CLAAS JAGUAR with SHREDLAGE named Machine of the Year

THE CLAAS JAGUAR forage harvester equipped with patented SHREDLAGE maize processing technology has won the special Jury Prize in the 2017 Machine of the Year awards presented at SIMA last week.

Held outside Paris, France, the biennial event is one of Europe’s leading agricultural exhibitions and is rivalled only by Germany’s AgriTechnica.

SHREDLAGE® technology, which intensively processes corn kernels and ‘long chop’ stalks, was developed over the past decade by two U.S. dairy nutritionists, Roger Olson and Ross Dale. CLAAS acquired the international distribution rights for the technology last year for use in its industry-leading range of JAGUAR forage harvesters.

CLAAS V-MAX V20 and V-CLASSIC V24 chopping cylinders produce a chop length of 26 to 30 mm, about 10 mm longer than conventional silage. Two specially-designed LOREN CUT rollers that fit into the CLAAS MULTI CROP CRACKER (MCC-L) processor then smash the kernels to a fraction of their normal size whilst simultaneously shredding the stalks into planks and strings.

CLAAS Group Product Manager – JAGUAR and Greenline, Luke Wheeler, says university studies have shown the process can significantly improve milk yield and feed conversion efficiency. “The intensive conditioning of the kernels and stalks increases the surface area exposed to microbial activity in the rumen, greatly improving the availability and digestibility of the starch,” he says. “In addition, this rumen-friendly structure is believed to improve the health of the herd. The need to supplement with other fibre sources, such as straw, can also be reduced or even eliminated, producing even greater savings.”

SHREDLAGE® technology has already been widely adopted by dairy farmers in North America and more recently, Europe.

This was the second year that Machine of the Year awards have been presented at SIMA by the French magazine, Terre-Net, in co-operation with the German agricultural publisher, DLV. The awards recognise the world’s best innovations in agricultural technology. This year, the panel of agricultural machinery journalists from across Europe assessed 70 applications across 17 categories.