With 4,096 tons of whole-plant silage harvested in 12 hours, the new Claas Jaguar 1200 has set a new official world record for forage chopping. In addition to harvesting, its fuel consumption of just 0.49 liters per ton is also a record
In early 2025, three young Americans—agricultural entrepreneur Todd Poling of P.M.S. Harvesting, Claas dealer Ty Rankin, and Matt Jaynes, Jaguar product manager at Claas of America—asked themselves a seemingly simple question: what is the production capacity of the new Jaguar 1200, the most powerful Jaguar ever with a maximum output of 1,110 hp?
Since no one could answer the question, and until then it had not been possible to accurately measure the potential of the flagship Jaguar in the field over the course of an entire workday, the decision was: let’s test it!
A project was born that brooked no delays and ultimately demonstrated impressively just how significant the leap in forage harvester performance had been since 2001.
At the time, Claas set an official world record with the Jaguar 900, setting the standard of 1,891 tons of output in 12 hours. Now, 24 years later, this record not only needed to be broken, but doubled.
The new Jaguar 1200 offers the ideal conditions to achieve this goal: a new pick-up with independent, variable drive for the pick-up and conveyor auger. The Jaguar features new hydraulic precompression, a wider crop flow with a 910 mm wide V-Flex cutting drum, an efficient, high-torque MAN twelve-cylinder engine with Dynamic Power system, Cemos Auto Performance driver assistance, maximum driving comfort with an extremely quiet cab with joystick control and a swiveling driver’s seat – and maximum reliability.
From idea to world record
There wasn’t much time to realize the idea. Already on June 2, 2025, in the midst of tornado season and before the official unveiling of the new Jaguar 1000 series, the start was given on a sprinkler-irrigated cornfield near the Texas town of Dalhart.
Abundant yields from dense swaths, tough wheat stalks as a challenging forage for pickups and crop flow, and endless circular trajectories: a logistical challenge. To ensure sufficient transport capacity on site, no fewer than 30 tractor-trailers and a team of 39 people were available. A Guinness adjudicator was also present, closely monitoring and documenting the progress of the world record attempt.
It was also clear that, to ensure the Jaguar 1200 did not run out of crop, it was necessary to use the highest-performance mower with swath grouper on the market.
The Disco 9700 RC Auto Swather, with a dual-drive steel roller conditioner, was used with an Axion 960, with a maximum power of 450 hp. In the trench, a Xerion 12.590 Trac with an 18-foot/5.5-meter-wide grouser blade was ready to optimally distribute and compact the incoming crop.
The first passes were started at 8 a.m. At the wheel of the JAGUAR 1200: Product Manager Matt Jaynes himself, one of the few at Claas of America with Jaguar DNA in his blood. The chop length was set to 17 mm, the Cemos Auto Performance and Auto Fill assistance systems were activated, and the Pilot Cemis 1200 GPS guidance system was set to “Center Pivot Mode.” Then it was time to go.
12 hours of top-level performance
The first hectares were harvested at an impressive speed, and with an average fill time of 2:42 minutes per trailer, Matt Jaynes and his Jaguar 1200 kept the trucks on tenterhooks. Ultimately, 266 truckloads left the field and were received, distributed, and compacted by the Xerion 12.590 Trac at the trench.
Meanwhile, tension mounted as dark clouds gathered on the horizon, heralding storm and rain. But luck was on the side of the world-record group: the wind picked up, but no rain. And so, after 12 hours, interrupted only by a few sharpening cycles of the blades and a brief refueling stop, at 8:00 PM sharp local time, the all-clear was given.
The result was impressive: the 2001 Jaguar 900 more than doubled its world record, weighing 4,096 tonnes. Its fuel consumption of just 0.49 litres per tonne was also record-breaking.
However, “only” the harvesting performance makes it into the Guinness Book of Records. “The world record demonstrates that it’s not just the power that counts in a forage harvester, but also an optimized overall concept, from the header to the precompression and cutting drum, all the way to the traction control and driver assistance systems,” says Dominik Grothe, Claas Senior Vice President Self-Propelled Forage Harvesters.
Continuous monitoring via CLAAS connect; precise measurement with the Nutrimeter
Performance and process data were continuously monitored and documented in Claas connect throughout the 12 hours of operation.
The new Nutrimeter, with its high measurement accuracy, provided valuable support: with a measured moisture content of 59.4%, the ISOBUS-compatible NIR sensor almost exactly matched the moisture measurements taken on the scale by P.M.S. Harvesting, which were 60%.
In addition to moisture content or dry matter and crude fiber percentage, the Nutrimeter can also determine crude ash content and substances such as crude protein, starch (corn yield), and sugar.
Title: Claas, record-breaking Jaguar 1200
Source: Claas
