“We’re not overlapping and making extra unnecessary runs up and down fields – we work efficiently, to the full width.”
“I have a Kverneland plain mower combination using a 3.2m front with a 4m rear, a Kv 10-rotor tedder, a Kv 9m twin rotor rake and a forage wagon, to provide flexibility with how we meet customers’ expectations for high quality silage,” he says. His 3,000-acre workload includes neighbouring contractor Dilwyn Owen, as the two friends pool equipment resources to support each other as required. “Dilwyn does all the buck-raking, and has an identical forage wagon which doubles our output. He also has mower conditioners as an alternative to my Kverneland plain mowers,” he says. “What I don’t have, he does – so we can always provide a solution for customers.”
Last season, Simon Sturrock invested in a 10-rotor Kverneland 85112 tedder from local dealer Mona Tractors. It replaced a smaller six-rotor machine as he sought to speed up the wilting process for customers. “The tedder covered over 2,000- acres of work last year,” he says. “We picked up work that we didn’t expect, as it opened up customers’ thinking about forage quality.”
“Many of them still like to mow their own grass, but lack the capacity to ted quickly,” he says. “We can cover 150 acres easily in a day with the Kverneland tedder and drive slowly, which does a better job and looks after our kit. It follows ground contours extremely well, and is gentle on the crop.”
He says that with GPS autosteering on his JCB Fastrac, tedding is extremely accurate. “We’re not over-lapping and making extra unnecessary runs up and down fields – we work efficiently, to the full width,” says Simon. He has similar praise for his Kverneland 9590C Hydro twin rotor rake with its hydraulically raised and lowered rear axle. “It’s absolutely fantastic, both on-road and in the field,” he adds. “The ability to lower the frame and reduce the overall height on the rear wheels means we don’t have to remove tine arms when the machine is folded for transport.”
“This is one of those clever ideas that actually works and saves us time, which makes the team more productive,” he says.
