Friday, 15 March 2019 10:11

Mower speeds up cutting time

Written by  Mark Daniel
Hari Hari dairy farmer Zane Wyatt says the arrival of the new Pottinger NovaCat Alpha Motion 301 front mower will slash his mowing times. Hari Hari dairy farmer Zane Wyatt says the arrival of the new Pottinger NovaCat Alpha Motion 301 front mower will slash his mowing times.

Hari Hari dairy farmer Zane Wyatt says the arrival of the new Pottinger NovaCat Alpha Motion 301 front mower will slash his mowing times.

Zane Wyatt farms 240ha effective at Hari Hari with his wife Tania, milking 500 Jersey Friesian-cross cows. 

The arrival of a new Pottinger NovaCat Alpha Motion 301 front mower will reduce time mowing, a bonus given the changeable weather conditions in the region.

Wyatt bought his first Pottinger mower — a NovaDisc 305 rear mower — in April 2018.

“I chose it for its good reputation and price,” he says. “And the machine has been faultless, bulletproof and easy to put on and take off the tractor.”

Because of the performance of the rear mower, Wyatt added a NovaCat Alpha Motion 301 front mower, taking delivery in October and having it installed by the dealer.

He says it’s “really quick” and easy to use. “I knocked over 20 acres in two hours yesterday without pushing too hard,” he said. 

“A tractor and rear mower would take me nearer six hours to get 20 acres done. With this being our first front-mower we are amazed at how well it travels. Output is huge with no blockages, even in a very thick crop.” 

The NovaCat Alpha Motion 301 has 3m working width and can mow up to 3ha/hour. Its suspension has 500mm of vertical travel and inclination angles of 12 degrees upwards and 9 degrees downwards to prevent the cutter bar from damaging the sward. 

The design allows the guide arms to respond actively to changes in terrain and to the mounting frame itself, resulting in the cutter bar tilting upwards over bumps and downwards into hollows. 

A rounded, low profile front edge lets the cutter bar move smoothly over the ground and separate the crop from the sward. At the same time, the mower uses the rounded conical surfaces of the mower discs to let the crop flow smoothly and uniformly, for maximum capacity regardless of conditions.

More like this

Kuhn unveils 14.5m mower for high HP harvesters

With most forage harvester manufacturers offering machines touching 1000hp, the logistics puzzle has always been ‘dropping” grass and pulling into a swath big enough to feed the “beast”.

More efficient jumbo wagons

In a move that will be welcomed by many, Austrian manufacturer Pottinger appears to be following a trend of bringing its machines down from the technological high-spec offerings seen over the last few years and offering them to customers in a more userfriendly format.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

DairyNZ plantain trials cut nitrate leaching by 26%

DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.

National

Machinery & Products

Tech might take time

Agritech Unleashed – a one-day event held recently at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton – focused on technology as an ‘enabler’…

John Deere acquires GUSS Automation

John Deere has announced the full acquisition of GUSS Automation, LLC, a globally recognised leader in supervised high-value crop autonomy,…

Fencing excellence celebrated

The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards,…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

A step too far

OPINION: For years, the ironically named Dr Mike Joy has used his position at Victoria University to wage an activist-style…

Save us from SAFE

OPINION: A mate of yours truly has had an absolute gutsful of the activist group SAFE.

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter