Germans show Class

WA farmers learned valuable lessons from their European counterparts as German technicians travel the State.

Specialists from German company, Claas visited farms around Geraldton this month.

German harvest technicians Marcus Schmidt and Viktor Knaus joined WA field service technician Iain Robertson, showcasing the latest in Claas machines.

Claas’s main product — the Lexion combine harvester — was deployed at demonstration sites in the area.

Lexion combine product manager Steve Reeves said the Germans came to Australia each year for harvest.

“Our German technicians travel the world and see things that are unique, ” he said.

“They come out here for harvest and see a totally different way of life.”

Viktor Knuas came to WA for the first time last week and drew parallels with Russia.

“In Russia, it gets to 45 and 50 degrees at harvest time and there are a lot of big paddocks like in WA, ” he said.

Marcus Shmidt has been in WA for more than a year and said its farmers face a raft of different challenges to those in his home country.

“Farms are a lot bigger in WA and farmers have to travel a lot faster to harvest their crop, ” he said.

“Russia can’t compete with the massive area of WA farms, but WA farmers need a lot bigger area to cover the same yield.

“A combine needs a good crop flow to work and that is always a challenge.”

Claas held demonstration days in the Mid West, before moving further south.