Theworld record for mowing has been smashed by a Claas Disco 1100 RC conditioner mower unit after it cut 141.1 hectares of alfalfa in just eight hours.
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The world record for mowing has been smashed by a Claas Disco 1100 RC conditioner mower unit after it cut 141.1 hectares of alfalfa in just eight hours.
Using a Claas Axion 800 tractor to power the mower the record was set in Colorado, USA by Tate Mesbergen from Mesbergen Farms.
Beating the previous record by more than 40 hectares, the Claas Disco mower used a roller conditioner on the crop which achieved an average yield of 5.24 tonnes of dry matter per hectare.
Just after midday on July 1, Tate set about creating the new world record and exactly eight hours later he climbed out of the cab of his tractor as a new world record holder.
A support team and impartial witnesses can confirm that Tate mowed a total of 141.1 hectares in four different fields belonging to a number of farmers, thus exceeding the previous world record by more than 40.5 hectares.
With a maximum speed of 30km/h in the field and more than 50km/h from field to field, Tate mowed an average of 17.6ha/h during his world record attempt.
“Not all fields were close to one another, so it was a real challenge to quickly fold up the mower units for transport and hurry along the roads,” Tate says.
The day before the attempt, there was a thunderstorm with heavy showers of 12.7 millimetres of rain. This meant that the subsoil in particular in the first field was significantly wetter than usual.
The start was delayed by a few hours, and during his record attempt Tate also made two unplanned stops. His first was between the first and second field.
“I hit a piece of concrete on the first field and had to check whether the mower unit was damaged,” Tate says.
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A quick examination showed that no harm was done. Not one blade had to be replaced. The second interruption took place to check that the Disco mower unit was correctly folded before it was transported along the road to the last field.
The previous world record was set on grass, not alfalfa, and a mower without conditioner was used which was clearly a much easier task.
The Claas Disco 1100 RC has a conditioner with two V-shaped interlocking polyurethane rollers, which compress the hard stems while simultaneously preserving the precious leaves.
This reduces the wilting time required and guarantees maximum feed value, because the leaves are preserved. The conditioner increased the mower’s power consumption, but that did not thwart Tate.
During his attempt, Tate mowed 5.24 tonnes of dry mass per hectare. Claas will be sending the necessary documents to Guinness, so that the world record can be officially confirmed.
“We are really proud of Tate,” says John Schofield, who is the North American marketing coordinator for Claas. “He does a really good job with the triple disc mower. It was quite an accomplishment to beat that record by the margin he did.”