Gleaming Seed Green mowers, tedders, swathers and front attachments for forage harvesters fresh off the assembly line are lined up in the loading bay in front of the production halls, ready for transportation to the customers. The most southerly CLAAS site in Germany, Bad Saulgau is the Forage Harvesting Centre of Excellence. Just about every conceivable forage harvesting machine is made here – apart from the self-propelled ones.

"We produce 200 different product types," says Simon Bohner from Forage Harvesting Product Marketing. And the products are becoming larger, more complex and more intelligent. The MAX CUT, DISCO, VOLTO, LINER, front attachments and forage harvesting equipment for the self-propelled JAGUAR – they're all made in Saulgau."

The factory: friendly, informal and hands-on

Although the factory is large, employing over 800 people on a 180,000 m2 site, the atmosphere is friendly, informal – and hands-on. "Workers in Preproduction process 24,000 km of welding rod alone each year, enough to go halfway round the world," explains Simon Bohner. Incoming Goods receives around 80 truckloads of material and parts a day, which all have to be checked in Quality Assurance before processing.

"Then it's all hands on deck," says Sylvia Stumpp from Quality Assurance. "I check the incoming goods for deficiencies – and find a solution if necessary," she explains. "It's not unusual for me to make up to 20 calls a day to suppliers to source the right replacement part in the customary high quality," she says with a grin. "Basically, my job is to make sure that no line comes to a standstill," is how Sylvia Stumpp sums up her role. It's all systems go at the paintshop too: "Each year some 800,000 individual parts are painted in the unmistakable CLAAS colours," explains Simon Bohner.

Long tradition of agricultural machinery

The factory in Baden-Württemberg can look back on more than 100 years of agricultural machinery production: CLAAS Saulgau was officially launched in 1969 with the acquisition of Bautz, a well-known manufacturer of harvesting machines. Bautz itself, however, was
founded in around 1900 and soon gained a reputation as a pioneer in agricultural machinery construction.

Bad Saulgau is also the birthplace of one of the best-known CLAAS products: the JAGUAR forage harvester. The Group arrived at the name in a rather roundabout way: in 1970 CLAAS acquired another company in Göppingen; Speiser specialised in forage harvesting equipment with cylinders and built trailed forage harvesters marketed under the name JAGUAR. Production was transferred from Göppingen to Saulgau, where CLAAS developed the first self-propelled forage harvesters.

Final assembly of the forage harvesters now takes place at the headquarters in Harsewinkel. "But the beating heart of the JAGUAR, the chopping assembly, is still made in Bad Saulgau. And that makes us very proud," stresses Simon Bohner.