A father and his son were spurring their horses on a pleasant, sunny afternoon in early November. For this year’s last raking job, they were using a Deutz-Fahr 4WD and a Fendt 2WD farm tractor.
I caught them just in time, as you can see they were almost done.
The Deutz-Fahr Agrotron 115 Mk2 teamed up with a Ziegler Twin 850-VS rake. This tractor model was offered from 1998 to 2001. It’s powered by a KHD (Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz) turbocharged and intercooled six-cylinder engine with a displacement of 4.8 liter, maximum power output 116 hp.
For mowing, tedding and raking you don’t need a large, powerful 4WD tractor. Towing massive, tandem or tridem axle silage wagons is something else though. But that last stage of the whole process, picking up the grass, is mostly done by contractors. And contractors typically own powerful (more than 200 hp) 4WD farm tractors, often used for both agricultural work and earth moving.
The Austrian in the field was this Pöttinger EuroTop 601 rake. Neatly folded up, as it had just finished its job.
The rake is coupled to an older Fendt tractor, too bad I couldn’t catch the model designation. But I’d say it’s a circa 30 years old 300-series with a three- or four-cylinder MWM engine, 3.1 or 4.2 liter displacement, respectively. MWM stands for Motoren Werke Mannheim.
Somewhat later, the Deutz-Fahr & Ziegler duo was also ready. For liftoff, in this case.
And that was that for 2020! Next turn in the spring of 2021.
Previous episode (tedding):
CC Global: John Deere 6330 And Lely Lotus 1020 S – Summer Feeling In November
Reading this is probably how some of my friends look at me (and most of us probably), I can barely tell one is a Deutz and the other a Fendt (actually I can’t until you tell me), let alone the build year and model. I totally understand how the average witness to an automotive hit and run might say they thought the car in question was either an Impala or an Accord, but then again perhaps it was a Tempo.
Now I have an urge to rake the leaves and mow the lawn one last time this season.
The rule of thumb: a Deutz-Fahr is light green, a Fendt is dark green and a John Deere is somewhere inbetween.
Finding the exact model and year built isn’t easy, as tractors don’t have a license plate here (yet). You must have the model designation, zooming in on details also helps. The cab roof of an Agrotron 115 Mk2 differs from a Mk3, for example.
As so often, there’s a German website with endless specs of whatever the machinery, for farm tractors you can go to: https://www.tractorbook.de/
It’s great fun! Almost better than driving a big Ford pickup!!
Raking hay with my ’50 8N was one of the most relaxing, therapeutic activities I could engage in on our former farm. I used a PTO-driven Ferguson D-EO-20 rake for a number of years, and replaced it with a BEFCO RS2-04R when the Fergie broke beyond repair. The finger rake was very quiet since it works by being dragged along the ground. The Ferguson had a nice snick-snick-snick sound that was mesmerizing. I’d always have a cloud of barn swallows around me as they dove in like little Spitfires to catch the bugs I stirred up.
Former farm? So no Hesston windrower anymore either?
Yep, I retired early this year and we moved to the Middle South USA to be close to grandkids. Downsized to 1 acre, and sold all the farming gear. Still have both tractors, but only take them to shows these days.