Pöttinger at Scotgrass 2010

This year it was the turn of Scotland to play host to the national working grassland demonstration returning to the same venue as in 2007. Despite some bitterly cold temperatures in the weeks leading up to the event and even a ground frost on the morning of the demonstration there was a reasonable crop of grass on our 4 acre plot. This allowed us to put on show for the 5,000 visitors whom attended from across Scotland and further afield. This year’s Landmec Pöttinger demonstration focused on the larger machines and whilst on the neighbouring Merlo we were showing some smaller farmer size equipment. The line up was as follows:

NOVACAT 307 T ED c/w Collector - Trailed Mower Conditioner
NOVACAT 265 H ED - Rear Mounted Mower Conditioner
NOVACAT 306 alpha-motion FD - Front Mounted Mower Conditioner
NOVACAT V10 ED – Combination Rear Mounted Mower Conditioner
HIT 810 NZ – 8 Rotor Tedder
EUROTOP 620 N – Twin Rotor Linkage Mounted Rake
TOP 1252 C s-line – Trailed 4 Rotor Rake
FARO 3500 L – Forage Wagon
TORRO 5100 L – Forage Wagon - Static Display
JUMBO 6010 L c/w AutoCut – Forage Wagon
MEX 6 c/w Metal Detector – Trailed Forage Harvester

Pulling on a group of local experienced Pöttinger users we managed to equip every machine with its own dedicated driver allowing us to carry out a Pöttinger parade before commencing a working demonstration run. The fertiliser laden lush young grass was handled with ease by the NOVACAT mower conditioners, the small diameter rotors of the EUROHIT 810 NZ tedder were ideal for spreading this lush crop before it was pulled together by the enormous TOP 1252 C s-line 4 rotor rake. This attracted a huge amount of interest as it covered a huge 12.5 metres in every pass. The EUROTOP 620 N attracted a strong amount of interest thanks to its uniqueness being the only mounted twin rotor rake at the event.

But as we expected many visitors had come to see the new JUMBO 6010 L with its autocut knife sharpening system working, coupled to a 225 hp tractor this market leading model flew up the swath at a speed unmatched by our rivals, demonstrating just how these high capacity Pöttinger forage wagons can clear around 10 acres an hour in our British conditions. Once we collected a load we stopped to allow inspection of our consisitently chopped grass and to a carry out a demonstration of the unique Pöttinger autocut knife sharpening system. This was a UK first with this unit being one of the first to leave the factory and having been sold to a local farmer at Castle Douglas whom kindly allowed us to use his new wagon. Visitors were hugely impressed with the ease and simplicity of this remote sharpening system which took around 4 minutes to sharpen all 45 blades dramatically reducing the time needed for this essential but often time consuming process.

We concluded the day on a high with many of the machines being demonstrated being sold to farmers and contractors attending the event allowing us to deliver them directly to their farms.

We would like to thank Case IH & West for the loan of the tractors and trailers respectively and to our locally based Pöttinger customers who helped with driving who without the day would not have been possible.