Agricultural Fieldays

Press, 11 June 1982, Page 22

Agricultural Fieldays

Several new agricultural machines and many items of farm equipment will be on display at the National Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton next week. . The Fieldays have been described as the best display of agricultural equipment in the world and will run from Thursday to Saturday. A large range of equipment, products, demonstrations and special competitions .will be on display on the 80-hectare site. With prices of farm equipment rocketing, the Fieldays provide farmers with an excellent opportunity to inspect and choose the equipment that best suits their needs. Visitors are expected from throughout New Zealand and from many parts of the world. Last year, the total attendance was 62.650. including 3000 people from more than 40 countries. Several new Claas machines will be on display for the first time in New Zealand at the Fieldays. They include two Claas Markant conventional balers with pick-up widths of 1.65 m and 1.85 m. Both balers work to a plunger rate of 93 strokes per minute and can be hitched to either a swinging or extended drawbar. A feature is the power take-off over-run protection and the pick-up has a built-in shock absorber to provide flotation without the need for

pick-up support wheels or skids. A hydraulic pick-up control is fitted as standard equipment, and bale density is easily altered by two heavy spring adjustors. Bale length can be varied from 0.4 m to I.lm. Both balers are equipped with a Class knotter and a built-in ram stop protects the needles if the timing is not synchronised. This built-in protection allows the baler to work under full load for long periods without risk of breakdowns. The Jaguar 40 forage harvester has a pick-up width of 1.62 m. and a power requirement of only 50 horsepower, yet it copes with up to 35 tonnes of wet silage or 42 tonnes of maize silage an hour. The Jaguar 62 has a 1.7 m wide pick-up or two-row maize head, hydraulic remote control and requires 65 horsepower. It can handle up to 75 tonnes per hour depending on crop and harvest conditions. Both forage- harvesters have a wide angle power take-off shaft, built-in knife grinder and the chopping length can easily be adjusted. An integral metal detector can be fitted if required. Two new Claas rotary mowers will join the popular 1.68 m and I.BBm twin drum range. The WM 24C conditioner mower has an adjustable conditioner which can easily be removed from the

mower without removing or slackening the drive. The WM 30 is a trailed three-drum mower with a 2.49 m cut and has two support wheels which are independently sprung and allow flotation over all ground contours. Also available this year will be a new rotary swather which has a 2.Bm’ working width and an adjustable swathe rake to suit varying conditions. Two new Claas rollant balers will also be on the market this season. They are the Rollant 85. which makes a 1.5 m by I.Bm bale, and the Rollanl 44. which makes a bale measuring 1.2 m by 1.2 m. Both balers feature a fixed-dimension, steel roller bale case and produce a medium density bale with a high density outer thatch to provide good protection from the weather. The Rollant 44 has been used extensively in the United Kingdom for making round bale silage. Depending on the degree of wilting, the silage bales from the Rollant 44 weigh from 450 kg to 600 kg. which means that a standard farm loader can be used for handling the bales. The silage bales can be sealed in plastic bags which can be re-used if handled correctly. The making and use of big bale silage is one of the most economical methods of forage conservation available todav-