A cut above the rest?

摘要

Centre-pivot mowers can be more efficient without reducing silage quality. Any new machinery development that offers a 15 percent increase in out-put for a similar level of input must be of interest to the industry. And that is why the arrival in the UK of a small number of centre-pivot mower conditioners from the market leader in this sector in the spring of 2000 created such a clamour of interest. A year later, and with several thousand hectares of experience to back up the promise and expectation, users of Kuhn Farm Machinery's new FC 303 GC machines can make comparisons with the side-pull equivalents that they used previously. Centre-pivot machines have been available, but only in the form of the 4.0m and 5.0m Alterna models. The development of a 3.0m trailed machine (which is also available in 3.5m format) opens up this technology to what has become the largest sector of the UK mower conditioner market. One of the two biggest users of the handful of machines was contractor, Stephen Eggleston, from near Loughborough, Leicestershire who cuts around 1,000ha in a season, working in a variety of conditions and mowing for clamp silage as well as big bales.