Burning less diesel and clocking fewer hours by completing two field passes at once might sound like a dream setup, yet one machine that can make that possible – Agronic’s WR rake – has so far proved a surprisingly tough sell in the UK.

The lack of demand is hard to fathom for Mike Henderson and Arron Lambie of Aberfeldy-based J&A Henderson, who have been running a WR500 for the past three years.

See also: Buyers guide: Second-hand four-rotor rakes

They had previously baled silage grass straight behind a 10ft mower bed but, with up to 9,000 bales to churn out annually, they were keen to speed up the process.

“Running along every mower swath meant we were pretty much driving over the whole field, and that was getting too time-consuming,” says Mike.

“I demoed the Agronic after my pal saw one working on the front of a loader tractor in New Zealand, and it was so good that we refused to give it back after the first day.”

The total investment in the WR500 – the smaller member of a two-model range – was a mere £6,300.

“Six grand doesn’t get you much these days. It was cheaper than a rear-mounted single-rotor rake and, by shifting two rows into one at the same time as baling, we had an immediate cost benefit in time and diesel savings.

“We’re now only having to cover 60% of the field rather than 100%, so it has already paid for itself several times over,” he adds.

It also works favourably for customers, who are not charged for raking – potentially saving them the cost of another tractor and operator. Better still, he says, it’s as simple as it gets.

Rather than complicated electronics, gearboxes, drivelines and cam tracks, there’s little more to it than a couple of hydraulic motors, a steel frame and two sets of long-lasting nylon tines. That means everything can be quickly fixed in the workshop.

Increased output

The rake runs ahead of a 2017 Lely Welger fixed chamber RP245. It adds just 1.5 litre/hour to the tractor’s diesel consumption and is perfectly capable of working at the baler’s typical speed of 9kph in silage crops and 12kph in hay.

Average output has been increased by nearly 40%, allowing operator Arron to knock out up to 50 bales an hour – the main limiting factor being the hillside ground that makes up much of the firm’s contracted acreage.

Total working width of the WR500 is 4.6m between the outermost tips of each 1.1m rotor drum when fully extended. This provides enough reach to grab two 3.2m (10ft) mower cuts.

Rotor speed is adjusted via the John Deere 6155R’s hydraulic flow control system.

This tends to be dialled down to 38% for heavy silage crops, or set at 44% for hay that needs to be flicked more aggressively to form a wide enough swath for the baler pick-up.

“Having the adjustment at my fingertips means I can always keep the pick-up consistently full to form a decent shaped bale without having to weave around – which would obviously be impossible with the rake on the front, anyway,” says Arron.

“The customers love it, as not only can I get over the fields quicker, but the bales are of an even shape, so they stack far better.”

It mounts on the standard lower links, with the top link replaced by a heavy-duty chain. Once set in “float”, this leaves the rake to run on its three guide wheels to hug the ground contours.

© MAG/Oliver Mark

Each rotor carries 16 nylon tines mounted in a near-horizontal position and held in place by standard “R” clips.

Any questions about their longevity versus steel equivalents have been put to bed, with the rake still on its original set after 800ha of work.

One they’ve worn into a short, sharp point they can also be reversed – something Arron did for the first time this season – and there’s a pressure relief valve plumbed into each rotor drive to stop it turning should it whack something it shouldn’t.

The tines can also be moulded back into shape. “I bent one going through a ford and, to fix it, I just boiled the kettle, warmed it up, and straightened it out – and it now looks just the same as all the rest.

“Plus, I don’t need to worry about a tine going through the baler, as it won’t do any damage, and their gentle pitch has reduced soil contamination in undulating fields. This is particularly important as we tend to cut the grass as tight as possible.”

Price premium

The business charges a 50p/bale premium for crops that have been tedded, as this restricts each pass to the working width of the rake – effectively losing about 1m in the process.

“We only benefit from the front rake if the crop has been left in swaths after it has been mown because, at full extension, we can comfortably reach two 10ft cuts.

Once the grass has been scattered about, we can only collect the equivalent of one-and-a-half cuts, which slows us down considerably,” says Mike.

“The premium is mainly for sheep farms that like haylage rather than silage, and it still works out much cheaper than most of the competition – some boys around here are charging £9/acre [£22/ha] to rake, whereas with our surcharge it is only costing them £5/acre [£12/ha] based on 10 bales an acre.”

Downsides

The biggest challenge, as with most grass work, is keeping the tractor cool – particularly when the grass has gone to seed and is more likely to block the tractor’s radiator grilles.

Though you would expect fields with sweeping headland bends and no straight edges to cause headaches in terms of keeping the baler in line with the swath, it’s not the case, according to Arron.

“We usually do seven laps of the headland with the mower – the outer three of those I bale with the rake lifted out of work. The remaining four can then be taken in two passes by raking pairs of rows into one swath.

“If necessary, the rake can run at 90deg to the swath in awkward corners and, because it does such a great hoovering job, it’ll still pick up all the grass.

“Then, once I’ve cleared the headland, I work in straight lines – we mow everything on full GPS autosteer anyway, so once I’m into the body of the field, it’s easy work.”

Road travel presents its own challenges, with the rake protruding 2m from the front of the tractor and the team having to travel up to 20 miles from its Aberfeldy base – often battling tourist traffic along single-track roads.

To ease the challenge, the three outermost tines on each rotor can be removed and locked in sleeves above, and Arron has also fitted side markers and beacons.

Plus, where gateways are too tight to access, the rake, which weighs just 395kg, is light enough to be dropped off and pushed through by hand.