In 1906, Bernhard Krone founded the Krone company as a forge in the small Emsland town of Spelle. The company is still family-owned today and has grown into one of the largest agricultural machinery manufacturers in Germany. While the company initially had a broad base and produced machines ranging from grazing troughs to fertilizer spreaders, Krone began to focus on grassland technology in the 1990s. Today, the company's flagships are the BiG M large-scale mower and the BiG X forage harvester. However, Krone's product catalog also includes balers, rakes, tedders and production technology.
Krone specializes primarily in the sale of machines for basic forage harvesting, i.e. for harvesting hay, maize and straw. Its machine catalog therefore includes classic machines for grassland such as various mowers, rakes, tedders and balers, as well as various wagons for transport. The company's two flagships are particularly impressive: the Big M, a high-performance sports mower conditioner with a working width of 9.90 m, and the Big X, currently the most powerful forage harvester in the world.
But Krone can do more than just big: with the Highland series, the company is specifically targeting farmers on steep slopes who rely on more compact machines for forage harvesting. With the Premos pellet press, the company also offers an innovative variant for the production of structured pellets.
With over 200 models developed, Krone offers the full range for harvesting forage. Thanks to its high degree of specialization in this particular area of agriculture, Krone not only covers machines for almost every field of application, from alpine highlands to large machines for contractors, but also represents machines for the production of high-quality forage. Krone machines impress with their high acreage output and long service life combined with high-quality harvesting results.
Innovation is another important pillar of the Bernard Krone agricultural machinery factory. In addition to innovative machines such as the first mobile pellet press Premos 5000 (2015) or the concept study for an autonomous process engineering unit, the company attaches great importance to digitalization. Numerous digital solutions for machine operation and data management enable precise and efficient farming. Thanks to TIM (Tractor Implement System), for example, implements can control the tractor, thus reducing machine downtime and increasing productivity. With Krone SmartConnect and SmartControl, on the other hand, farmers and contractors can record and send machine data in real time - significantly minimizing the time and effort required for office work.
Krone describes itself as specialists in forage and lives up to this name: its wide range of machines for harvesting green forage ensures that Krone machines can be used in all areas of agriculture. Contractors are particularly interested in the large machines such as the BiG X or the BiG M with a high area output. With its Highland series, Krone also offers lighter, smaller machines that are ideal for farming on slopes.