Krone Group Earnings Drop Despite Stable Farm Machinery Sales
While turnover was back slightly at €2.3 billion in 2024/2025 (previous year €2.4 billion), the German Krone Group saw earnings fall from €107 million to €40.1 million.
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.
In advance of the Budget, Finance Minister Nicola Willis put a clear damper on expectations and delivered accordingly.
Farmers should be cautiously optimistic as the 2026/27 season kicks off, says DairyNZ.
RaboResearch senior analyst Emma Higgins expects the 2026/27 dairy season to be another profitable one.
The new dairy season is kicking off with plenty of risks to the forecast farmgate price, both upside and downside, says ANZ agricultural economist Matt Dilly.
A potential showdown between the top two Federated Farmers leaders looms at the farmer lobby's annual meeting later this month.
FarmIQ Systems has developed a free land management app to help remove barriers to New Zealand farmers and growers adopting digital tools.
OPINION: Reckless action by Greenpeace in 2024 forced Fonterra to shut down a drying plant for four hours, costing the co-op…
OPINION: The global crusade against fossil fuel is gaining momentum in some regions.