John Deere has fitted its new inline six, 18-litre engine in two forage harvester models – the 700hp 9500 and 750hp 9600.

Though their output is some way short of Deere’s biggest chopper – the flagship 9900 that packs a 24-litre Liebherr V12 good for 970hp – the company says its JD18X motor offers plenty of advantages.

In particular, it includes the Harvest Motion Plus system, which provides strong torque rise and more power as revs are dragged below 1,450rpm in thick, chewy crops – upping output to 766hp on the 9500, and 787hp on the 9600. The engine also meets Stage 5 emissions limits without the use of AdBlue, and the company reckons it is 10% better on fuel per harvested tonne.

Other updates to the pair of “wide-body” models include a longer spout with additional openings to ease servicing, a reinforced drivetrain and a beefed-up mainframe to handle the higher power output.

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The kernel processors are available with a standard sawtooth design on the Premium KP unit and the option of a new XCut format on the XStream KP, which features a spiral cut groove across the surface.

Both are available with a heavy-duty coating for increased durability.

The new choppers can also be specced with Deere’s full range of precision-farming systems. This includes the Harvest Lab near-infrared sensor to monitor yield, moisture and various constituents, as well as auto-steer and automatic trailer filling, Machine Sync – which controls the trailer speed and position to match that of the forager – and telematics via the Operations Center.