The Austoft 8810 sugarcane harvester, whose heritage traces back to two brothers from Bundaberg in Queensland, has been named one of Brazil’s Machines of the Year for 2020-21.
The machine was named the winner in the sugarcane harvester category.
“This award is testament to the quality, efficiency, high performance and technology that underpins the Austoft 8810, the linchpin of so many Australian cane farming businesses,” Case IH Australia product manager for sugarcane harvesters Lawrence Polga said.
Bundaberg brothers Joseph and Harold Toft revolutionised Australia’s sugar cane industry with the development of the country’s first sugar cane harvester in the early 1940s.
They formed a partnership in 1947 to manufacture the harvesters and exported the first machines to South Africa in 1955.
The brothers started manufacturing the machines in Brazil, the global sugar powerhouse, in 1976.
LUMPS OF PRAISE: Case IH Australia product manager for sugarcane harvesters in Australia, Lawrence Polga (pictured with an 8010 machine), said the award for the 8810 model harvester was a testament to its quality, efficiency, high performance and technology.
Case IH bought their company in 1996 and in 2004 Austoft production moved from Bundaberg to Piracicaba, Brazil due to the rapid mass-scale mechanisation of the Brazilian sugar industry.
Case IH launched the 8810 and 8010 sugarcane harvesters in 2018.