Here comes the BaleTrain - raking, baling in one pass
We've all heard of road trains, soul train and gravy trains, but German machinery manufacturer Krone has come up with a novel word for the agricultural sector.
Described as a world first for a disc mower, the maximum working width of the EasyCut F400CV Fold is 4.04, said to be suitable to complement mounted/trailed rear mower or a butterfly combination set-up.
The novel layout sees a hydraulic slewing gearbox folding the two outer discs into the space between the tractor wheels to reduce the width of the mower below 3m for transport. The driveline remains connected and the discs stay in the cutting position. In the paddock, the discs fold back to the working position, are hydraulically locked and the side guards are lowered.
It is easily folded from the tractor seat and the wider working width eliminates the risk of the tractor running on previously cut grass, but also provides a large degree of overlap with rearmounted mowers, so eliminates uncut strips of grass, particularly on turns or curves.
In other Krone news, the Krone EasyCut TC Connect is a new development aimed at broadacre Australian and American farms, allowing two trailed mowers to be coupled to the same tractor, knocking down 13.08m of crop in a single pass.
It is developed for use with the company’s EasyCut TC 400 and TC 500. When the TC 400 is matched to the company’s F320 CV/CR front mower, the working width of the combination is 10.3m. This increases to 10.7m with a F360 CV/CR and 11.1m with the F400 CV Fold.
Suitable for Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF), the cutting width of the EasyCut TC500/F 320 CV/ CR is 12.2m. Wider widths are also available, namely 12.6m with an F 360 CV/ CR and 13.08m (40cm overlap each side) with an F 400 CV Fold.
It is also said to be particularly beneficial in sensitive crops such as alfalfa.
Krone says Australian and American farmers often operate the front mounted EasyCut F 400 CV Fold together with two EasyCut TC 400 rear mowers, producing three identical swaths for uniform wilting. Each model can also operate as a solo machine.
