Aaron Kew

Aaron Kew, Business Manager at Rockscape Contract Services, Lincolnshire, England, Fendt 1167 Vario MT, Fendt 724 Vario

It’s no surprise that the Fendts are popular with operators

Aaron Kew, Business Manager at Rockscape Contract Services, Lincolnshire, England, Fendt 1167 Vario MT, Fendt 724 Vario

It’s no surprise that the Fendts are popular with operators

Back to overview

Moving to a tracked Tractor: The Fendt 1167 Vario MT as a new asset

The back of a Fendt 1167 Vario MT pulling a green drill across a field and a blue sky in the background

The move to a tracked Fendt 1167 Vario MT has helped improve the min-till system at Lincolnshire based Rockscape Contract Services. Here 700 hectares of wheat, of which 150 is sent for milling, 150 hectares of oilseed rape, 200 hectares of spring oats, 250 spring barley, 120 hectares of spring wheat, 120 marrowfat peas and 300 of grain maize make up the rotation, with the balance of land made up with various SFI and CSS options.

Excellence in times of change

"Off the back of a poor year in 2019, we decided to carry out a complete overhaul of our system, with a focus on building something with longevity and resilience." - Mr Kew

Business Manager Aaron Kew and the Rockscape team began changing the farming system four years ago to manage 2400 hectares in a more efficient way. This has since been adapted to a controlled traffic system to optimise the use of machinery and improve crop quality.

Fendt as the best part
"We wanted to move to a min-till system and, to enable that, we needed to have full control over the availability of machinery. It has taken four years, and the Fendt is the icing on the cake because it has enabled us to shed one tractor and still have flexibility to operate when we need to," he says.

The 1167 Vario MT replaced a wheeled 500 horsepower tractor but is also able to manage the work that a Fendt 1050 was previously hired for following harvest.

“We needed more than 500 horsepower and hiring the 1050 was a good option at the time, but when we came to replace our most powerful tractor with the 1167MT we could see there would be an additional saving and we wouldn’t need to hire anymore,” - Mr Kew

Powerful and efficient on any surface

Two pieces of soil lying in the hands of Mr Kew

“We have almost every soil type imaginable. Some of the land is blow away sand and some is heavy clay. This is part of the reason why we have chosen to bring the machinery in-house and move to a min-till system”

Fuel efficiency
The 16.2 litre, 673 horsepower MAN engine that powers the Fendt has proved remarkably fuel efficient and, with its enormous 1,320 litre tank, it will run for two days without needing to be refilled. This is largely due to the Vario transmission and Fendt’s tractor management system (TMS) which automatically regulates the way the engine revs and its fuel use.

Power at work
The Fendt is expected to be needed for at least 1200 hours of largely cultivation, low disturbance subsoiling and OSR drilling work each year. Mr Kew suggests it will be used for over 6000 acres of cultivation, which is mostly min-till disc work but will also include the use of a LD subsoiler for breaking up compacted land and working in heavier soils.

The perfect combination
“It’s still early days but it is managing 8.7 litres per hectare pulling our 12-metre Farmet Phantom through a variety of soil types. The 1167MT is running at around 1200rpm which is very low compared to our previous wheeled tractor. We do have the advantage of flat land and relatively large field sizes but, still, it is an impressive combination of power and efficiency,” says Mr Kew

A boost in productivity

“We need the Fendt to drill the oilseed rape and carry out the cultivation work, but we also have three Fendt 724s that can manage other drilling. Direct drilling has proved far more cost effective than our previous plough and power harrow system, and we are able to plant more cover crops which is helping drive a tradeable surplus of carbon credits, which is great source of extra income,” - Mr Kew

Crosslinked digital support with FendtONE

A display that shows various functions of the FendtONE-system inside the driver's cabin of a Fendt tractor

Having a largely Fendt fleet has offered further benefits, especially the sharing of settings and performance data.

“We monitor our operating costs closely and we need to have output and fuel use figures to ensure each operation is profitable and justified, this also helps for carbon auditing. The FendtONE system is easy to use and has helped us to track the efficiency of our system change. Bringing in the 1167MT is a perfect fit because now we can share data more easily with our 724s too,” Mr Kew says.
He also suggests that operators prefer the Fendts to other brands for the simplicity and ease of setup and comfort for long stints in the cab.

A picture from the backhand side of the Fendt 1167 Vario MT pulling a drill across a field with some wind turbines in the background and a clear blue sky

A picture from the front side of the Fendt 1167 Vario MT pulling a green drill across a field with a clear blue sky in the background