Paynes
Turf is the first company in the United Kingdom to utilise the Fleischmann
Electric 5 Deck Rotary Mower.
The
Essex based turf farmers began their life cutting meadow turf in the late 1960s
before moving into growing cultivated turf in 1987. From there they have
continued expanding and now grow 1,500 to 1,700 acres with around 30 staff.
Stephen
Payne, partner at Paynes Turf, has been an early adopter of the Fleischmann
after first learning about it at an ETP event in Holland and purchased the
second machine ever made after seeing a demonstration of the first in 2017.
The
mower has five 2.20 metre cutting decks with six blades per deck, giving a
10-metre overall cutting width. It features a braked steering rear axle, and
the lower linkage pivoting hitch provides great manoeuvrability as it's
connected to the rear steer axle, enabling cutting speeds up to 20kph.
Each
blade on the five cutting decks is powered by a low maintenance electric motor,
leaving behind traditional gearboxes and PTO shafts whilst eliminating the risk
of oil leaks. The six high tip speed blades in each deck give more cuts per
metre and excellent clip dispersal because the electric motor spins them much
faster than PTO driven blades.
The
modern generator used to power the mower is very efficient and lowers all the
factors you want less of. That’s low PTO requirements, low engine revs and
lower noise output for quiet operation.
The
size, cut quality and electric operation of the units makes this the perfect
mower for a turf farm, with the ease of maintenance also being a big positive
for Stephen.
“We
use this machine for all of our early mowing across the first two or three
months,” he explained. “Our team has been mowing 500 to 600 acres this Spring
until the end of May, and they’ll be using it again throughout the year when
it’s too wet to use the cylinder mowers and come July/August time they’ll be
using it on the Spring drilling, so it can do a lot of work.
“We
have another farm in Suffolk near Aldeburgh where we currently have rotary’s
doing the mowing that the Fleischmann is doing, but they’re quite old, so I can
see us replacing them with another Fleischmann.”
The
quality of cut Stephen has experienced comes not only from the units, but the
five low ground pressure castor wheels. Each deck has five wheels which are
expertly designed to follow contours and iron out bumps in the surface without
leaving any marks. The wheels are also used to quickly set the height of cut
with all other operations controlled from the in-cab control box.
The
25 castor wheels are joined at the back of the machine by two steerable braked
tyres on the rear axle. These tyres improve the turning circle and prevent any
marks being made and also make the machine safer when travelling at high speed
on the road.
Transporting
the mower is simple with hydraulic folding wings reducing the width of the
machine to a 3-metre transport width. The process of folding has been
meticulously tested to ensure that no marking or scuffing occurs during the
conversion from working to transporting.
Although
the mower is designed for turf growers and sod farmers, it is also perfect for
cutting large areas such as sports pitches and golf course fairways in a
high-quality, quick and fuel-efficient way.
