Claas Lexion 586hp engine

Combine harvester (East Anglia) will farming to the heart of London by taking part in the Lord Mayor's Show.

The world's largest combine, a Claas Lexion, can harvest enough wheat in a single day to produce more than one million loaves of bread.

Lindsay Hargreaves walking alongside the 30-tonne combine in a three-mile procession through London next Saturday.

It is the first time that a combine harvester has taken part in the Lord Mayor's Procession

Lindsay Hargreaves, said: "We wanted to show the link between wheat and food, so what better way than to take a combine to the centre of London."

The official motto of the Worshipful Company of Farmers is "Give us our daily bread," so what more appropriate way of making the connection, he added.

It is also the first Claas combine, since the company started making combined harvesters exactly 70 years ago in Germany, to have a unique paint treatment. It was carried out by staff at Saxham, near Bury St Edmunds.

"We were asked if we could take a combine to London and we delighted to be asked," said Paul Moss, who has been involved in the detailed planning to take the Lexion and header to London.

The livery company, which was formally established more than half a century ago, is a generous supporter of educational projects for the farming industry.

Claas Lexion 586hp engine, can harvest more than 200 acres in a single day, and successfully achieved threshed more than 100 tonnes of wheat an hour with a nine-metre or 30ft header. It has an automatic, laser-guided steering system and cruise control, which might prove very handy in the narrows streets in the heart of London.

A total of 180 vehicles and 60 floats plus 21 marching bands and the giant figures of the city's guardians, Gog and Magog, will start after a two-minute silence to mark Armistice Day to proceed to the Royal Courts of Justice.

Source: edp24.co.uk