On 16 August 1968, August Claas, the founder of Claas, personally presented a new Senator combine to Scottish farmer John Steven. It marked a major milestone for Claas, which claims to have had doubled its total combine production just six years after celebrating the 100,000th Claas combine, establishing itself among the world's leading combine manufacturers. After decades of service in Scotland, the veteran machine returned to the Claas UK headquarters in Saxham in 2025.
There, the Claas Technical Service team restored and brought the Senator back to life. Sourcing parts from the Claas World Parts centre at Hamm in Germany, the machine was restored to full working order while preserving its original panel condition. When it was launched, the new Senator featured modern styling, the new Claas corporate identity and the introduction of the iconic Seed Green livery. This marked the beginning of a new era for Claas.
On 24 July 2026, the historic combine was put to work in Suffolk, where it harvested around 20 tonnes of wheat in five hours. While the machine was harvesting, its progress was being tracked live by the Digital team via Claas connect.
It was then put to work again on 31 July at Little Saxham which is just behind the Claas UK headquarters. This is still farmed by the Mann family and served as the original base when Bill Mann first started importing Claas machinery to the UK in the 1930’s. Here, three generations of Claas combines worked side by side in the same field: a 1953 Claas SF, the historic Senator and a modern Trion 720. While the SF achieved a throughput of around four tonnes per hour, today's Trion delivers ten times that capacity at around 40 tonnes per hour.
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