New Holland is celebrating the 120th anniversary of its “Zedelgem Global Centre of Harvesting Excellence” in Belgium. This facility is the company’s strategic hub for the development and production of combine harvesters, forage harvesters and balers exported worldwide.
For 120 years, every generation of harvesting equipment built in Zedelgem has answered the challenges of its time: increasing productivity, improving grain quality and operator comfort. Today, New Holland keeps doing so by investing in advanced manufacturing, automation and next-generation harvesting technologies, to deliver advanced harvesting machinery. Today’s flagship CR11 Twin Rotor combines increase productivity, reduce grain loses to near zero.
120 years of harvesting innovation
The Zedelgem facility traces its roots to 1906, when Leon Claeys founded an engineering business on the site, and started to build threshing machines, beginning a harvest equipment legacy that endures today. In 1952, Claeys launched the MZ, Europe’s first self-propelled combine harvester, and 12 years later the Claeys business was purchased by Sperry Rand, the then owner of New Holland. In 1991, New Holland came under Fiat ownership, and the current New Holland brand was formed.
Today, the Zedelgem facility is New Holland’s Global Centre of Excellence for Harvesting Technology, and its heritage is at the heart of its continued strength in harvesting expertise and innovation. Across 36 hectares, the Zedelgem team of 3,000 employees design, test, manufacture and market CX conventional, CH hybrid and CR Twin Rotor combines, FR Forage Cruiser self-propelled forage harvesters and the New Holland BigBaler range. The site has a strategic role within New Holland’s focus on the global harvest needs of agriculture, exporting to some 130 countries.
Zedelgem is also the global production site for high capacity combines, the New Holland CR10 and CR11 Twin Rotor flagship models, with up to 775hp and 20,000 liters’ grain tank capacity, plus electronic monitoring and connectivity that incorporate the very latest in AI and automation technology to maximize performance and efficiency and deliver outstand productivity.
Next-generation harvesting technology
Today in Zedelgem, New Holland develops harvest technologies that blend mechanical performance with digital intelligence. This digital technology is becoming increasingly important in helping farmers maximize productivity and efficiency. New Holland integrates advanced connectivity, machine monitoring, automation and data-driven intelligence into its harvesting equipment, enabling operators to optimize machine performance, reduce downtime, improve decision-making and manage operations more effectively across the season.
A €150m five-year investment to expand the site’s R&D and production capabilities began with the complete redesign of the assembly line and logistics area to support production of CR10/11 combine harvesters, an example of this technology.
New automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) have enhanced manufacturing flexibility and efficiency, enabling machines to be configured to customers’ specific requirements. These developments allow the plant to manage increasingly complex products while responding more precisely to individual customer needs.
An advanced virtual engineering environment also enables new machine concepts and solutions to be evaluated before physical implementation. In this immersive setting, engineers can assess functionality, ergonomics and user interaction, while involving customers early in the development process to gather feedback and validate solutions.
The scale and complexity of Zedelgem’s operations are reflected in the figures. Each year, the plant processes 157,000 tons of steel to manufacture New Holland combines, forage harvesters and BigBalers. Behind every machine are thousands of components, specialist skills and advanced technologies: a CR11 combine alone comprises approximately 11,000 individual components, incorporates 75 newly patented technologies and requires around 500 production hours to build.
New Holland Zedelgem historic facilities
New Holland Zedelgem facilities, 2026
