Case IH and New Holland, global agriculture brands of CNH, have been recognized for their excellence at the 2026 Farm Machine of the Year awards.
This awards series is presented every two years during Agritechnica in Hanover, Germany.
“We are honored to see our Case IH and New Holland brands recognized by the Farm Machine of the Year jury,” says Gerrit Marx, chief executive officer at CNH. “As we showcased at our latest Tech Day here at Agritechnica, we continue to invest in crop cycle innovations that drive customer efficiency, profitability, and sustainability.”
The Case IH Optum 440 took home the Upper Medium Size Tractor category win. This new model leads a line-up of new tractors that extend the Optum range into the 360–435 horsepower segment. They combine a long wheelbase with a compact design, making them suitable for everything from road transport to heavy fieldwork. They feature powerful 8.7-litre engines, a new 60-kph compatible high-speed continuously variable CVXDrive transmission, improved braking, and optional centralized tire inflation control. Built-in precision tech includes telematics, ISOBUS, TIM – where an implement can control the tractor – and the Case IH FieldOps digital platform for intelligent fleet and data management.
The New Holland CX 8.90 PLMi won the Combine Harvester category. The model comes with advanced intelligence technology and connectivity. Our Connectivity Included feature enables real-time data transfer and monitoring via the FieldOps digital platform. The range benefits from improved GPS accuracy, and IntelliField tech, which enables real-time data sharing between machines, boosting efficiency for large-scale operations. These innovations simplify harvesting and enhance productivity for farmers.
The New Holland W170D Forage Power won the Material Handling category. This wheel loader is CNH’s first purpose-built machine for agriculture tasks such as silage clamping and biomass handling. With a 255 horsepower, 6.7-litre engine, it offers a significant power boost over the standard W170D.
The New Holland ForageCam won in the Smart Farming & Robotics category. This technology employs camera sensors and AI to tailor kernel processing for livestock feed, improving meat and milk nutrition. It uses a spout-mounted camera to continuously analyse crop flow images and detects kernel fragments to assess processing efficacy by assigning a Kernel Processing Score. This score is set by the farmer to tailor their desired processing quality depending on livestock type.
The system then makes active machine adjustments by automatically modifying processing parameters to achieve the desired forage quality. This continuous, in-cab monitoring and adjustment automation capability represents a significant step forward in this segment. The ForageCam was also recently awarded a Silver Agritechnica Innovation Awards win.
Images: CNH
