The sun came out to greet more than 450 farmers who gathered at the Lardner Park Hay and Silage Demonstration Day in regional Victoria in this week.
The event provided a chance for mower, rake, tedder and baler manufacturers to demonstrate their latest models and explain the design benefits of each to those in attendance — who were predominately livestock and dairy farmers.
The demonstrations included models by Kuhn, Krone, Claas, Lely, Massey Fergusson, Gendore and Pottinger, to name a few.
Krone senior product manager Lars Pasedag won the best demonstrator award.
An early demonstration of the six-rotor Krone KW602 tedder saw Pasedag explaining key design benefits of the model.
“The 10.5mm tines on this model are highly durable,” Pasedag said. “Also not all the tines are the same length, and the tines are mounted on the tine arms rather than underneath, which gives you a better result.”
Gendore managing director Derek Genoni demonstrated the Kverneland Taarup 8055 tedder, which has centre rotors that follow the contours of the ground very closely.
Traf Tractor and Machinery sales manager Murray Tuck showed off the12.5m-wide Lely Lotus 1250 Profi-tedder, which is designed to invert grass from bottom to top.
The Class Variant 385RC baler was shown, along with the Krone Comprima CV150XC baler and wrapper.
The Gendore-New Holland Roll-Belt 150 round baler, which uses a unique roll-belt system, was also shown.
Gendore also demonstrated the McHale 991 high-speed bale wrapper, which uses two 750mm applicators to wrap the bales up tightly and makes the process faster.
Lely product manager Rob West showed off the Lely Welger RPC 445 Tornedo baler and wrapper, which uses a five-tine cam-less pickup.
“As the bale is being tied-off we’re telling the wrapper how big a bale we made, so when the bale is transferred to the table, the wrapper carousel will raise back up to the right height,” West says. “That means we’ve got less chance of any windows in a bale.”
With so many diverse machines on display, and a focus on the design features that makes each make and model different, the “Hay Day” event gave everyone a chance to see a wide-range of hay and silage machines in action.
Lardner Park Events chief executive officer Nicola Pero says she is more than happy with how the day went and how the demonstrations were received.
“We had about 20 different exhibitors and demonstrators, and over 100 pieces of equipment worth more than $20 million dollars,” Pero says. “It all came together very well, thanks to Lardner Park Committee and all the exhibitors involved.”
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Photography: Randall Johnston