Lely’s giant Splendimo 550P mower has a 5.5m cut, making it, says the company, the world’s widest mower without a conditioner.

It has an unusual design of frame in which two 2.8m wide cutterbars are suspended in a mutually offset position. The two cutterbars can move independently of each other to follow the ground contours and there is a big overlap between the front and rear cutterbar so that awkward fields can be mown efficiently.

A hydro-pneumatic system is used to give the right ground pressure and a stop on the ram means that height adjustment can be set easily and accurately. On headlands, the mower can be easily lifted as a whole.

The width of the mower also means that wide mowing operations are possible with a relatively light tractor. The drive system on the cutterbars has allowed power requirement to be kept relatively low and higher speeds to be used.

A long drawbar allows the 550P to mow on either side of the tractor and means up-and-down work is possible. It also gives room for both cutterbars to fold forward into a compact transport position – transport width is just 2.6m.

The new model is aimed at medium-to-large farms with relatively large fields that don’t need to condition, says Lely.