Company’s search for best grass chop

Ideal grass chopping quality is achieved when the crop is parallel to the knife bank in your loader wagon, according to Pöttinger, one of the top manufacturers of this increasingly popular silage machinery option.

But achieving that continuously has proved difficult for designers.

From April to June, the Austrian company asked engineers, farmers, designers, technical buffs, creative DIY people and anybody else who is interested, to help them find an innovative solution.

They posed the question: how can the loader wagon chop quality be improved by optimising grass stalk alignment?

What’s the best loader wagon design for picking up the grass and feeding the crop from the rotor through the chopping system?

The more consistent the chop, the better the forage quality, but it starts with aligning the crop, either with the loader wagon or with the preceding harvesting equipment?

The best ideas will be rewarded. A jury will select the winners who will be awarded cash prizes amounting to €8,000, according to Pöttinger, which invites ideas up to and including next Monday, Jun 17, following a recent two-week extension of the closing date (see the www.poettinger-innovation.at website for more).

* Pöttinger is also offering three prizes worth a total of €700 for the best Pöttinger loader wagon photos.

Photos can be vintage or modern, action or not, taken with cameras or mobiles, and will be judged by Pöttinger’s 40,000 Facebook fans.

Send your “My Pöttinger loader wagon can” photo(s) to [e-mail] with your name and address before Jul 10.

For the winner, there’s a weekend holiday in the Alps; the second and third prizes are vouchers for Pöttinger spares or merchandise. See the www.poettinger.at website for more information.

* Farmers learned about the competitions at last week’s Pöttinger Grassland Show on the farm of Johann and Gasa Hoff, Talbot Hall, New Ross, Co Wexford.

They also learned about new products such as the Novacat 352 ED rear-mounted conditioner mower, with a working width of 3.46 metres.

A hydraulic lower linkage arm guarantees easy mounting without having to adjust the tractor hitch struts, because the headstock can always be brought into the correct horizontal position.

A double-acting cylinder for pivoting the mower 90 degrees to the rear during transport ensures a low transport height, but also serves as collision protection, so that the mower folds to the rear if it is obstructed during mowing.

The mower is equipped with systems to achieve uniform pressure on the ground and to cancel out oscillation, which makes turning easier and adds safety and stability at the headland and during transport.