Divorne Farms Limited Uses KUHN Triple Mower Combination to Maximize Productivity
Divorne Farms located in Haywood, Manitoba, Canada is one of the most unique farming operations in the world today. The farm milks 275 Holstein dairy cows with five Lely® milking robots in a new state of the art 61,000 square foot facility. They are one the first farms in Canada and the second in North America to use an automatic feeding system. The operation also has an automatic bedding system in their barn to help keep animals content and comfortable.
Bruno Divorne serves as the general manager of this highly advanced operation. On a day-to-day basis, he does a variety of jobs. Whether it be taking care of a sick cow or fixing a broken piece of farm machinery, Divorne is always on call. Divorne’s parents started farming in 1973. To this day, Divorne’s 78-year old father is a major shareholder and continues to play an active role on the farm every day.
Along with the dairy farm, Divorne Farms also works and harvests 3,350 acres of corn, canola, oats and alfalfa. The farm was able to provide both a third and fourth crop this year (approximately 500 acres).
The reason they choose to buy a KUHN FC 3525 DF and FC 10030 D triple mower conditioner combination was based off the machine’s availability, the Fast-Fit® knives feature, the cost, the dealer and the farms past experience with KUHN equipment.
“This is not the first time we have had KUHN equipment and it’s always been great,” stated Divorne in regard to their purchasing decision, and he has already started to see the results.
“Now, we’re doing the work of three regular haybines with this one machine,” commented Divorne.
The triple disc mower conditioner combination helps farms like Divorne’s harvest large acreages quickly especially when optimal mowing periods are limited. This includes when the weather won’t cooperate as has been the case in 2016.
“It’s been a terrible year rain wise for us; it was extremely hard for us to produce haylage or make dry hay. If we wouldn’t have had that (the triple mower), we never would have been able to complete our hay crop,” explained Divorne.
The operation has also noticed that even with the wet conditions, the quality of their feed has improved. The reason behind this is the machines superior ground adaption. The ground adaptation allows for a regular and clean cut. However, this not the only benefit Divorne has seen.
“Our cost to bring in a ton of forage is reduced because we are using less fuel and less manpower,” Divorne commented.
With all these benefits, Divorne could only cite one small maintenance item, but not a negative one at all.
“We had to call for parts once on the mower and that was to replace the knives,” explained Divorne. Fast-Fit knives come as standard on the triple mower conditioner combination and can be changed out quickly with the use of a simple tool. These knives still provide the optimum cut quality.
The triple mower is not the only KUHN equipment Divorne has on his operation. Divorne Farms Limited also has a MergeMaxx® MM 700 hay merger.
Divorne bought both these machines from his local KUHN dealer. The hay merger and triple disc mower conditioner were purchased from H & L Motors in Glenboro, Manitoba, Canada.
“They are wonderful people to deal with. They aren’t a big dealership, but the service they have really goes a long way,” explained Divorne about his relationship with his dealer.
Divorne’s final comments on his triple disc mower conditioner were extremely positive.
“The capacity, dependability and the job it does have really impressed me. I can’t say a bad thing about this machine and it’s been more than what we expected. Our costs to run this machine along with fuel consumption and manpower compared to what we were doing before is a fraction of the price."