Etesia Buffalo – Power in Paradise

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Etesia Buffalo – Power in Paradise: After two unsuccessful mowers, landowner Dr Ueli Zellweger has finally found the ride-on mower he was looking for to help maintain the ‘most beautiful spot on earth.’

Dr Ueli Zellweger, a retired veterinary physician, found his slice of paradise in 1995 when he and his wife moved from Switzerland to a beautiful location in Exeter. Their magnificent house is surrounded by 15 acres of land which includes paddocks, a horse riding arena and a huge man-made lake, which were created by Ueli and his wife.

Etesia Buffalo – Power in Paradise

Etesia Buffalo – Power in Paradise

With so many acres of green space, it is vital that Ueli has only the finest turf maintenance machinery. However, finding a mower efficient enough to deal with the slopes, verges and tough terrain has not been straightforward – that was until he came across the Etesia Buffalo 124 HVHPX 4WD machine.

“I had two previous ride-on mowers before the Buffalo and unfortunately they just were not good enough,” said Ueli. “The first one would always clog up with grass cuttings and I would have to stop every so often to clear it. The second one did not cope too well with slopes and I kept getting stuck.

“I asked my local garden machinery dealer, Tom Williams, to give me the best and most powerful machine he had. He was quick to recommend the Etesia Buffalo 124 and after I saw it demonstrated, it didn’t take me long to make a decision.”

If it was power that Ueli was looking for then Tom Williams certainly gave him the correct advice. Fitted with a 124-cm overlapping cutting deck and a powerful 23-hp two-cylinder Briggs and Stratton engine with catalytic converter as standard, the Etesia Buffalo has a high hourly mowing output of up to 15,000 sq m. per hour, and an unequalled weight-to-power ratio.

The efficiency of the cutting system allows the operator to work faster (up to 12 km/h) and to improve productivity and output – the Buffalo excels even in wet conditions. Furthermore, this unique ride-on mower is fitted with a built-in grass collector with a capacity of 600 litres, and the hydraulic emptying system is controlled from the driver’s seat up to 1.8 metres.

Ueli believes he has finally found a mower he can rely on.

“We have the most beautiful spot on earth here and my wife has designed all of the gardens, so we are deeply passionate about our land. We spend a lot of time in the gardens and therefore it is essential to have the correct equipment in place to help keep it maintained. This Etesia Buffalo is the one.

Etesia Buffalo – Power in Paradise

Etesia Buffalo – Power in Paradise

“It is incredibly powerful, the most powerful machine I have ever had – it glides over uneven ground and slopes effortlessly. There is one area on the estate – a field next to the house – and it consists of very dense, coarse grass. The Buffalo cuts it brilliantly. Every other mower I have used in the past had failed. Whether it is short grass, long grass, rough grass, wet grass – it cuts absolutely everything, and the quality of cut is always fantastic. It is also good to have the peace of mind that I am no longer going to get stuck on a slope.

“I like the versatility of being able to change the height of cut depending on the situation and the operator controls are very user friendly. There are two levers on the right-hand side – one is for emptying the grass box and one is for raising it. Everything on this machine is so easy to operate.

“It is just a joy to use,” continued Ueli. “I put my earphones in and listen to my music while I cut with the Buffalo – I don’t see it as work because it is so enjoyable.”

To complement Ueli’s Buffalo, he and his wife also rely on the Etesia Duocut Battery NACTS pedestrian mower. This battery-powered walk-behind mower is environmentally responsible, compact, rugged and efficient. It can easily handle collection, mulching and mowing without the need of any additional attachments.

“There are smaller areas that you can’t get to with the ride-on mower and this is where the Duocut comes in – it is fantastic at doing the tight edges or small pathways. It is powerful and light, smooth and silent,” said Ueli.

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.co.uk.

You can also follow Etesia on Twitter @EtesiaUK for much more news, reviews and insightful views

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Razor Ultra ‘too good not to have’

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Razor Ultra ‘too good not to have’: After Ian Fraser, head greenkeeper at Pitmedden Bowls Club in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, trialled the Dennis Razor Ultra 560 for just a weekend – he quickly decided he couldn’t be without it.

Ian has long been associated with his beloved Pitmedden Bowls Club. He’s been a player, and still is, a member of the committee and now he is the head greenkeeper. Therefore, he smiles more than most when people lavish praise on the outstanding playing surface at Pitmedden.

Razor Ultra 'too good not to have'

Razor Ultra ‘too good not to have’

Ian has transformed the greens over recent years. Determination, the willingness to learn and his love for the club have all been vital ingredients in his success. However, the modest greenkeeper also claims that the upgrade of various turf maintenance equipment has also been key – perhaps none more so than the new Dennis Razor Ultra 560 mower.

