For the welfare of wildlife and livestock
The timing of the first cut coincides with the fawning season of roe deer and other wild animals. Due to their natural reflex to seek cover, fawns do not run away from danger. This instinctive behaviour makes it especially difficult to spot animals hiding in the grass. It happens over and over again that animals are seriously injured or even killed during mowing.
If the carcass of a wild animal ends up in the clamp, it will decompose and contaminate the forage. Under anaerobic conditions, bacteria of the species Clostridium botulinum produce the neurotoxin botulinum.
Feeding silage contaminated in this way can expose cattle, sheep, horses and poultry to botulism. This disease usually causes death within 1 to 3 days due to respiratory paralysis.
At PÖTTINGER we have taken up these challenges and developed an automatic assistance system for detecting animals.
A sensor bar mounted in front of the mower helps you identify wild animals in the crop. This saves them from getting caught by the mower and prevents carcasses contaminating your forage. As a result this avoids the risk of your cattle contracting life threatening diseases such as botulism.
A bar with optical sensors scans the area in front of the mowers during the mowing process.
An LED integrated into each sensor emits light in the near-infrared spectral range. The light, which is not visible to humans, is reflected by the vegetation back to the sensor. However, the brown fur of fawns and other animals reflects light with a different intensity than plants. The sensors detect this and send an electrical signal to the control unit in the tractor cab.
SENSOSAFE is operated using the SELECT CONTROL terminal.
If an animal is detected, the control terminal gives the driver both a visual and acoustic warning. The driver then has plenty of time to stop the tractor or raise the mower.
Straightforward operation
The triggering sensitivity can be fine-tuned. This means the triggering threshold can be optimally adapted to each crop.
Folding into the working or transport position is also operated using the SELECT CONTROL control terminal.
We developed SENSOSAFE 300 for mowers up to approx. 3 metres wide. The sensor bar is fitted to a mounting frame and utilises the tractor's hydraulics.
When used with a front mower NOAVAALPIN, the system scans the next pass. For this, the SENSOSAFE sensor bar can be mounted either on the front or rear linkage. This gives the driver plenty of time to stop the tractor and raise the mower.
An optional ballast weight is available for using the SENSOSAFE 300 at the back when operating without a front mower. If the tractor linkage has a freedom of movement, this can prevent vibrations on the sensor bar.
The sensor bar folds vertically into a safe storage position during transport.