Professional spec, smaller sizes; that sums up the latest additions to Strautmann’s Magnon self-loading forage wagon range, which are half a metre shorter and 4cu m less capacious than their nearest siblings.

Positioned above the Giga-Vitesse, these top-spec machines feature a moveable bulkhead and a novel plastic finger pick-up reel, as well as the option of an Exact-Cut ultra-dense knife bank, nominally slicing forage into 22mm lengths instead of 35mm.

See also: Driver’s view: Andrew Whitelaw’s plastic-tined Strautmann Giga-Vitesse 3601

Strautmann’s moving bulkhead design, positioned into the load space for initial filling, automatically pivots forward once forage is loaded to the top of the tailgate, releasing an additional 5cu m of capacity.

It can then be powered rearwards to help the load on its discharge journey.

The Flex-Load pick-up, meanwhile, uses six rows of tough but flexible plastic tines on a camless reel, Strautmann claiming minimal wear, less risk of breakage, lower risk of soil contamination, and rapid individual tine changes that can be completed in less than a minute.

Two “families” form the Magnon range; the 8-series and its 9-series Exact-Cut fine-chopping counterpart have a 2.12m-wide steel tined pick-up, with a Flex-Load plastic tine pick-up of the same width optional.

The intake assembly, comprising the pick-up, a spiral profiled steel roller and a large diameter spiral rotor, are gear driven.

Adding the 32cu m (level-fill) 8-330 and 9-330 capable of hauling 60cu m of grass with “medium” packing density brings a shorter machine to the line-up to suit operator capacity requirements and for easier turns around tight yards and into fields from narrow lanes.

That also applies to the new 38cu m 10-390 and 11-390 Exact-Cut, carrying 72cu m at medium compression, in a heavier-duty line that have hydraulic drive to the crop intake equipment so that operators can fine tune the incoming volume relative to ground speed.

The Flex-Load plastic tine pick-up © Strautmann

They also have a wider 2.25m Flex-Load pick-up as standard, a wider intake rotor, knife bank and body, uprated gearboxes and hydraulic cylinders supporting the body on the axles.

These are used to set the correct body height for the tyres fitted, which can go to 800/45 R30.5 radials for maximum field surface contact area and least rolling resistance, but adding gas-filled accumulators and other kit forms a hydraulic suspension system for smoother road and field travel.