While the Dumfries drizzle the night before threatened the working plots at ScotGrass a drying wind allowed the grass machinery to make a start a little later than planned. Kverneland was showing the Roc mergers for the first time while Sip was displaying a hook tine option.
Morra Machinery
On the back of a Landini on the Agri Argo stand was this Morra Machinery Performance 440 tedder. The Morra family of course own the Landini and McCormick tractor brands hence the tedder being on show,.It is part of a wider range of grass implements Morra manufacturers in Italy. The four-rotor, (six arms per rotor) 440 lists at £6,835.
Sip hooked tine
Sip is now giving the option of hook tines on the larger rotor tedders in the UK while still assessing the tines performance on the smaller rotor models. The hook tine has a somewhat cult following as it throws the grass higher than a comparable straight tine tedder. Hook tine models also feature a different arm design so it is not just a matter of swapping tines. Working was the eight-rotor Spider 915 with the hook tine lists at around £18,000.
Claas Liner 2000
Claas has the latest generation two-rotor Liner. Compared to the previous range, the 2600 now has a narrower axle to reduce the transport width making it better suited to access fields ahead of a round baler that it is likely to be paired with. Another key change is that a simple turn of a valve allows you to swap from lifting both rotors on one spool to independent left/right rotor lift if you have three spool valves available. There are some other tweaks to the design to beef up certain parts and there are more tyre options available. The 2800 and 2900 can be ordered in Business spec which adds electro-hydraulic pre-select of the rotor like and Active Float similar to that used on the mowers for controlling the weight on the rotor while on the move.
Roc mergers
This was the first time Kverneland was showing Roc mergers since it purchased an 80% share in the Italian manufacturer. These have been on offer in the UK for several years, so the machines themselves are not new but they are considered the crème de la crème of mergers. In action at ScotGrass was the 380 front-mounted unit in combination with an RT730 – the model number denoting the working width. The other machine was an 880.
