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CLAAS new mower range uses Max Cut mower beds and Active Float suspension technology and a range of optional conditioning and autoswathing functions.
Claas has closed the gap in the DISCO 9200/9300 and the DISCO 1100 wide mower ranges, with the arrival of the new 9700 range triple set up.
Each uses Max Cut mower beds and Active Float suspension technology and a range of optional conditioning and auto-swathing functions.
With a variable working width of 8.8 to 9.5 metres, the new range is offered in five variants: the Disco 9700 Comfort, 9700 C Business (tine conditioner), 9700 RC Business (roller conditioner), 9700 C Auto Swather (tine conditioner and swath grouping) and 9700 RC Auto Swather (roller conditioner and swath grouping).
The mowers feature swinging arms that can be hydraulically extended outwards by 30cm and retracted by 5cm, allowing the working width to adjusted on-the-go by up to 70cm. This allows maximum overlaps on headlands to avoid strips or maximum working width when mowing in parallel lands.
Mower units are driven by new triple telescopic drive shafts with toughened large-diameter steel profiles that enable the wide adjustment range of the mower arms. A new, higher capacity K-90 friction clutch is bolted directly to the universal joint shaft, for quick and easy servicing.
On the Comfort model, the Active Float ground pressure control, swing arm travel and protective cover folding are controlled via ISOBUS and load-sensing, while the arms are lifted and lowered by operation of the hydraulic spool valves, allowing integration of the lifting and lowering functions into the tractor’s headland management system.
Business spec machines see all functions controlled using a continuous load-sensing hydraulic system via the ISOBUS terminal, function keys or the tractor’s headland management system.
RC models feature two counter-rotating polyurethane rollers that are both actively driven and synchronised for maximum throughput and processing quality, extending fully across the width of the mower bed to gently crush the harvested crop and optimise crop flow. RC models are specifically developed for gently processing large volumes of lucerne, forage crops and whole-crop silage.
AutoSwather models incorporate two newly-designed 1100mm wide Kevlar-reinforced conveyor belts that consolidate harvested crop from the left and right hand mowers into a single, perfectly-shaped swath, ready for processing by a silage harvester, with a capacity to handle yields of up to 60 t/ha.
Each belt can be independently disengaged and folded away if swath grouping is not required. Additionally, one or both units can be folded hydraulically when using the ‘19 to 12’ method that consolidates 19m of material into 12m for the next pass with a 12.7m wide quad-rotor swather.
In lighter crops, the Max Cut mower beds can be operated at a reduced 850rpm PTO speed, helping to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%, while new, optional wear skids provide an increased cutting height of 15mm, helping to reduce the amount of crude ash contamination introduced into the swath and promoting faster pasture regrowth.
Max Cut mower beds also incorporate Class’ rapid blade-change system, that sees the caps and mower blades of the clockwise and anti-clockwise rotating mower discs painted black and red, respectively, meaning replacement blades can be immediately assigned to the appropriate mower discs. This is complemented by a new blade box divided into three compartments for red and black replacements and used blades.
The Active Float system regularly and automatically continually adjusts the ground pressure, ensuring the mowers adapt perfectly to ground contours. Tried and tested for almost two decades, the contact pressure can be independently adjusted on either side for mowing borders and slopes, with a display in the terminal or via two gauges on the headstock.
An innovative hitch frame with angled arms ensures optimum centre of gravity during operation.
Following the €1.6 million investment in a prototype workshop in early 2025, Claas has invested an additional €3.3 million at its Metz-Woippy baler production plant to increase production capacity.
After its flagship 1200 model set a Guiness World Record in forage harvesting, mopping up 4096 tonnes of whole crop silage in 12 hours, Claas has picked up a brace of awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ASABE).
Last month's Agritechnica event led to a wide group of manufacturers celebrating successes when the 2026 Tractor of the Year Competition winners, selected by a panel of European journalists, were announced in Hanover Germany.
The recently released Claas Jaguar 1000 Series has seen its flagship 1200 set a new official Guiness World Record in forage harvesting, harvesting 4096 tonnes of whole crop silage in 12 hours, alongside an efficiency record of just 0.49 litres of fuel consumption per tonne of silage harvested.
Innovation awards at international agricultural events are always on the wishlist of manufacturers.
Despite near universal optimism in the rural sector, a panel of New Zealand’s leading food and agri minds caution that the sector must be intentional about its future path.
The panel say this is needed if the sector is to successfully
navigate the social, economic, environmental and technological forces impacting its operating environment.
Their views form part of the latest version of Rabobank’s annual white paper ‘Succession 2050 – gearing up for New Zealand’s food and agri future’.
The white paper focuses on the topic of succession at an industry level.
In addition to Rabobank’s own insights, the paper brings together a selection of 14 leading New Zealand and international food and agri experts – including trade negotiators, economists, systems analysts, scientists and technologists along with sectoral experts in sustainability, the future of fibre and Māori enterprise – to share their perspectives on what the New Zealand food and agri sector could look like in 2050 and what needs to change to achieve that vision.
Launching the new paper at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Auckland today, Rabobank New Zealand CEO Todd Charteris said the experts who contributed to the white paper had identified plenty of reasons for New Zealand to be confident about its food and agri future.
“To name just a few, we’re a major food producer in a food-hungry world that’s on track to need 56% more food by 2050,” he said.
“Our food and fibre exports are also growing strongly and are forecast to hit $64.3 billion for the year to June 2026, while our government has signalled its plans to help double overall New Zealand exports by 2034.”
While there were many reasons for optimism, Charteris said, the expert contributors had also noted a host of changes taking place across the global food and agri operating environment that would need to be navigated for the industry to achieve ongoing success in the decades ahead.
“A number of key changes shaping the future of the sector came through in the perspectives of the expert contributors,” he said.
“There are the well-canvased issues of increasing global food insecurity, the challenging trade environment driven by geopolitical tensions, and the need to produce food within planetary limits."
“However, the experts also raised emerging trends, including what we’ve called ‘Identity eating’ – which is the growing way of signalling who you are as a person through what you eat – and is leading to higher demand for ethical and health-conscious foods.
“Another key trend identified out to 2050 was ‘Exponential everything’, which covers the transformation of the sector through science and technology.”
Rather than let these changes wash over it like a tsunami, Mr Charteris said, the broadly held view among the expert contributors was that New Zealand’s agriculture sector would need to lean in and proactively shape the changes occurring around it.
“We heard this message in many different ways; whether it was influencing global trade policy, embracing technology, capitalising on sustainability, training up for the future, defending our advantage in dairy or kiwifruit, growing Māori enterprise or more deliberately utilising all the wealth in our big blue backyard,” he said.
Charteris said the white paper contributors had identified 23 changes they would like to see in New Zealand between now and 2050 that will help set up the sector for success.
“Essentially, they boil down into five buckets with four to five ‘work ons’ in each bucket,” he said.
“At the centre, we need a change model that starts from the customer perspective and works outward from that, feeding into more purposeful decisions about land use and production systems.
“Then once we are clear on what customers are asking for and where we want to play, we need to stack talent and technology.
“Between these items we have the elements of a 2050 growth engine.”
What’s exciting, Charteris said, is that New Zealand has the geography, the capacity, the ideas, and the time, to make something outstanding of its future.
“My wish is that our experts’ thinking will inspire others to join me in pushing for a more deliberative strategic future for New Zealand,” he said.
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