In northern Europe it’s hard to make good silage without a good tedder. And it’s equally hard to base buying decisions on spec sheets. So, last spring, men and machines met in The Netherlands to compare some of the most popular wide-working models. Next month we assess machine adjustments and prices

If you want to go tedding it helps to have the weather on your side. We were very lucky: the sun shone and the breeze blew on the polders around the Waiboerhoeve Research Institute, Lelystad, generating conditions that took first-cut ryegrass from 16% DM to 33% DM in just nine hours — and that in a crop yielding an impressive 40t/ha. Fine days, then, and a fine crop for the test’s six candidates to bury their tines in. All sport 8-10 rotors and work at widths from 10.2m to 11.0m. Here’s how they line up:

  • Claas Volto 1100 T
  • Fella TH 11008 Trans
  • Krone KWT 11.22/10
  •  Kuhn GF 10802 TG II
  • Lely Lotus 1020 Profi
  • Pöttinger HIT 10.11 T

Pöttinger, Lely and Kuhn all delivered factory-fresh machines; the others were borrowed from local farms and dealers.

The old tester’s game — spot the difference — started with how the tedders behaved on the road. Fella, Lely and Pöttinger were the most stable at speed thanks to their low centres of gravity, while the more compact Krone, Claas and Kuhn machines turned out to be the most manoeuvrable. Transport widths differed: the Claas, Krone and Lely measured over 3.0m, the Pöttinger and the Fella under 3.0m and the Kuhn was exactly 3.0m. Weights were variable too, with Lely the heaviest at 2.39t against the 1.82t and 1.84t of the lightweight Krone and Claas.

More substantial differences show up in the way these six swap from transport to work, and in the time they take to do it. Claas and Krone unfold their wings and then lift the road wheels over the rotors. Fella, Lely and Pöttinger leave the road wheels ahead of the rotors and use them to set the height of the front of the tedder, whereas Kuhn keeps the road wheels in front of the rotors but lifts them during operation. A small snag with forward-placed wheels is drawbar lift as the rotors unfold.

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