FOR those old enough to remember a singer called Alan Price from the north east who found fame with The Animals and later as a solo performer with The Jarrow Song singing‘ My name is little Alan Price.’ you may also remember another song he released called Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear. Well, I recently met another Simon Smith not with a performing animal but an amazing new front mounted rake.

Simon farms at Boon Woods Farm north of Nawton near Helmsley. He has pigs on a bed and breakfast basis through British Quality Pigs in Suffolk and as such he has

a requirement for a considerable quantity of straw for bedding. It was the need for straw that led Simon to the conclusion that he could do with a front-mounted rake and he found what he was looking for in Italy. He’ s now the new UK dealer for Abimac.

‘ We bale upwards of 4000 square bales a year,’ says Simon.‘ Keeping some for ourselves and some on contract for others. We also buy-in straw and do various straw for muck deals. The front rake idea came about because with the straw swath getting wet we found the only sensible option was to ted it out, but that meant another tractor in the field towing the

rake. I thought this was a bit ridiculous and started on my mission to find a suitable front mounted rake so that we can rake and bale in one pass.’

‘ The front mounted Abimac rakes the swath in front of the tractor, which then goes under the tractor and into the baler. We’ ve effectively taken the time of another man and tractor out of the equation, which means he can be stacking and leading bales or turning more straw.’

‘ I found Abimac on the Internet, asked if they had a UK dealer and flew out to their factory just south of Turin. They also took me to visit local farmers using the machines, which gave me an indication of their

sturdiness and longevity. I was impressed, particularly by seeing one that was 10 years old working very effectively.’

‘ There are three models in the range with widths of 6m, 7m and 8m the same as a standard trailed rotary would take and they do everything you could want. As you’ re going forward the swath is swept in probably better than you’ ve ever experienced before. It was certainly the case for me. I trialled it all last year on different tractors and on various crops and it performed brilliantly. I also had a machine down south, so we know it works well on all crops.’

‘ I’ ve been out with as many different combinations of tractors and balers and we’ ve tested it with straw, silage and hay. We’ ve raked and baled snotty grass to beautiful fluffy June hay and it has worked great throughout.’

‘ I’ m always happy to arrange a demonstration for anyone who wants to check it out.’

Simon has already sold one Abimac to an agricultural contractor in the south of England and attended this year’ s YAMS in February.

‘ They really will help out by saving time and manpower, but they are also fantastic for providing better bales. Raking is a professional business and the Abimac is as professional a piece of farming kit as I have seen. When dealing with raking and baling at the same time you also don’ t lose any speed off what you would have gone at with just the baler.’

‘ YAMS was superb for us because it put Abimac in front of lots of farmers in one go. I’ ve been to YAMS before just as a visitor but this year we had our own stand and had a great deal of interest.’

‘ It’ s a way of streamlining your in-field operation and taking some of the time and cost out of your business enabling you to get on with other areas. We had significant