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