Pöttinger: From grassland machinery to global innovator
Formed in 1871, Austrian agricultural machinery manufacturer Pottinger originally focused on producing grassland machinery for a little over a century.
First seen as an option in its linkage mounted rotary swathers, Pottinger has now released the Flowtast glide bar as an option for its TOP 842 C centre-delivery rake.
The rake offers a working width of 7.7 to 8.4 metres. Replacing the conventional jockey wheels, Flowtast creates a larger area of contact to improve load-bearing capacity on wet, peaty soils, it says.
Working in conjunction with a hydraulic cylinder to alleviates the weight of the TOP 842 C rotor unit, results in a low ground pressure of about 200kg, protects soil and the glide bar as well as wear and tear on the machine’s frame.
Pöttinger engineers tested various materials and selected a special plastic (PE 1000) for this application.
It says this synthetic material possesses an enormous resistance to wear and abrasion. Each glide bar consists of five individually exchangeable 15mm thick plates. To provide perfect ground tracking and tine guidance, the glide bar is installed close to the tines. It tracks the ground along the full raking length of the tine arc. The sickle shape bar also offers the best gliding properties during sideways movements.
The Floatast is wear and abrasion resistance with each bar consisting of five, individually exchangeable 15mm thick plates. To aid ground tracking and tine guidance, the glide bar is installed close to the tines, offering ground tracking along the full raking length of the tine arc. The sickle shape bar also offers the best gliding properties during sideways movements
First presented at Agritechnica 2019 in Hanover, Germany last year, the option is said to take over when wheeled assemblies reach their limits, for example, on wet, peaty soils with deep wheel marks, or when working with whole crop forage in fields where the sward does not provide full surface cover.
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.
Academic freedom is a privilege and it's put at risk when people abuse it.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…