Sustainable and insect-friendly: The new scaring device from AS-Motor
AS-Motor is the expert when it comes to maintaining extensively managed grassland areas with tall grass. The customer can choose between devices with different mowing techniques: from flail mowers to sickle mowers and bar mowers to roundabout mowers, there is a wide range. In order to make all these mowing methods even more sustainable and insect-friendly, we now offer a scare device for the most important products.
Shooing away and scaring away - What's behind it?
The idea of culling has been around for a long time and is mainly known from agriculture. It originated in the course of the mechanisation of grassland mowing, with which the number of killed animals such as deer or foxes increased. By disturbing and scaring away the animals before mowing, they can be saved from death in most cases. It is now known that mowing is also one of the causes of insect decline.
AS-Motor has been working intensively for years on ecologically oriented grassland management and has, for example, produced a comprehensive guide on what needs to be considered with regard to mowing techniques. After all, the first thought that arises here is simply not to mow in order to protect the entire fauna. After all, extensive mowing is indispensable for keeping the areas open and for ensuring a diverse flora and the associated important habitat for a rich fauna. With its wide range of products, from bar mowers to devices with optimised flail and sickle mowing technology to belt rakes for removing the cuttings, AS-Motor offers the right device for every application. Mulch mowers are particularly useful on slopes and where there is a lot of scrub. In search of an additional mechanical solution to make mowing and mulching more insect-friendly, AS-Motor is presenting its new scare device at GaLaBau.
Robust and all-terrain
The scouring device is available for the all-mowers AS 62 and AS 63, for the flail mowers AS 701 and AS 901, for the new tracked flail mower AS 1000 Ovis RC as well as for the entire Sherpa and the entire YAK family. The device itself is the same for all machine types, what differs is the respective adapter for attachment to the machine. The material used for the front bar of the device is deliberately very flexible so that it does not break immediately when hitting smaller obstacles. For larger obstacles, the rod folds in. Here, the resistance can be adjusted as desired. Folding in also offers the advantage that the respective device does not become larger for transport. The scouring device can be adjusted to different positions and thus optimally adapted to the conditions of the respective stand. The height of the joint can be positioned high up at the flower level or lower down, depending on where you expect most insects to be. The distance from the device can also be adjusted. Overall, the device is characterised by its simplicity and robustness.
More surviving insects
In cooperation with the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Hohenheim, various trials were carried out which, among other things, confirmed the benefits of the Scheuch device. The first trial was carried out with an AS 63 all-mower as the carrier vehicle. In order to ensure that the results are reliable, comparative runs were carried out with and without the scaring device in several repetitions. The number of insects flushed out was determined by means of a catch basket attached to the device. The result clearly shows the benefit of the device. During the trials, about three times as many insects were flushed out with the flushing device (compared to the trials without the flushing device) and thus moved out of the danger zone of the mower. Further trials with dummy insects suggest that the survival rate of insects can be increased by using single blades in combination with a higher cut.
