Fendt has just begun rolling out its new latest generation of 300 and 700 series tractors into the Irish market. We travelled to Mayo to Fendt dealer McHale Farm Machinery to meet Fendt sales area manager for Ireland, Sean Gorman, who talks us through the first new 314 Gen 4, the latest addition to the Fendt range.

The majority of Fendt’s latest innovations are visible through the new control layout. Known as Fendt One, the new control setup is housed in the same four-post cab.

Dash

Fendt have swapped the conventional dash for a fresh looking 10in monitor. The new larger digital display simplifies the dashboard, while showing the same details which include driving speed, engine speed and fluid levels. It also does away with any buttons. Unlike the large armrest screen, the dash display is view only.

Within the next 12 months, it will be possible to put functions such as guidance maps and IsoBus implement display on the dash monitor, making it easier to keep an eye on the task in hand.

Touchscreen terminal

Fendt have designed its new touchscreen terminal to work like a modern touchscreen phone. The operator can now swipe through the screen, creating a layout to suit a particular application. It’s now possible to select up to six different display tiles on the home screen.

Although the majority of the icons haven’t changed, the new screen layout has helped improve the usability of the screen.

New joystick

With the latest upgrade, Fendt have really modernised the joystick layout. Rather than the large joystick Fendt users have become accustomed too,

the German manufacturer has opted for a smaller, more modern stockier look, with all functions closer to the operators thumb.

Despite the change of shape, the fundamentals such as how it drives remain the same; left to alter direction right to engage cruise etc. It now features two proportional scroll wheels for two spools and another wheel for quick adjustment of the cruise speed. Both represent major improvements.

The joystick now features four new white buttons, each of which are freely assignable. Each spool is colour coded and can be freely assigned to several locations. To indicate that the spool has changed, its unique colour will appear on the selected location.

Less buttons

The control console on the new generation now rides with the seat, rather than being fixed like its predecessor. Despite ditching many of the buttons and the side console display, the new generation carries over the same Fendt DNA.

The colour coding has remained the same to indicate the function or active spool. The new layout sees the buttons become more accessible for the operator. Fendt have also relocated some of the in-frequently used controls such as the PTO speed settings into the screen.

For the in-depth report, check out this week’s print edition.