Claas Balers Turn 30
Claas built its first variable chamber round baler - the Variant 100 - in 1996, so 2026 marks 30 years and the fifth generation of the Variant name, recently complemented by the new Cerex Series introduced in 2025.
The society has awarded AE50 Awards to two innovations from CLAAS – the Jaguar 1000 forage harvester series and the Orbis 10500 corn header.
Dennis Ogle for Claas of America said the awards confirm that CLAAS continues to “set standards in performance, efficiency, and intelligent machine design for the harvesting of forage crops”.
Both the Jaguar 1000 series and the Orbis 10500 were developed in close collaboration with farmers and contractors, says Ogle, with a focus on real productivity gains and ease of use, with a high degree of automation.
With four models, the Jaguar 1000 series offers engine outputs of up to 1110hp, complemented by the widest crop flow on the market, fully hydraulic pre-compression, homogeneous chopping quality and a 310mm diameter corn cracker for optimum grain conditioning. As part of the package, the 1000 Series also includes the choice of a newly developed, high-throughput pick-up header, or with the Orbis, a row independent unit.
The ASABE jury also highlighted the Orbis 10500 header for its contribution to increasing overall harvesting efficiency. The row-independent corn header with a working width of 10.50m - harvesting 14 rows with 75cm spacing - uses an independent variable drive of the knife and transport discs.
