The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 74

74 MACHINERY
FEB/MAR 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
MAKING FORAGE A SMARTER WAY
An evening with Russells and Pottinger
WEDNESDAY 12th February at Woolley
Park Golf Club in Barnsley was the setting
for a very informative presentation by
Shaun Groom (General Manager, Pottinger
UK), along with Barry Humphries. The
evening was hosted and sponsored by the
Russell Group, set up and run by local sales
manager Jon Newton. If you want to attract
the best of local farming, then all you need
are pleasant surroundings, complementary
food and refreshments and you are onto
a winner. Plus, the fact that these days
farming really is about maximising both
yield and quality for a variety of reasons,
so the thirty plus farmers were keen to see
what what was.
Shaun Groom kicked the evening off
with a short background to Pottinger. The
company was founded in 1871 by Franz
Pöttinger in Grieskirchen in Austria, creating
the first forage cutter. It has come a long
way since then. It is still family owned
today, run by the present fourth generation
Franz and Heinz Pottinger. Some mile-
stones in Pottinger’s development were: in
1960 their first mass production factory; in
1975 first tillage machine; in 2001 first seed
drills; in 2017 the launch of their unique
baler, completing what is a full range of
products for today’s farmer.
With today’s weather in the UK, time is of
the essence and you can have the best of
machines, but if you can’t get parts fast and
keep going, it’s no good. With the addition
of Pottinger’s new international robotic
spare parts logistics centre in Taufkirchen
(Austria), that has more than 50,000 differ-
ent parts in stock, coupled with their large
warehouse in Corby, it means if you order
by 4 pm your part will be with you or at a
Russells’ depot, door to door by 4 am next
day! With no extra charge if the part comes
from Austria. That is staggering support.
Pottinger, as a company, are not just
machinery manufacturers, they have a
passion for farming and animal health.
Because of the shift system they operate
in Austria, many of their workers are
part-time farmers, managing many small
acreage farms, both arable and livestock.
So you have a company who not only
have a passion for quality machinery, but
also a workforce who know what farmers
need when managing the land and also
directly understand how important
quality feed is when raising livestock
and dairy herds. Quality of feed can
produce a 10% increase in milk yield for
dairy herds and weight gain in cattle. So
Pottinger have an automatic on-site feed-
back channel invaluable for R and D.
Shaun then handed over to Barry
Humphries, one of the senior managers
from Wales. Barry followed on with a
look at the Grassland range. What made
the whole presentation interesting and
informative, was not only the key features
of the range, but the continual link back
to quality of grass crop and thereby the
quality of sileage for the cow and feed for
cattle. This really makes you sit up and
think about what Pottinger have to offer.
Key facts, such as the ideal time to cut
is between 12 and 6 – this maximises the
sugar content, i.e. the sun has time to do its
work. Optimum cut is 60 to 70mm as there
is only rubbish at the bottom, even down
to explaining how sharp blades can save
you diesel.
Barry touched on the impact of nitrogen
losses on grasses, depending on whether
you use a conditioner or not. It was
interesting to see the difference between
the grasses, white and red clover, Lucerne
and Ryegrass in this example. This just
highlights the level of knowledge Pottinger
and therefore Russells have when advising
you on the right machine and attachment
for the job.
Roller conditioners can really reduce
losses and, via the crimping, keep the
moisture. Pottinger disc mowers have had
quick change blades for 20 years, their own
cutter bar minimises dirt ingress by using
a tapered leading edge so that any soil is
separated cleanly away from the flow of
forage. The welded and extremely flat
cutter bar enables optimum crop flow.
Next, Barry talked about front-mounted
mowers and how they should pull and not
push; this gives you much easier contour
following. Their Novacat Alpha Motion is
class-leading in both contour following and
fuel reduction.
Pottinger were the first company to
manufacture triple mowers commercially,
these can be GPS steered or mechani-
cally. The NOVACAT A10 CROSS FLOW was
“Machine of the Year” at the 2019 SIMA in
Paris, France. It won in in 17 different cat-
egories. It enables swaths to be merged
directly behind the cutterbar. With the
new cross conveyor auger, the swath
is merged immediately after mowing,
without needing a conditioner. Therefore,
clear savings in diesel costs can be made.
Triple mowers can be very important
when time vs acreage is an issue.
Again, with today’s unpredictable
climate, speedy drying is very important.
Grass loses energy the moment it is cut,
so wilting needs to be as fast, as short,
and even as possible. Pottingers tedder
range HIT has 14 models from 4 – 16
rotors. They are strong, reliable and
highly functional, they are great at con-
touring, better than most on the market.
The three-point mounted HIT tedders
with four, six and eight rotors feature the
very latest DYNATECH rotor technology
and a proven headstock. Actively setting
the wheels at an angle causes the tedder
to run diagonally, so the forage is directed
onto the mown area. Neighbouring crops
remain untouched. Because the wheels
can be set to the left or right, fenceline
tedding can be activated in any driving
direction. This can be done mechanically
or from the cab, depending on the model,
no more grass being forced under hedge
and fence.