There’s no doubt about which tractor is the most important when you visit Stora Ryftes, north-east of Visby. This is where ten tractors work together, of different sizes and different models.

"We have chosen Fendt all along mainly because they were so economical on fuel. Today we can see many more advantages,” says Yngve Andersson, owner and CEO at Ryftes Grönsaker AB. The family concern Ryftes Grönsaker cultivates, packages and sells a wide range of vegetables, including root vegetables, which are delivered all over the country. It was founded back in 1964, when Yngve Andersson started her agricultural business with nine hectares of farmland. Today Stora Ryftes consists of at least 900 hectares. Carrots, potatoes, onions, etc. are grown on 165 hectares, while around 670 hectares are used for growing cereals. The business has 45 workers employed the year round and a great many seasonal workers.

The tractor depit at Stora is homogeneous, and for many years has only contained green Fendt tractors, currently ten.

"Initially we had both Ferguson and John Deere on the farm, but when John Deere started producing their round cabins, the door of which you could hardly open, we decided to try Fendt. After a while we switched to using only Fendt, chiefly because they were so economical on fuel,” says Yngve. Johan Roth is Operations Manager at Ryftes and has no hesitation in reeling off his arguments for choosing Fendt: good quality, good functionality, they’re very user-friendly. High degree of driving comfort with a very low noise level. High second-hand value. And good service." We are very satisfied with Lantmännen Maskin in Visby. They provide an exceptional service. With ten tractors things go wrong, it would be odd if they didn’t, but Lantmännen Maskin have managed to resolve everything in the proper manner,” says Johan.

Ryftes exchange the larger tractors when they have done about 5,000 hours, which is equivalent to approximately five years. Recently it has made sense, not just from an environmental point of view, to invest in two S4s - one 724 Vario S4 and one 838 Vario S4. The family concern from Gotland are environmentally conscious in everything they do and adapt their working methods and investments accordingly. There are three wind turbines on the farm and its own 960 m2 solar cell facility, positioned on the roof of machinery buildings, was put into operation at the beginning of 2014. It only seems right then that the new tractors comply with the Stage 4/Tier 4 Final emission norms.

"Environmental profiling is, naturally, very important, but there are many other benefits. Fendt’s S4 models are excellent tractors. Less impact on the environment and, at the same time, a reduced fuel usage, making operation less expensive, are of course positive factors from several perspectives,” says Johan. Johan Roth advises that, although Fendts have always been economical on fuel, this is all the more apparent with the S4 model. “It has a completely different torque in the engine, it feels as though there is a different base power. We quite simply don’t need to drive at such high engine speeds to reach the same effect. The fact that we can run at just 1,400 - 1,500 revs when ploughing has an impact on the fuel consumption."

The continuously variable transmission is another important feature of Fendt, which Johan is happy to comment on: “The driving is very soft. And Fendt have come a long way with their continuously variable transmission, the tractor does not lose power in the same way as with other makes. It takes a little time to apply the right settings to the tractor, but once you have done so, it’s amazingly simple and smooth to drive."