The specifications of the Swadro 1400 Plus are very impressive, with its 13.5 metre working width giving a massive row of grass for the following machine to look after. The finished swath can be adjusted from 1.4m to 2.2m in width, depending on the following machine.

I met the machine in the small paddocks of Moorepark Research Centre where I found it raking up light crops for Moss Noonan Contracting. You may think that these are not ideal conditions for a machine of this size, but after talking with the operator he said that this was perfect for the big rake.

The rake results in less driving in the paddocks, as one round of the headlands is enough to turn and less-short ranks are created. In the lighter crop the wide sweep of the Swadro means that each row has a worthwhile volume of grass.

Art form

Controlling such a large rake in confined spaces is an art form, but is made far easier by the control system on it. This rake has the Delta Control Panel and also came with the optional joystick control. The joystick allows for very easy adjustment to be made on the move, from narrowing the overall width to lifting either or both of the outer rotors.

Even though the Swadro works very well in these conditions, output is what this machine is really about. Krone claims that output can reach up to 32ac/hr. A rate of 25ac/hr has been achieved by the Moss Noonan Contracting team in a big field situation.

Portable

When it comes to moving the rake from field to field or paddock to paddock, the Swadro folds up very tidily. When folded it has a width of 2.9m and a maximum height of 4 metres, with the use of its hydraulically lowering running gear.

Although when the machine is lowered to this height its frame is worryingly close to the ground. This may not be an issue where the rake is travelling on smooth roads but in Ireland the frame coming in contact with the ground could be an issue. The operator said that he has occasionally had to raise the machine hydraulically to have sufficient ground clearance.

Accessories

A rake this size also needs other big gear around it to make sense, and Noonans certainly have them all. Mowing is done with a Krone Big M420, which clears 30ft of grass in one strip. Talking to the rake operator, he said that on some occasions he can collect two of these 30ft rows and put them into a single swath ready for the harvesters.

The harvesters in this situation are a Claas Jaguar and a New Holland FR9080. The New Holland is a very interesting machine as after its original pickup was damaged a Krone pickup was fitted to it.

The reason behind this was that the internals of the harvester were able for a greater grass flow than the original header could handle and they reckoned that the Krone header would increase output. This is a very good thing if 60ft of grass is being left in front of it.

Once through the harvester, the grass is deposited into some newly purchased Smyth Supercube trailers. The pride of the fleet is a 22ft version which on the day I was there was attached to a JCB Fastrac. Padraig Noonan said that the Supercube works well and gives more capacity and slightly more weight on the draw bar than a standard trailer.

Having seen the whole operation at work, I can see why the Krone is needed to get through the work and the unexpected advantages that it gives when working in lighter crops and/or smaller fields or paddocks are a bonus.