Good mower an essential tool
Third-generation dairy farmers Hayden and Tania Edmeades run 500 dairy cows and associated young stock over 190ha near Putararu in the Waikato.
Ploen’s Palmerston North business KP Contracting does spraying, cultivation, ploughing, hay, drilling and baling.
Lely says he’s a big fan of its machinery, though he has not owned a Lely mower before.
“We’ve had a lot of Lely tedders and had a good run with them,” Ploen says. “We looked at a few others but I’ve always liked Lely gear so we went with this one.”
The 3.25m Lely Splendimo PC 330 is a larger mower than the one Ploen had before and he likes the modular construction of the bar. “Even years ago when they first came out I liked them. They’re built like a brick.”
The modular cutter bar has the maker’s Quick Switch obstacle safety device. Quick Switch is integrated into the drive of the mower disc and protects the drive line of the cutter bar against obstacles.
Maximum room has been created by constructing the supporting frame as broad as possible and by placing the wheels on the inside. This allows the use of an exceptionally wide conditioning rotor to optimise crop throughput from the cutter bar.
The large conditioner hoods benefit from the space above the wheels so that the swath formers are well aligned to the rotor. In addition, they ensure a streamlined crop control enabling narrow swaths and effective wide spreading.
Ploen estimates he’ll do about 800ha with his Splendimo PC 330 this season.
“It’s built well and solid. It’s quite heavy but not noisy. It’s the conditioner model and the grass seems to dry fast.”
The conditioner model has steel flails, with the swing-over model capable of being mowed on both sides of the tractor. “It’s particularly good that you can go from one side to the other. You can mow on either side. You can switch it over and it’s easy, and you can do it all from your cab just running along.”
An advantage of a trailed mower-conditioner is the wheels running behind and before the machine, which adjust the height of the support frame to the ground profile. This allows even distribution of weight, as the machine’s weight is spread between the tractor wheels in front of the cutterbar and mower wheels behind the cutterbar.
Ploen bought the mower from Country Machinery Ltd, Sanson.
Tel. 07 850 4050
