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Krone's EasyCut B950 butterfly mower.
A new EasyCut B950 butterfly mower from German manufacturer Krone looks to have hit the mark with users.
The company has sold all its 2020 production and only one unit is destined for New Zealand.
Designed for high daily output, the rear-mounted units have shed conditioning elements in favour of auger-based mergers to allow swathes to be delivered in three modes. This can take the form of the output of the rear unit and a complementary front unit being merged into one, or individual swathes behind each unit, or no swath forming, instead laying grass at full width to promote quicker drying.
Each 3.6m mower unit is equipped with six discs and two drums, each fitted with two blades. Used with a front mounted unit they offer a 9.45 m cutting width with each pass.
Each mower unit is followed by a close-coupled, 45cm diameter, gear-driven merger element that can deliver a central swath up to 1.5 m wide. Individual mower elements are protected from impact damage by the company’s Safeguard protection system.
The DuoGrip hydraulic suspension system suspends the mowing units at their centre of gravity, with extra support from lateral control arms. The layout is said to offer good ground following and adaptability, with easy adjustment of ground pressure from the control box, used with an easily read pressure gauge.
Lift-out at the headland can be controlled in tandem or individually, with the latter function allowing easy cutting of short ground or irregular shaped paddocks.
The B 950 weighs slightly under 3 tonnes and needs 200hp.
Certainly a late starter in the self-propelled harvester arena, Krone has gone on to be a key player, with 2025 marking the 25th anniversary of presenting the results of its R&D programme, with a leap into high horsepower machines – the first BiG X with a claimed 540hp.
Anyone who has been round baling and released a completed bale on a slope will remember the feeling of dread as the bale gathers speed and rolls off down the hillside, hopefully to be stopped by the hedgerow or the paddock levelling out.
While widely known for its extensive agricultural machinery ranges, German company is also a major producer of trailers for the commercial road haulage industry in Europe.
Ashburton-based Carrfields has signed a deal with Kubota NZ for the retail distribution rights of Krone products in Canterbury, effective September 1.
Adding to its extensive range of harvesting attachments for its Big X self-propelled harvesters, Krone has introduced a new whole-crop header, said to offer outputs of around 20% more than the existing XDisc 620 unit.
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