At a glance, it has a working width of up to 9.5m, Active Float ground-pressure control, non-stop collision protection, roller conditioner and flexible, high-performance Auto Swather swath grouping with optimised crop flow. These features, the company says, make it the professional machine of choice for ‘powerful yet gentle’ forage and biomass harvesting.
According to Claas, cutting alfalfa, winter forage, and whole-crop silage is a special challenge for mowers. While alfalfa is a fragile crop that calls for particularly gentle conditioning, like whole-crop silage and winter forage, it also produces high yields, so the mower has to handle high volumes of material as well. Efficient crop flow is, therefore, just as important as robust, sturdy drives and high-performance swath grouping with optimised swath formation.
As the flagship of the new Disco 9700 series, the Disco 9700 RC Auto Swather has been designed specifically for harvesting high to very high forage volumes combined with gentle conditioning and swath grouping, according to Claas.
The innovative crop flow is a particular feature of the Disco 9700 RC Auto Swather. As standard, the roller conditioners are driven by a double drive roller with a specially designed scissor gearbox – for maximum throughput and durability even under sustained heavy use. The transmission and drive trains are designed for use with tractors up to 500hp and incorporate new, P-Line triple telescopic driveshafts developed jointly with Walterscheid featuring specially toughened large diameter steel profiles and a new K-90 friction clutch.
Two counter-rotating polyurethane rollers crush the crop gently yet effectively without loss. The conditioner spans the entire width of the mower bed to ensure continuous linear flow without forage blockages. Optimised crop transfer to the 1,100mm wide, extremely robust Kevlar-reinforced cross conveyor belts ensures uniform filling of the Auto Swather belt units. This produces an even, loose and perfectly shaped swath, which the harvester following behind can easily pick up and process.
When working without swath grouping, with less regrowth or when less wilting is required, one or both of the belt units can be folded up hydraulically to consolidate a working width of 19m to 12m (the ‘19 to 12’ method) for the next pass with a 12.7m wide standard four-rotor swather.