Strong throughputs and impeccable cutting quality. Fendt Katana 850 forage harvester: Bella Katana
The below story is a feature from Profi Magazine September 2024.
In Italy, we were able to make up for what we couldn't do in the field test a year ago. In Verona, the Fendt forage harvester demonstrated strong throughputs and impeccable cutting quality.
Good to know
- The Fendt Katana has a perfect chopping structure
- 850 Liebherr horsepower are efficiently converted into throughput
- With these values, the katana has nothing to hide
However, the maize in northern Italy was not easy to chop either. Although the Katana has a lot of mass in front of it at 61t/ha, the maize of the Dekalb DKC 6812 variety had relatively small, rubbery kernels despite irrigation. The grains of the dent corn variety were difficult to crack. The roller cracker with 40% speed difference therefore had to remain relatively close together during our throughput and chop length measurements (1.75mm).
The samples for analyzing the chaff structure are taken from the full jet. (Image source: Bensing)
The only difference to the exact same Katana 850 from last year was the difference in speed of the cracker. The 40mm blade drum and the Kemper 490 plus attachment were identical. We varied the cutting length from 4 to 13mm. Thanks to the large, homogeneous surface, we were able to repeat each measuring run three times. With 32 to 36% dry matter, the maize yielded a very good 21t/ha DM.
Throughput and Diesel Consumption
The Fendt Katana 850 forage harvester delivered high throughputs Even at 4 mm, the Katana 850 achieved almost 260 t/h of FM throughput. At 7mm, the throughput increased by 20 t to 289t/h. Each further increase in chop length by 3mm brought another 15t/h more fresh mass onto the wagon - great! We chopped a maximum of 320t/h with the Fendt flagship, which is 110t/h of dry matter or 5.25ha/h. In relation to the maximum output of 847hp specified by Fendt for the Liebherr power unit, the Katana 850 achieves 0.1 to 0.13t/h DM per hp. These are top values with which the Katana can and may compete with other makes in this performance class. Diesel consumption was also at a very good level. 0.44l of diesel per ton of fresh mass is one of the lowest values we have determined in this chopper class. At 4mm, consumption rises to 0.55l/t FM. However, the Katana also uses around 6% AdBlue. Last fall, we were already able to attest to the Katana's good chopping quality - despite dry maize
Perfect chop quality
Our subjective impression of really first-class figures with normal dry matter is now confirmed. The sieve analyses were carried out for us by the Institute for Agricultural Engineering at the University of Bonn (diagram: “Chop structure”). At a chop length of 4mm, a good 60% of the material is in the fraction up to 6mm and over 90% in the fraction up to 10mm - chop qualities that we have never measured before!
Adjusting the cutting length has a very even effect on the distribution of the size fractions. With a cutting length of 13mm, more than 35% of the material still ends up in the fraction up to 6mm, 70% up to 10mm and almost 95% of the material has a maximum length of 15mm. Overlengths were virtually non-existent in all our samples. To check the grain processing, Lufa Münster also determined the CSPS value of our chopped samples. Regardless of the chop length, the values were between 51 and 62% and therefore only in the average range. The optimum level is over 70% grain destruction. All grains were well shredded, but some small “rubber grains” were only split, which worsens the CSPS value accordingly.
Fendt Katana 850 in maize: Performance in practice
Chopped Structure
Relative proportion of chopped material.
With increasing chop length, the fresh mass throughput increased by 23.3% and the dry mass throughput by 28.2%. The chop structure was determined by the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Bonn using a sieve tower. There were almost no overlengths; overall, the maize was very well chopped. Lufa Münster also determined the CSPS value, which was between 51 and 62% regardless of the chop length and therefore in the average range.
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