New products feature New haying equipment, compiled by Ron Lyseng of the Winnipeg bureau and based on company information
As high grain prices reduce hayland, forage producers are looking for better equipment to optimize the remaining land.
Implement manufacturers in North America and Europe are meeting that demand with new, more efficient mower-conditioners.
Some of the top contenders come from John Deere, Agco and New Holland, which have recently attached the latest in cutting edge European forage technology to their latest tractor lines.
Claas and Krone’s wide-mowing self-propelled machines have high horsepower, are time efficient and have automated platforms.
This triple puts a 131 front-mount mower-conditioner together with a model 388 twin rear-mount mower-conditioner. The combination of three tractor-mount mowers cuts a swath of 28 feet, eight inches per pass.
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“This mo-co combination allows the operator to cut and condition up to 40 acres of hay per hour depending on field conditions,” Jeremy Unruh, John Deere’s baling and mowing product manager, said in a news release.
The unit requires a tractor with greater than 190 rear horsepower, a front hitch and 1,000 r.p.m. power take-off. The standard configuration uses a 1 3/8-inch front p.t.o., which can be adapted to 1 3/4 inch. The rear has a 1 3/4 inch p.t.o. connection.
Quik-Coupler adapting parts are standard with each 388 rear-mounted mower-conditioner for easier attachment to tractors with Category 3 or Category 4N/3 three-point hitch. It has a transport width of 10 feet, two inches in the fold-up position.
“These units are a great fit with the new John Deere 7R tractors as well as the 7030 and 8R tractors with front hitch and p.t.o.,” said Unruh.
“It allows producers to increase the utilization of their large row-crop tractor and improve the productivity of their haying operations, especially when integrated with an AutoTrac guidance system.”
The Massey Hesston DM1300 Series Butterfly Mower System couples a DM 1340 front-mount mower to a pair of DM 1398 rear-mount mowers.
The Butterfly attaches to a high-horsepower tractor, providing a cut up to 30 feet wide. The disc mower unit can flex and adjust to match ground contours without gouging.
The system is designed to gently cut and condition forage using a spring-tine rotor and four-way adjustable conditioning comb to create a loose, well-aerated swath.
The tine conditioner gently removes the crop’s wax coat without crushing stems. This helps retain valuable nutrients for higher-quality forage.
All three DM Butterfly mowers feature a low profile, lightweight compact modular angle cutterbar.
The cutterbar uses a double-bevel gear design to provide even power transfer to all of the discs. Cutting height can be adjusted between 1.5 and 2.8 inches with a central hand crank.
Standard, low profile rock guards and a built-in skid plate add structural support and help shield the cutterbar from unnecessary damage.
The front-mount DM1340 is built on an overhead frame that allows a large range of movement. It has a 17-inch headland lift and 26 inches of total up and down tilt. This minimizes the impact of surface unevenness and prevents the mower from gouging into the ground.
An integrated hydraulic cylinder, in combination with the front hydraulics, provides a 22-inch vertical travel range. The DM1340 mower unit also features a hydraulic side-shift capable of moving eight inches side-to-side to help cut around corners.
The rear model DM1398 mower units are mounted at the tractor’s centre of gravity, allowing them to freely hug the contours of the terrain while reducing the load placed on the tractor lift arms.
The mowers feature a lift system that helps improve cutting quality. It allows the mower to adapt to ground contours independent of the ground profile and cutterbar setup, so the cutterbar glides into dips and depressions.
These rear-mounted mowers have an impact swing-away protection system to prevent damage caused by objects encountered in the field. Each mower unit can independently swerve back and up around the slanting axle when striking an obstacle, protecting the drive shafts from damage. Once the obstruction has passed, the mower will return to its working position under its own weight. Stopping or reversing is not necessary.
Because the mowers are mounted on the tractor with a low centre of gravity, they can be transported smoothly. To conserve space in the machine shed, the mower can be parked in its upright transport position.
New Holland’s new MegaCutter mounted triple disc mower-conditioner can cut up to 43 acres per hour in good conditions. It cuts a triple-wide swath that nearly doubles the width of a traditional 16-foot self-propelled mower-conditioner or windrower.