“I trialled a Razor Ultra for a weekend, said Ian. “From that moment I could tell just how good it was. It was easier to handle, it was wider, which meant that I didn’t have to do as many passes and the roller did a better job.

“My previous mower had a 9-blade cutting cylinder but the Razor Ultra has an 11-blade cylinder and I could tell the difference in the quality of cut straight away.”

Superbly balanced and ideal for bowls greens and other fine turf surfaces, the Razor Ultra has an operating width of 560mm (22in) and an 11-blade cutting cylinder for a perfect finish. An ultra-short wheelbase ensures easy manoeuvrability and excellent performance, even on undulating surfaces.

The Dennis Razor Ultra also encompasses the simple ‘no tools required’ click height adjusters for quick and easy operation, a feature which Ian is particularly impressed with.

“It is just so simple, especially if you cut at different heights like I do”, said Ian. “I normally cut at 5mm but when it’s competition time I cut it down to 4mm, and then maybe 3mm in the height of summer when the grass is quite sturdy and growing thicker. Even if you cut at 7mm with this mower, you can still play a good game of bowls on it.

“It’s an operator’s dream,” continued Ian. “It’s comfortable to use and I really like the round handlebars – it makes it so easy for turning and manoeuvring around the green.

“The finish is second to none and I find it hard to believe that there is another mower out there that cuts as well.”

Ian likes the fact that Dennis is a prominent British manufacturer with a great long-standing history and he also claims that he feels like he is in safe hands with the company.

“I’ve had a lot of equipment from Dennis and SISIS over the years and it is always a pleasure dealing with them – they look after their customers, that’s for sure. Ewen Wilson (Dennis and SISIS northern area sales manager) is always very attentive when he is here and is always available if I need him.

“It is a first-class service all round from the company.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com

For more news, reviews and insightful views, you can follow Dennis on Twitter and Instagram @DennisMowers and like the company’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/DennisMowersUK.You can also view the latest Dennis videos by visiting www.youtube.com/DennisMowers

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Irelands Farm Machinery takes on Kubota equipment

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Irelands Farm Machinery takes on Kubota equipment: Kubota (UK) Ltd continues to strengthen its dealer network by announcing that Lincolnshire-based Irelands Farm Machinery is to add the Kubota groundcare equipment range to its existing Kubota tractor business, effective from 6 October 2020.

The move will extend the product offering to include a full range of compact tractors from 18-60hp, commercial and domestic ride-on mowers and RTV utility vehicles, putting the firm on a path for further expansion into new markets.

Irelands Farm Machinery takes on Kubota equipment

Irelands Farm Machinery takes on Kubota equipment

“We’re extremely pleased to be able to support Irelands Farm Machinery with the opportunity for further growth of its business,” explains Tim Yates, business development manager, Kubota (UK). “This partnership will help Kubota to further strengthen its position in these important markets with the ability to cross-sell between agriculture and groundcare customers.”

Operating from three locations – Carrington, Sutterton and Market Rasen – Irelands Farm Machinery, run by husband and wife team Jonathan and Fiona Ireland, has become a key dealer for the supply of new and used tractors and machinery.

“The arrival of Kubota groundcare equipment to our existing business is a fantastic opportunity for us,” explains owner and director Jonathan Ireland. “It reinforces Kubota’s commitment to the industry, and we’re extremely pleased to now offer a greater range of Kubota machines to customers old and new, in addition to the wider community.”

The business also operates its own tractor hire fleet, and is an area that Jonathan Ireland wants to replicate by introducing a dedicated hire fleet of groundcare equipment.

“Having the opportunity to add to what we do with the development of a groundcare machinery hire fleet will also create additional opportunities with golf clubs, parks and sports grounds,” says Jonathan.

Established in 1994, Irelands Farm Machinery has developed its core business to include a wide range of cutting-edge equipment, while earning a reputation for providing a knowledgeable, reliable and helpful service. In addition to the premium-brand Kubota tractor range, which the firm has been selling since 2014, the dealership also has prestigious franchises from respected machinery brands.

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INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts

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INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts: Having seen them in action on the world-famous Wimbledon courts, The Lensbury Club in Middlesex are one of a growing list of clubs taking delivery of an INFINICUT® mower for use on their grass tennis courts.

Along with a set of UltraGroomer™ cassettes from the TMSystem™, Grounds and Gardens Manager Peter Craig says the improvements in the quality and appearance of the six courts hasn’t gone unnoticed by the club’s members.

INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts

INFINICUT and UltraGroomer™ delivers quality courts

Following an 18-year term at the Hurlingham Club – during which, he started looking into the INFINICUT® – Peter re-joined The Lensbury in 2018. “We started to see some famous venues using the INFINICUT® mowers and I was lucky enough to see them in action first-hand on the courts at Wimbledon which only further sparked my interest” he explains. “When I returned to The Lensbury, I organised for the team to have a demonstration and they loved it straight from the off”. They became the proud owners of a 22” Fixed Head INFINICUT® shortly after its launch at the end of 2018.

“It gives such a fantastic quality of cut and finish – the definition of stripe is excellent and the HOC and bedknife adjustment systems could not be simpler. The fact that it’s battery powered and therefore more environmentally friendly has always been a major plus-point for me; but even more so now, with the courts at The Lensbury located very close to a residential road. In the past, this meant we were unable to use machinery before 8am but, because the INFINICUT® is so quiet in operation, we can get out and mow at 7am. This means we effectively gain five additional working hours a week, where necessary.”

Recently, the club also purchased a set of UltraGroomer™ cassettes from the TMSystem™ range for early and in-season verti-cutting. “We’re running those in our Jacobsen GP400 triple to remove any lateral growth and clean the surface up. We’ll use these as soon as we start getting some consistent growth in April/May, then will aim to cover all of the courts once a month after that”. The UltraGroomer’s are also in use on the site’s ornamental lawns. “Improving these areas was one of my key goals when I returned, and these cassettes have contributed towards bringing the lawns up to the standards we’re achieving elsewhere.”

The grass courts are a major attraction at the Lensbury Club, with a strong membership regularly playing on them. “They’re over the moon with the condition of the courts. We’ve previously had some of the world’s leading players using the courts for tournament preparations and, while this isn’t currently the case, the quality of the courts are certainly good enough once again to host that level of play should they return.”

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A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

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A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!: The main requirement for a mower is of course to cut grass, therefore Baroness always make this their primary objective when designing cutting units.

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

The main criteria to consider during the design phase of a cutting unit is:

  • A high quality of cut thus ensuring a healthy grass plant and a superior presentation.
  • Simple and infrequent blade adjustments.
  • Low maintenance costs.

The common denominator between all three of these is the material used to make the blades from, which in turn allows other design features to be exploited:

Relief Grinding

Relief Grinding is a process that not all reel mower operators support, usually due to bad experiences in the past and not fully understanding the science behind the practise.

As most reel mower operators will be aware, blade relief is where the trailing edge of a reel blade is ground away at an angle to reduce the surface area of the cutting tip.  The thinner the cutting tip surface area is, the less friction will be produced between the cutting reel blades and the bedknife, and this in turn will reduce wear to the bedknife.  This is important because the bedknife is the blade which will lose its edge first due to it being subjected to multiple reel blade passes per single reel revolution, and if you can keep the edge of the bedknife sharp then you will maintain a high quality of cut and a healthy grass plant.

To reap the maximum benefits from relief grinding the blade material used must be of a very high quality.  If the blade was made of a soft material, then the very thin cutting edge produced by the relief grind process would wear away very quickly, and this would result in constant blade adjustments being required, which would then increase operator workload and frustration.

Achieving a hard blade is not just a matter of using a heat-treating process.  Whilst heat treating will make any steel hard, it can also make it brittle, so to make a blade hard and strong it is crucial to use a suitable alloy coupled with a carefully controlled heat treatment process.

Baroness use a carefully formulated alloy of Nickel, Chrome and Molybdenum to make their blades from, and this very hard wearing and tough material allows the cutting edge to be relief ground down to just 0.5mm, thus keeping friction, heat and wear to a minimum.

Back-Lapping

Back-lapping is another process that not all reel mower operators support, and this is usually because the reels that they have been trying to back-lap are not compatible with the process.

A reel blade which has not been relief ground will be very wide at the cutting tip, but when it becomes blunt it is usually just the leading edge of the blade that becomes rounded.  However, to make this reel blade sharp again, all the material back from this rounded tip will need to be removed.  To remove all of this material using back-lapping alone would take a long time, and by the time this material was removed, the back-lapping paste would have worn away the cutting edge of the bedknife, thus making the process counter-productive.

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

If on the other hand the reel blades have been relief ground, then the cutting tip would be very thin and will therefore only require minimum material to be removed to make the reel blade sharp again, which could be done very quickly without wearing the cutting edge of the bedknife away.  As the blade material that Baroness uses enables the relief grind to be taken down to a cutting edge of just 0.5mm, the full benefits of back-lapping are utilised.

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

A Durable & Clean Cut, The Baroness Way!

Therefore, relief grinding, coupled with a good quality blade material, is key to quickly and easily keeping your blades sharp at a minimal cost, which in turn will improve the health of your grass plant.

#LessstresswithBaroness

www.baronessuk.com

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