Hayfields vary greatly, but farmers have had to manage them as one entity when cutting the crop.
An innovation from Fendt will change the intensity of conditioning of the hay based on its moisture as the mower moves across the field.
Henrik Deppe, who works in product marketing for green harvesting with Fendt, was showing the system at Agritechnica in late 2023. The product was named one of 17 silver medalists in the innovation awards at the farm show in Germany.
“You get a big difference in biomass within a field,” he says.
Some areas of a field dry faster than others, meaning some areas could be too wet or too dry.
Changing the aggressiveness of the tine conditioner can help even out drying of the hay.
Deppe says the overarching goal is to have the same dryness throughout by the time the forage is harvested.
An electric motor on the unit moves the conditioner in and out of the crop, depending on the moisture. It can be controlled from the cab as needed by a farmer who understands where the biomass levels change in the field.
The silver medal was awarded for the automatic systems available for the mower.
One system requires Fendt’s partner in the project, ConGra, to make an application map for the mower that identifies areas of higher biomass in the crop from a satellite image. The challenge of this system is that the application map has to be ordered a couple of days before the field is cut.
The second option developed involves the placement of moisture sensors on both sides of the mower, and those readings result in automatic adjustment of the conditioner. Fritzmeier is the partner company for the sensors.
Deppe says the Fritzmeier sensor is also used for fertilizer spreading, so it can have two uses on the farm.
The conditioner option will go into production in September 2024, with availability for the 2025 hay season.
It will be available on the Slicer 960 KCB mower. It will also be available in a wider front mower in areas of the world that allow larger mowers on the front of tractors.
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