The Megacutter is a three-machine cutting system. The MegaCutter 512 front-mounted disc mower-conditioner has a cutting width of 11 feet, five inches. The twin MegaCutter 530 rear-mounted disc mower-conditioner brings the total cutting width up to 29 feet six inches with each pass.
The V-tine flail conditioning system provides a range of conditioning intensities for a variety of crops, from delicate legumes to the most robust grass hays.
“The Megacutter offers maximum efficiency and versatility for large livestock operations and custom harvesters. Not only can producers cut more hay in less time, they can also take advantage of peak drying conditions during the day,” Mike Cornman, the company’s dairy and livestock segment manager, said in a news release.
He said the system is a good fit for the T7 or T8 row crop tractors.
The MegaCutter 512 front-mounted disc mower-conditioner has an 11 foot five inch cutting width, clearing a path 12 percent wider than typical 10 foot front mowers.
The wider cutting width also provides extra mower overlap with the MegaCutter 530 twin rear-mounted disc mower-conditioner, eliminating the need for complicated side shift mechanisms.
The balanced suspension system on the twin rear-mounted mower-conditioner adapts to changing field contours independently of the tractor. This helps it maintain an even flotation pressure, ensuring a clean cut.
A non-stop safety breakaway mechanism allows each mowing head to swing rearward independently and lift to clear obstructions to avoid potential damage. It automatically resumes the working position.
The self propelled Claas Cougar takes the concept of a triple head mower-conditioner to a new level by adding two extra cutting heads that bring swath width up to 46 feet and field performance up to 50 acres per hour.
Powered by a 438 h.p. Daimler Chrysler diesel, the Cougar proportions power so all five cutting heads have complete individual control and the four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering systems have all the force they need to manage the drive and processing mechanisms. Four wheel steering ensures a tight radius in the headlands.
The wide swath is designed for big fields, but individual head control makes the Cougar suitable for cutting small tight fields and finishing up remaining narrow strips in big fields and irregular fields. The operator can mow with as many heads as he needs and which ones he needs, from one mower to all five mowers.
The telescopic technology employed throughout the Cougar lets all five heads fold up into an 11 foot transport width at the push of a button.
Reliability is factored into the Cougar with ground knife cutting of spring steel. The depth of the cutterbar housing and small size of the service opening creates a rigid structure that keeps shafts and bearings in proper alignment.
To protect the cutterbar mechanism, the Safetylynk device has a defined shear point that is above the satellite pinion gears. This protects subsequent damage to the gears. A bolt in the pinion shaft holds the cutting blade in place so it cannot create further damage.
The Safetylynk is designed so the pinion gear-bearing or the entire module can be replaced quickly.
The unique twin telescopic outriggers are made of high-tensile, elastic, fine-grained structural steel. The alloy makes them strong yet light.
The self-propelled Krone Big M 400 boasts a favourable weight distribution at 60 percent front and 40 percent rear, made possible by the mid-mounting points of the two side mower-conditioner units.
The Big M 400 works at 37.5 acres per hour and can travel 26 m.p.h. between fields. It has a constantly variable transmission, with radial piston motors on all four drive wheels. This eliminates mechanical drivelines, low-slung differentials and U-joints.
The Big M 400 has a long wheelbase that provides a smoother ride with more uniform cutting than short wheelbase machines. Even though the wheelbase is long, the 53 degree steering angle allows for tight turns in the headlands. It folds up to 10 feet wide for transport.
The 401 h.p. Mercedes diesel is expected to generate a lot of heat at maximum power, so the Big M 400 is equipped with a reversible Cleanfix fan to automatically keep the radiators free from debris.
Power flows from the engine directly to the transfer box, which proportions flow to the three individual mowers. Poly four-groove V-belts transmit power to the side mowers, which are each suspended by a massive coil spring in their centre of gravity. As a result, each have the best possible flotation to follow the contour of the field.
Krone offers three conditioners for different conditions to remove the wax skin so that moisture evaporates faster.
They include the CV V-steel tine conditioner and the CRi roller conditioner, with either two-profiled polyurethane rollers or steel rollers.
