Overview of developments of cereal harvester fleet in Estonia

Abstract

Tractors and cereal harvesters are technical means, which have a strong influence on the technological development trends of plant production. The aim of this article was to provide an overview of the developments of the cereal harvester fleet in Estonia between 2010 and 2017. For this purpose, the data from the Statistics Estonia, particularly the Traffic Register as on 31 December 2017 was used. The article points out changes in the number of agricultural holdings by the size class of the growing area for cereals; the number of cereal harvesters, including the number of new harvesters sold year-by-year and the preferences of agricultural holdings for cereal harvesters and distribution of new cereal harvesters by the manufacturer during the period. It becomes evident that during the last decade the cereal harvester fleet has changed a lot in Estonia. Harvesters dating back to the Soviet time have gone out of use and new, more well-known harvester brands have replaced them. The most sold harvester brand in Estonia is Claas, but New Holland, John Deere, Case, Fendt, Sampo, Massey Ferguson, Laverda, etc. are also represented. The average engine power of a harvester has increased by 50.3 % and the average width of the header has increased by 36.4 %. The information from the cereal harvester's on-board computer is being used increasingly for guiding the work of the cereal harvester fleet in order to optimise the harvesting costs.