The last time we visited Gloucestershire contractor David Hunt, he was getting to grips with a Kuhn Merge Maxx 950 to improve forage quality. So did it live up to expectations? Geoff Ashcroft reports.
Making the most of a merger
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ased in the Cotswolds, agricultural contractor David Hunt faces a constant battle with stones. While it is tough on his arable kit, it wreaks havoc with forage equipment. Even more so when a rake has been through the crop. “Rakes are pretty aggressive,” says Mr Hunt of D. Hunt Agricultural Contractors based at Middle Brookend Farm, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh. Unless your fields are super smooth and flat, there is al ays going to be some unwanted ground contact. And we have found that rakes can also damage some grass varieties – they are just not gentle enough.” Though until recently, the challenges of the stony Cotswold region are something that the firm has had to accept when it comes to grass and forage equipment. “Unfortunately, the risk of forage contamination is something we, and our customers, have had to tolerate for years,” he says. “And to add insult to injury, forager blades, shear bars, chute liners and trailers all take a good hiding from stones and flints. But light is now at the end of the tunnel, with recent developments
We can merge straw into much bigger rows for these hungry balers DAVID HUNT
in swath merging equipment. After buying a 3-metre front-mounted merger four years ago, the firm invested in a Kuhn Merge Maxx 950 for the 2019 season, recently shown at the LAMMA show in January of that year. “I bought the small unit as an experiment,” says Mr Hunt.
Contamination
“And it was brilliant. We saw a big reduction in forage contamination, but what we really needed was a much bigger merger. “It also proved pretty useful during harvest too. We bale straw for a
Swath belts travel on their back edges (width 3 metres, transport height 3.6m).
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merchant using our 2270 and 2270XD six-string MF balers, and we could be sent anywhere, working in all kinds of swaths. “Now we can merge straw into much bigger rows for these hungry balers, and we have the option of easily moving straw after a shower of rain.” Fast-forward to the 2019 season, and the firm started its grass campaign with a Merge Maxx 950. Supplied by local dealer Turney FieldForce, it was bought to take the lion’s share of rowing up from the company’s Kuhn GA9531 twin rotor rake.
“I ordered the merger in 2018 as soon as I saw it,” he says. “I thought it was what we needed to improve forage quality, by lifting the crop off the mown stubbles and placing it into a much larger row.” The Merge Maxx 950 uses two 4m belts, instead of its predecessor’s three. It offers two working widths; 7.5m and 9.5m. In its 7.5m setting, the two belts are butted together and afford left- or right-side swath positioning. It can be useful to doubleup, by placing two 7.5m rows side-by side on adjacent passes. Moving to the wider 9.5m setting creates a 1.5m opening between the two belts. In this mode, belts can be operated to merge the swath into a central position. urther fle ibility comes from running the belts in the same direction or in opposite directions, enabling a swath to be placed on either side of the machine, or delivering one side swath and one central swath.
Pickup belts swing rearwards when raised, reducing the overall width for headland turns.
www.lammashow.com 10/12/2019 12:38
