The flail mower differs considerably from sickle mowers and rotary mowers in some points.
A comparison between the mowing systems illustrates the differences.
Here the example of the AS 1040 YAK 4WD flail mower compared to the AS 940 Sherpa 4WD sickle mower.
Higher mowing speed:
- A large inlet opening on the mower deck allows high grass and undergrowth to reach the flail mower quickly
- The horizontally rotating flails shred the crop quickly and evenly
- The shredded cuttings fall back onto the sward from above directly behind the mower deck. It does not have to be ejected against the resistance of side or rear deflectors
- The generously dimensioned ejection opening is equipped with safety stone throw guard.
All sickle mowers have a disadvantage due to their construction, which is particularly noticeable when mowing high vegetation. The higher and finer the grass, the less clean the cutting edges of each mowed strip can become. This is due to the fact that long grass is pressed down almost horizontally by the mowing deck and thus offers less resistance to the cutting blade. In order to still achieve a visually good cutting pattern, the driver must compensate for this by overlapping mowing.
The flail mower on the other hand, with its many horizontally mounted flails, cuts the grass at a more acute angle. The mowing pattern is therefore even over the full cutting width, even at the cutting edges. It can be mowed much more precisely with less overlapping.
Illustration
Example: sickle mower in high grass, 90 cm cutting width:
25 cm of 90 cm are lost through overlapping mowing = 28 % effective mowing width loss.
Higher mowing speed plus less doubling results in up to 30 % higher area output.
Illustration
Example flail mower in high grass, 100 cm cutting width: 10 cm of 100 cm are lost through overlapping mowing = only 10 % effective mowing width loss