Mower for dairy

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
On brand, how many contractors do you see not running Claas mowers?

I have an old Claas dicso 3050 plain mower. I bought it second hand and it's suffered thousands of acres of abuse here. It cuts some huge silage crops destined for the dry cow clamp and probably does 4-500 acres pre mowing each year. Today it is cutting docks, thistles and rushes on undulating pp parkland. When we finally kill it I'll look to replace it with an identical one.
I don’t disagree that claas appears to be the most popular brand but they seem to make a bit of an untidy job in my rather unqualified opinion, especially in heavier crops. They’ve got excellent dealer back up here though so always assumed that was why so many use them.
 
One had lely(probably now vicon as dealer switched to that brand) one with pottinger I can think of,both triples
See very few Claas mowers up here, last time contractor cut some for us to help out with Claas F&Rear absolute mess.Told him to never come back with Claas mowers.Old Taarup& Kuhn in a different league
 

Jdunn55

Member
Krone straight mower here, 9 years old, will do several more seasons with me, aim for 20-30 years of service from our equipment.

Leaves a lovely clean cut and other than having to swap the clutch for a different one been hassle free. Well built, and good paintwork too.
 

Tsa115

Member
Livestock Farmer
We regularly use both in the same field and I have yet to find one side of the field to be ready before the other, and certainly not 2 days.
Depends on the conditioner, used to run a vicon and a jf, pretty useless conditioner, running a krone now with steel tines last 10 season, where weather windows ar scarce as it mostly rains in wales it makes a big difference . 9 footer drinks fuel though. Used 4 litres an acre on a 9footer and a 125hp massey the other day.
 
Depends on the conditioner, used to run a vicon and a jf, pretty useless conditioner, running a krone now with steel tines last 10 season, where weather windows ar scarce as it mostly rains in wales it makes a big difference . 9 footer drinks fuel though. Used 4 litres an acre on a 9footer and a 125hp massey the other day.
I always thought the lely conditioners were near useless too until mine broke
 
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Depends on the conditioner, used to run a vicon and a jf, pretty useless conditioner, running a krone now with steel tines last 10 season, where weather windows ar scarce as it mostly rains in wales it makes a big difference . 9 footer drinks fuel though. Used 4 litres an acre on a 9footer and a 125hp massey the other day.
Kuhn and JD here.
Kunh is about as aggressive as there is on the market with a set of nylon fingers for the steel tines to rip the grass through as well as a plate, but still make no difference when taking grass to high DM.

The straight mower is a Lely
I'd happily do without a conditioner, but it does offer more flexibility
 
We use a JF with plastic tines, contractor mows at the same time with Krone with metal tines, his grass wilts far faster that ours with the plastic tines .

Occasionally mow with a plain mower, much slower wilt.
If I was spreading grass straight away I might go to a plain mower for speed and simplicity.
 
We use a JF with plastic tines, contractor mows at the same time with Krone with metal tines, his grass wilts far faster that ours with the plastic tines .

Occasionally mow with a plain mower, much slower wilt.
If I was spreading grass straight away I might go to a plain mower for speed and simplicity.
We follow the mower with the tedder, a good conditioner can help if it's not being tedded, but nothing compares to the tedder.
 

early riser

Member
Location
Up North
See very few Claas mowers up here, last time contractor cut some for us to help out with Claas F&Rear absolute mess.Told him to never come back with Claas mowers.Old Taarup& Kuhn in a different league

Interesting you say that, our grass was cut with a Claas this year and aftermaths are terrible, look like a late June suckler cow stubble rather than 25th May cut
 

Stuart1

Member
I swapped from 2 year old straight mowers this year back to conditioner mowers. Straight mowers wouldn’t leave the cut as clean and also didn’t wilt as quick. Also in heavy crops it was useless, it would block up and leave a stubble that would take ages for a regrowth. Moved away from conditioners thinking with less moving parts less would go wrong but in the end it was a costly 2 years. For reference they where straight Kuhn mowers.
 

Durry cows

Member
Location
Derbyshire
I swapped from 2 year old straight mowers this year back to conditioner mowers. Straight mowers wouldn’t leave the cut as clean and also didn’t wilt as quick. Also in heavy crops it was useless, it would block up and leave a stubble that would take ages for a regrowth. Moved away from conditioners thinking with less moving parts less would go wrong but in the end it was a costly 2 years. For reference they where straight Kuhn mowers.
What conditioner mowers have you now? Out of interest what litres/acre fuel use do you know between the 2? And how many hp up front?
 
I swapped from 2 year old straight mowers this year back to conditioner mowers. Straight mowers wouldn’t leave the cut as clean and also didn’t wilt as quick. Also in heavy crops it was useless, it would block up and leave a stubble that would take ages for a regrowth. Moved away from conditioners thinking with less moving parts less would go wrong but in the end it was a costly 2 years. For reference they where straight Kuhn mowers.
Why would the condition mower give a cleaner cut.Are you comparing the same brand just with / without conditioner
 

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