The Claas site in Bad Saulgau, Germany, recently celebrated production of the 250,000th Disco mower. It rolled off the production line, hot on the heels of the launch of a new generation of front mowers featuring a new design and, for FRC models, the optional double roller drive.
“Front mowers play a key role in boosting the productivity and quality of forage harvesting,” says Dirk Röhrich, Global Product Team Manager Greenline of Claas. “The very first step from a simple side-mounted mower to the front-rear mower combination with or without conditioner virtually doubled the area output while reducing the number of passes. The next step in the form of a triple mower combination paved the way for increases in quality and productivity. Today, powerful high-horsepower tractors with front PTO are becoming genuinely self-propelled and, especially in combination with our ‘18-to-12’ swathing strategy, enable a high-capacity, professional forage harvesting chain with the focus on quality.”
Three front-mounted Disco series
The new Claas Disco has adapted the familiar double roller drive with scissor gearbox from the Disco 9700 RC Auto Swather biomass mower for use on the Disco FRC models with roller conditioner. This ensures a higher throughput in extremely leafy crops.
All Disco front mowers in various specifications and options can be combined with a wide range of Disco side mowers and large-scale mowers, from the simple front-rear combination with side hitching and centre of gravity suspension to the powerful biomass mower with conditioner and swath grouping. With the ‘18 to 12’ strategy with combined wide spreading and swath grouping by the Auto Swather cross conveyors, an 18 m mowing width can be consolidated into 12 m for the Liner four-rotor swather following on behind. This optimises the process chain for the forage harvester and enables active control of the wilting process.
Around the world for over 50 years
The current Disco range, comprising almost 40 different models with working widths from 2.20 to 10.70 m, is the result of decades-long experience in mower development and production, as well as the experiences of 250,000 customers worldwide operating in very wide-ranging conditions.
Since 1996, Disco disc mowers have been on the international stage, with innovations like the Max Cut mower bed with wave-shaped profile, the hydro pneumatic Active Float suspension or vector folding. Starting out initially with a working width of 2.60 m, Claas quickly responded to growing demands for large-scale mowers and triple mower combinations, unveiling its first butterfly mower in 1999. At Agritechnica 2005, Claas launched the Cougar self-propelled mower with a working width of 14.0 m, equipped with Active Float suspension and telescopic arms. In 2007, the vertical 90-degree transport folding previously used in rear mowers was superseded by the 120-degree transport position with the center of gravity shifted inwards. Since 2021, diagonal vector folding in the Disco 4400 has enabled safe, legal road transport for working widths of 4.20 m, extended in 2021 to the Disco 1010 with working widths of up to 9.90 m.
The Safety Link module with shear bolts and the angled pivot point on the arms, protects the mower bed and arms from damage on contact with obstacles and large foreign objects. It has a predetermined breaking point which isolates the drive shaft from the affected cutting disc.
For over 15 years, Disco large-scale mowers have been available with Auto Swather swath grouping with cross conveyors. 2023 saw the launch of the flagship Disco 9700 RC Auto Swather with roller conditioner for highly productive biomass crops yielding over 60 t/ha. Since 2024, Direct Swather technology combined with a tapered swathing auger has enabled swath grouping to be performed without a conditioner, making it an efficient option for lighter four-cylinder tractors.
Since 2020, the Max Cut mower bed introduced five years earlier, has been standard equipment on all mowers. It guarantees a clean cut, clean forage and maximum sward protection. High capacity is paired with high cutting frequency at a reduced PTO speed of only 850 rpm. Max Cut has the added benefit of further reducing tractive power requirement and fuel consumption.
Other ideas from the Claas developers at Bad Saulgau include the knife box for housing new and used blades and the introduction of red-painted disc covers and associated knives, making knife changes easier and much faster.
Automatic slope control automatically regulates the Active Float ground pressure control and the Auto Swather belt speeds when mowing on slopes to ensure optimum swath formation and reduce drift and wear.
Bad Salgau site
The “Claas Forage Harvesting Centre of Excellence” in Bad Salgau lies in the heart of one of Europe’s largest grassland regions. As a result, not only have technical innovations found their way into the products over the decades, but many modern production processes have also been introduced.
As part of the ForageGO! project, Claas has invested more than 50 million euros in infrastructure and production facilities at the site since 2023. New assembly lines have been installed for Volto tedders and the Jaguar crop flow to create space for growth, especially in the mowers and swathers area. A new logistics centre with a total floor area of 9,500 2 is currently under construction, with all works scheduled for completion by late summer 2025.
