Claas marks major milestone in mower production

Front mowers play a key role in boosting the productivity and quality of forage harvesting, says Dirk Röhrich, global product team manager Greenline.

“Our mowers have evolved from a simple side-mounted mower to the front-rear mower combination with or without conditioner, that virtually doubled the area mown, while reducing the number of passes. The next step to a triple mower combination paved the way for enormous increases in quality and productivity.”

The current Claas Disco product range comprises of around forty different models with working widths from 2.2 to 10.7m.

Since 1996, Disco disc mowers have encompassed innovations like the Max Cut mower bed with its wave-shaped profile, the hydro-pneumatic Active Float suspension or vector folding. Starting out initially with a working width of 2.6m, Claas were quick to respond to growing demands, unveiling its first Disco butterfly mower in 1999.

Meanwhile, at Agritechnica 2005, it showcased the Cougar self-propelled mower with a working width of 14m – the widest and most powerful mower on the market at the time. In 2007, the vertical 90-degree transport folding previously used in rear mowers was superseded by the 120- degree transport position with the centre of gravity shifted inwards. Since 2021, diagonal vector folding in the Disco 4400 has enabled safe, legal road transport for working widths of 4.2m, an innovation which was extended in 2021 to the Disco 1010 with working widths of up to 9.9m.

For more than 15 years, Disco large-scale mowers have been available with Auto Swather swath grouping with cross conveyors, with 2023 seeing the launch of the flagship Disco 9700 RC Auto Swather with roller conditioner for highly productive biomass crops yielding over 60 t/ha.

Last year, Direct Swather technology combined with a tapered swathing auger has enabled swath grouping to be performed without a conditioner, making it an efficient option for lighter four-cylinder tractors.