Part 1 covered Inside the Build: The First Hillco-Equipped X9.
Part 2 moves into the field, where real acres, real terrain, and real crop conditions put the Hillside X9 prototype to the test, thoroughly and methodically.
The 2025 testing season was a whirlwind. The team moved across multiple regions and operating conditions, beginning in steep terrain near Culdesac, Idaho with Schwartz Brothers Farms, continuing across the prairie ground of Craigmont, Nezperce, and Cottonwood, and then into the steep terrain of the Palouse with Pape Machinery in Colfax, Washington. From there, the unit headed to the Midwest for an entirely different crop environment.
Each stop added another layer of testing and another set of real-world insights.
Hillco kicked-off field testing of the Hillside X9 with Schwartz Brothers Farms near Culdesac, where feedback comes quickly and performance becomes obvious in a hurry.
This first phase focused on the fundamentals:
• dialing in real-world operation and system consistency
• evaluating how the system handled long harvest days
• capturing practical feedback that only comes when a machine is working in the field
• Winter wheat
• Spring wheat
• Canola
From Culdesac, the Hillco X9 moved onto prairie ground around Craigmont, Nezperce, and Cottonwood. Conditions can shift quickly in this region, making it an ideal environment to push the prototype across a broader range of terrain.
This phase helped validate what matters most for a hillside system: repeatable, dependable performance across varying ground conditions.
Next came the Palouse.
Working with Pape Machinery in Colfax, the Hillside X9 prototype entered some of the steepest and most demanding ground in the United States. These hills provided critical proving ground for evaluating system performance in sustained hillside harvesting conditions.
Crop Note: Crop timing during this portion of testing remained similar to the earlier Idaho fields, with primary crops of wheat and canola.
After the Palouse trials wrapped up, the unit moved east to AgriVision in the Midwest introducing an entirely new set of operating conditions and crop types.
• Corn
• Soybeans
The Midwest leg added an important contrast. Crop flow, field patterns, and harvest rhythms of corn and soybeans differ significantly from small-grain operations. Running the Hillside X9 in this environment provided another strong check on the system’s versatility and real-world performance.
