New Holland is branching out further into green energy

New Holland's brand new specialist willow header is to be put through its paces at a special coppicing demonstration on 18th and 19th March at E.ON's groundbreaking Steven's Croft power station near Lockerbie.

The header, which easily attaches to the FR9000 range of Forage Harvesters, has been designed to double the harvesting acreage of Short Rotation Coppice Willow so far achieved by competitor products.  And it means that, for the first time, willow contractors will be able to harvest the crop far more effectively.

The New Holland willow header was developed as a prototype in Yorkshire a year ago. Since then it has been tested and refined and is now being manufactured in New Holland's plant in Pennsylvania, USA.

It has a proven field rate of over 20 acres a day. It has forward speeds of up to 12.5 km an hour and is capable of tackling stems of up to 200mm and trees of 12.5 metres high.

The willow, a renewable biomass crop, is used to fuel the power station and generate green electricity.

The coppicing demonstration is being held in conjunction with E.ON at Steven's Croft – Scotland's largest biomass power station – and Lantmannen Renewable Fuels, who plant, harvest and supply the SRC wood chip for fuel.

New Holland's Harvest Marketing Support Specialist Symon Bradney says there are several very distinct advantages with this new header:

“The beauty of this header is that it attaches very easily to the forage harvester, like the New Holland maize, grass and wholecrop headers, so it doesn't take hours to modify the machine.  And it's very reliable.  Both these factors mean there is little down time for the contractor.

“Inside we've developed heavy duty forestry feed rolls so the machine can cope with the tougher material effectively.  These factors mean that it is easier for the contractor to get more, efficient use out of the forage harvester and will help to spread the cost of ownership and increase the profit margins.”