‘Butterfly’ mowing outfit can have you flying along

A choice of tine or roller conditioning – or no conditioner at all – is available with the new Pöttinger Novacat A9 “butterfly” rear mowing outfit.

Designed to work in combination with a front-mounted mower, the A9 creates a triple outfit with working width adjustable manually to 8.92m or 9.18m, which can be selected according crop yield and the tractor power available.

While conditioning is recognised as a means of accelerating the drying process – by scraping or breaking through the waxy coating of grass stems to let moisture out faster – the equipment required adds weight and power requirement.

So a growing number of producers with a large silage area prefer to minimise costs by using a big mower on a more modest tractor and to catch the best of the weather through high output.

Pöttinger’s contribution to this approach has patented “Y Drive” power distribution claimed to eliminate vibration from the pto driveline, and externally-mounted slip clutches that are easy to access for maintenance.

In the disc mowing beds, “Tri-Drive” ensures that three teeth on each of the adjoining drive gears are engaged to provide the maximum surface area possible to transfer power and torque efficiently.

Another triple combination comes from one of the newest suppliers of grassland equipment in the UK.

Pronar is a leading manufacturer in Poland and in recent months started working with its Pronar UK importer, distributing assorted trailers, manure spreaders and slurry tankers.

The company’s grassland equipment covers balers, tedders, bale wrappers and disc mowers, including the Pronar PDD 830 “butterfly” unit, which comprises a pair of 3m mowers spaced to work in tandem with a front mower of at least 3m width to create an 8.3m triple.

The plain disc cutting unit needs at least 120hp while the “C” version with steel “V” tine crop conditioning rotors is heavier and needs at least 150hp.

Conditioning intensity is variable to suit different crops and conditions.

The Pöttinger Novacat A9 fells up to 9m of grass with each field pass. The crop conditioning version of the Pronar PDD 830C triple mower, right.