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Claydon Terrablade
Claydon was showing its simple inter-row cultivator to work within strip-till rows of cereals or other crops.
It is particularly aimed at improving grass weed control in cereals which is widely known to be an issue in all min-till and strip-till systems. Working widths are from 3m up to 6m.
It is normally front-mounted, relying on the operator to steer it. When rear-mounted, it can be steered using RTK.
Kuhn Smart Plough
This innovation brings automatic headland control to ploughing, allowing each individual furrow to be automatically brought into and out of work.
It gives a straight line at the headland, making for very tidy ins and outs. The plough can be dropped with each furrow engaging in work at precisely the right time.
It uses a double-acting hydraulic ram in place of the body reset ram but all other components are standard.
Kuhn Intelliwrap FBP 3135
The tandem axle round baler is now available with film-on-film and 3D wrapping system. Two 750mm rolls of stretch-film wrap the bale in place of net in the chamber.
The advantage of the 3D system which finishes the wrapping outside the chamber is it can be programmed to cover the corners of the bales very well, allowing savings to be made on the overall wrapping. The saving according to Kuhn is about 30%.
Claas Torion CMATIC 1914 articulated loading shovel
The Liebherr powered four-cylinder 228hp 19,500kg CMATIC infinitely variable transmission articulated loader was a huge hit on the Claas stand.
Aimed at larger contractors and possibly quarry work it was shown with a 5m folding rake and no doubt would be very suitable for AD plants across Europe and larger silage contractors.
The loader used scissor-linkage and is fitted with 650/75 R32 tyres.
Claas Axion 960
Claas was pushing tracks on its machinery. Both a Claas Arion 960 and Jaguar forage harvester were fitted with different versions of the Terratrac trac system.
The advantage of tracks is bigger contact areas without increasing the transport width of the machine but also spreading the machines weight over a larger footprint.
Claas is addressing the massive increase in machine size and weight which threatens the soil.
John Deere ExactApply nozzles
John Deere demonstrated the latest in nozzle control systems.
This caters for variable application rate without altering spray quality by switching on and off different sized nozzles on the one nozzle unit.
What’s unique about this system is that John Deere has combined nozzle switching with pulse-width modulation control.
This effectively alters application rate by switching on and off the nozzle many times per second. It allows a very wide range in flow-rates.
In use, for example when turning in a corner with the sprayer turned on, it can vary the application on all nozzles on the boom so application rate stays constant across the full working width of the sprayer.
Multi Tool Trac
One of a number of electrically powered machines on display was the Multi Tool Trac. It was designed in response to demands from controlled traffic farming growers in the Netherlands for work in bed systems.
A unique feature is the variable track width which is adjustable on the move from 2.25m-3.25m. Max power is 88kw nominal power. Also fitted to this machine is a 210hp six-cyinder engine which drives a generator.
It is a tool carrier design with implements mounting on the front, centre, underneath and on the rear.
Gaspardo 1.5m one pass
Gaspardo was exhibiting a 1.3m one-pass for use on compact tractors. Seed is dropped from the box drill between the power harrow and packer roller.
Hardly a machine to worry the local gardaí with its transport width.
Claas film-on-film round baler
Following market trends, Claas is now offering a film-on-film option on its Rolland 454 Uniwrap baler.
The baler comes with a 25-knife chopping rotor and drop-floor in case of blockages. The film in place of the net is loaded from the ground, with a user-friendly cradle system.
The single-axle design is fitted with 620 55/26.5 tyres.
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