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Kidd Flex Wing topper.

JackoTS90

Member
Livestock Farmer
Hey anyone have one of these? They are a batwing mower of sorts. Our main use would just be topping after dairy cows. Currently use a 3m disc mower that is unreliable at the best of times so looking to change to something else. The flex wing we were looking at was 6m wide which would increase our topping capacity either by spending less time in the tractor or being able to mow more area, which at certain times of the season is crucial to keep grass quality.
Was just wondering if they can top and keep a reasonable cut quality? Can they top to 5-7cm residual?
any feedback welcomed. Thanks
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
They look heavy which is what scared me off, I ended up with a Maxam and then went back to the disc mower because the cut quality is better. Agrilife had Kidd toppers at the Fieldays and they looked to be quite well made, the 6m would be ideal for big wide open flat/rolling paddocks.....definitely not suitable for the land I'm on.

Careful with your topping, spore counts are already through the roof up here.
 

JackoTS90

Member
Livestock Farmer
They look heavy which is what scared me off, I ended up with a Maxam and then went back to the disc mower because the cut quality is better. Agrilife had Kidd toppers at the Fieldays and they looked to be quite well made, the 6m would be ideal for big wide open flat/rolling paddocks.....definitely not suitable for the land I'm on.

Careful with your topping, spore counts are already through the roof up here.
Yep have used a maxam, not very good I found. The Kidd is heavy, we only have maybe 10ha of rolling stuff the rest is flat.
Yep keeping an eye out, just trying to get the grass quality back, after the late rain we had last week, 130mm which has made the grass take off. Any paddocks with a large amount of dead matter the risk is high for the next round, because of the rotting grass.
We add zinc in our dosatron to try and prevent FE.
what disc mower do you have? Would have to get a larger one, probably 3.5-4m if we did get another.
they are quite dear thou, about the same price for a 6m Kidd topper compared to a 3.2m bar mower brand new. We don’t mow any silage and do very little pregraze mowing. Hence why the disc mower may not be the best tool for the job. Just looking at other options.
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
I ended up with an extremely tidy 1 year old Claas Disco 3550 (3.4m cut), couldn't justify the price of the new stuff and this will hopefully hold its value reasonably well. But I mow all my own silage, so I wanted a mower that would do everything whether it's bashing about through a silage paddock at 17km/h or topping a sideling covered in cow sh!t.

I briefly hooked up the Maxam the other day and tried it, its now back in the shed and I'm using the Claas again.

Are you looking to buy a new Kidd topper? It's probably the sort of thing you'd want to try before you buy, I imagine there's a demo one floating around somewhere.
 
Last edited:

fergus

Member
Location
UK
Jacko, just wondering if you got sorted with a mower? We recently acquired Kidd and could happily arrange a demo of a 6m float wing for you. Where abouts in the country are you?
 

JackoTS90

Member
Livestock Farmer
Jacko, just wondering if you got sorted with a mower? We recently acquired Kidd and could happily arrange a demo of a 6m float wing for you. Where abouts in the country are you?
We ended up purchasing a kv 3.6 m centre pivot disc mower.
came down to quality of cut in the end, and I don’t think we would have quite got what we wanted with the Kidd, even though wide working width would of been a bonus!
 

fergus

Member
Location
UK
Jacko, interesting to here, would love to here some feedback of how you're getting on with the KV.

I'll drop you a pm.

Fergus
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

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