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The Eco Clipper ® Mowing System

Eco Clipper offers a mowing system with many advantages over traditional cylinder and rotary mowers. It consists out of independently suspended 106 cm wide deck sections. These sections are cleverly linked together in larger, but flexible contour following mowing decks. Each deck section has three fast spinning blades combined with a smooth bottom and large tires. This delivers a clean cut, even clippings dispersion and excellent following of the ground contours with minimal soil compaction. Also under wet mowing conditions the clippings are equaly dispersed.

Configure the mower you need

The decks can be attached to different frames, carried or towed. A front mower can consist out of a single deck consisting out of 2 till 6 sections. A towed mower can be of 10 till 14 sections wide, built out of 3 separate decks. A carried rear mower, combined with a front mower also can be 10 till 14 sections wide.

ecoclipper folded to show mowing decks

Follow the growth of grass

With its unique capabilities the Eco Clipper mowing system can be scheduled to follow the growth of the grass virtually regardless of weather conditions. This means control on the amount of clippings that are produced each mowing cycle, avoiding the need to remove excess clippings and to grow a strong root base in a shorter time.

 

Economic

Last, but not least, the Eco Clipper mowing system enables minimal operational costs of mowing. The mowing speed can be high. Depending on the circumstances*, mowing speeds till 25 km/h are possible. With a range from 4,11 till 14,11 m cutting width it is always possible to find the optimal width that matches the operating conditions and available tractor size. The Eco Clipper mowing system requires little maintenance. Important is to keep the blades sharp for a quality cut. The electric power train has a high efficiency and is maintenance free. Greasing is minimized to around once a month. All this leads to a very economical mower.

 

* For the higher speeds over 16 km/h, smooth and regular maintained fields and a tractor with a variomatic gearbox and sufficient power are required.

Turfgrass Management

Grass roots are a fibrous, shallow and branched root system that is sensitive to the environment and the management practices performed on them. Roots must rely on the aboveground green tissue to produce the carbohydrates needed for growth.

The main factor influencing root growth is the soil. Root growth is restricted in compacted soil due to the physical barrier and reduced soil oxygen. Soil oxygen is critical for good root respiration and plant health.

Mowing is one of the main factors influencing root growth. Lower mowing heights reduce the plant’s ability to produce carbohydrates through photosynthesis, resulting in less energy production for root growth and a shallower root system. Higher mowing heights increase the leaf area and thus the root mass and root depth. The relationship between grass height and root depth is almost linear.

The grasses used as turf can be mowed because their growing point is located near the soil surface. These grasses have the special ability to increase their density below the mowing height to compensate for the loss of green tissue from mowing. Mowing heights should be kept as high as possible based on the use of the turf.

The mowing frequency depends on the mowing height. The lower the mowing height, the more often the area must be mowed. As a rule no more than 1/3 of the aboveground tissue should be removed at one time. Removal of more than 40% of the tissue can stop root growth for a period of 6 days to more than 2 weeks.

If the mowing height needs to be lowered before harvest, this should be done in small steps over several weeks. This allows the turf to increase its density to tolerate the lower mowing heights.

The grass clippings are best returned to the turf. Concerns about the production of thatch due to returning grass clippings have been dismissed in several scientific studies. The grass clippings quickly decompose and increase the nitrogen of the leaf tissue and soil nitrogen as well as increase the carbon in the soil. Excess clippings that are choking the grass should be removed.

 

 

 

Information from: Christians, N.E. Patton, A.J. and Law, Q.D, 2016. Fundamentals of Turfgrass Management, John Wiley and Sons, Inc