Yellow-liveried mergers from ROC appeared on Kverneland’s Scotgrass stand for the first time following its acquisition of the Italian firm, which was previously imported to the UK by Shutts Farm Machinery.

The biggest of the trio on show was the RT 880 model, though KV expects strong UK demand for the wider versions – headed by the 12.2m RT 1220.

It means there are now six merger brands available in the UK, which reflects the flurry of interest in alternatives to the ubiquitous four-rotor rake.

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For contractors, one of the major appeals is the reduction in stone contamination and the ensuing carnage caused by a forager consuming a foreign object.

Similarly, many big dairy farms are worrying less about scraping up every blade of grass and more about the quality of silage produced – in which cutting soil contamination has a big role to play.

The 8.85m-wide RT 880 is led by a six-bar pick-up that flicks the grass onto a 1m-deep belt. This can throw the forage either left or right, or form a central swath that tends to be squarer and fluffier than one produced by a rake.

Some buyers are choosing to pair their trailed rear machines with ROC’s front-mounted RT 380, which runs on a double set of suspended bogie wheels.

Though it’s a pricey combination, it saves the grass being driven on by the tractor, so the tines don’t have to work so aggressively to pull it out of the wheelings and the risk of contamination is lower.

The stumbling block might be the price – a well-specced RT 880 costs a heady £114,937 and the front RT 380 is £28,265, making it significantly more expensive than a rake.