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Guest blog by student Will Creed.

Earlier this year, ten students from the Harper Adams Engineering Society embarked on a 3-day self-organised technical tour across Germany and Austria, focused on cutting-edge alpine and agricultural engineering.

A key highlight was the visit to Lindner Traktorenwerk, the Austrian manufacturer renowned for designing agricultural machinery tailored to steep gradients and extreme terrain. At Lindner’s Innovation Centre in Innsbruck, students explored the company’s dense, shallow-chassis layouts and hill-optimised hydrostatic drivetrains designed to enable safe, year-round operation in challenging alpine environments.

“The innovation we saw at Lindner was like nothing else. Every decision, whether in drivetrain layout or chassis geometry, was clearly made with terrain and user practicality in mind. It was inspiring to see engineering so purposefully applied.”
Thomas Morgan

The team also caught up with Lindner at Interalpin 2025, the world’s leading alpine technology exhibition. Students got hands-on with specialist alpine equipment from tracked vehicles to full-blown piste-groomers, and examined how tractors from BM, Fendt, Lindner, and Massey Ferguson are adapted for mountain-specific tasks. The event showcased how traction, advanced control systems, and optimised drivetrains are engineered to meet these demands.

Interalpin was a real eye-opener. Seeing how extreme terrain pushes engineering to its limits was something else. Even the agricultural kit here is next-level. You forget how much more there is to agricultural engineering beyond what we typically see in the UK. Over here, this kind of technology isn’t the exception; it’s the norm, and it’s what countless farmers rely on every day!

The trip concluded with a behind-the-scenes tour of Deutz-Fahr’s state-of-the-art production facility in Lauingen, Germany. This cutting-edge, continuous-flow factory produces all tractors over 130hp in the Deutz-Fahr line. A technical session with product specialist Thomas Reisendale provided deep insight into design choices at Deutz-Fahr, particularly their ‘market-leading’ stepless TTV transmission. At the end of the tour, each student had the chance to test these claims and demo the 6, 7, and 8 Series tractors on site — an unexpected and much-appreciated bonus.

Packed with factory tours, technical briefings, and real-world engineering case studies, the trip gave students a first-hand look at how engineering responds to altitude-driven challenges.

Supported by sponsorships and the Engineering Society, the trip exposed students of all years to a highly specialised sector — one that perhaps deserves more attention here in the UK.