to enable operators to get their tasks done more efficiently, all with greater comfort, performance and ease! Across the four day event, Kubota’s machinery experts were on hand to help visitors select the right machine for their needs, backed up by the company’s first class commitment to aftersales service and support, which also includes attractive finance options. CLAAS is significantly increasing its testing capacities for the development of new agricultural machinery by building a new centre at its site in Harsewinkel. By the time it’s completed in autumn 2018, total investment in the new centre will be over 15 million euros. e will merge the test laboratories at our Harsewinkel site into the new test centre; it will also enable us to expand our capacities and lower the dependency of our testing cycles on the harvest schedules", says Oliver Westphal, head of validation at CLAAS. The test centre will be able to simulate a broad variety of climactic conditions encountered during harvests around the world. These simulations help the engineers to assess the performance capabilities and reliability of the machinery at an early stage of its development. The new centre will be equipped to test components for combine harvesters, forage harvesters and tractors. "We exclusively test t