With SENSOSAFE - the world's first mower-mounted automatic animal detection system developed for detecting fawns and ensuring clean forage - Pöttinger has introduced a concept that won the Silver Innovation Award at AGRITECHNICA 2017.

Fawns and other wild animals are especially at risk as soon as the mowing season starts. They hide in the grass. Young fawns in particular do not run away in the face of danger, but instead duck even further into the grass. Drivers have virtually no chance of seeing the fawns in the grass. Unfortunately, many are struck by the mower's blades, killing or wounding them badly. Approximately 100,000 fawns are killed in this way in Germany alone - and this figure does not include other wild animals such as hares and rabbits. Apart from the enormous financial loss and the fact that no farmer wants to harm young animals in this way, having carcass parts in hay or straw is a danger to the livestock who will later consume the contaminated forage. Botulinum toxins can form that cause botulism (meat poisoning) and can have fatal consequences for livestock. The issue is not just about forage quality and needless loss of bales, but more importantly the financial capital of the farm business: the animals. A solution to this problem brings with it enormous advantages: higher forage quality, consistent milk yield and livestock health due to minimized toxins potentially entering the forage, prevented loss of animal lives and bales of forage all while simplifying the work process during raking and increasing cost effectiveness.

Pöttinger now has the solution: SENSOSAFE is an optical infra-red sensor that is fitted to the mower to detect fawns lying in the grass in front of the mower, unseen by the driver. When SENSOSAFE detects a fawn, it transmits a signal to the hydraulics to immediately raise the mower fully automatically. The fawn is unharmed. The sensors have been developed especially for this application and provide optimum detection even in broad daylight and in direct sunlight. Using an optical sensor means that the system can detect the fawn or other wild animal and differentiate between other obstacles, such as molehills.