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Practical Testing Of The Spearhead Starcut
500 Rotary Mower And Q2800hd Flail Mower
Fine Chop Efficiency And
Power Requirements Crucial During Corn Mulching!
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The Chamber of Agriculture of North Rhine – Westphalia and the Bavarian State
Office for Agriculture jointly conducted an extensive mower comparison test last
Autumn. Running within this test were the Spearhead Starcut 500 Rotary Mower and
Spearhead Q2800HD Flail Mower. These machines were run alongside entries from
Schulte, Kuhn, Ducker, Muthing and Dalbo.
The aim was to examine the operating requirements and the standard of mulch
produced under uniform field conditions. The first results of these tests have
now been published.
The defining statement was that ‘for shredding corn stubble, whether using a
Rotary or Flail mower the result is basically the same’. It was discovered,
however that both systems have their own individual strengths including, ease of
operation, degree of mulching effect, power consumption and fuel consumption all
contributing to varying outcomes on the final balance sheet.
After processing if more than 30 per cent of the stubble pieces remained within
63 to 200mm in chop length then the European Corn Borer, a pest widely affecting
corn crops throughout Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Denmark had a stable
habitat to survive in over winter. The reason for this is that the distance
between the two nodes provided a home for the European Corn Borer. In this test
both the Spearhead Starcut 500 and Spearhead Q2800HD impressed with a very high
proportion of mulch in the size range less than 45mm and a minimal amount in the
size range of approximately 63mm.
A further test was conducted to investigate power consumption. Today, in the
north and northwest of Germany very few corn fields are mulched immediately
after harvest because many farmers fear the cost of this operation. It is
crucial that power consumption is monitored as this has a significant effect on
how much the mulching operation costs to conduct per hectare.
Because of their particular cut systems the Spearhead Q2800HD equipped with a
double spiral rotor and the Spearhead Starcut 500 with the MP6 blade system in
two heights and two steps, both achieve excellent results with a low power
requirement. Furthermore these machines have a significantly higher operating
speed than their competitors by travelling at up to 12 km/h.
In conclusion the test results were highly positive for Spearhead, indicating
lower total costs per hectare and an additional mulching effect with a much
higher impact when using a Spearhead machine.
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