Kuhn unveils 14.5m mower for high HP harvesters
With most forage harvester manufacturers offering machines touching 1000hp, the logistics puzzle has always been ‘dropping” grass and pulling into a swath big enough to feed the “beast”.
Purpose-made swathers are coming to the fore.
Kuhn NZ has this year been showing its Merge Maxx 950 belt merger that uses twin pick-ups and belt conveyors to form the required swath.
And now the Dutch company Ploeger, with an eye on contractors, has developed a self-propelled swather, the CM4240 Merger, due for launching at Agritechnica in November.
It will have a working width adjustable between 10 and 12m, and pick-up technology from Reiter, well known in Europe for its front- and rear-mounted mergers/swath formers.
Several Ploeger designs are seen in the machines, including a side-shift function that allows push-button changes from central to side-delivery configurations.
Ploeger says the front positioning of the pick-up heads helps provide exceptional visibility and prevents the machine having to run on the crop, so avoiding crop contamination.
Power is delivered by a 260hp FPT, 6-cylinder engine said to be capable of pushing the machine to operating speeds of up to 20km/h.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
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