2016 Kverneland 3336MT Vario Mower

In 2016 the Bartle family, who farm 204 hectares at Clarborough in North Nottinghamshire, replaced an ageing trailed Taarup mower with a significantly more advanced and wider Kverneland 3336MT Vario mounted mower conditioner. I wrote about this impressive 10-year-old machine for the May edition of Farm Machinery Journal.

Kverneland’s 3336MT Vario is still the Norwegian company’s widest single bed mounted mower conditioner outside of its range of butterfly mowers. The 3336MT Vario weighs in at 3352kg, and has a minimum power requirement of 120hp. The Bartle family use it predominantly with their 155hp New Holland TM155 that they acquired new in 2003.

The 3336MT Vario has a working width of 3.6m and a transport width 3m. It folds hydraulically for transport to a height of just 3.7m thanks to Kverneland’s clever telescopic Vario hydraulic side shift system that’s integrated into the carrying arm of the mowing unit, and provides up to 400mm of movement to reduce the mower’s overall height when folded, and minimises overlap whilst at work.

The 3336MT Vario’s mower bed comprises nine circular discs that provide a neat and aggressive cut, whilst Kverneland also say that their shape allows stones to be ejected efficiently before a blockage can occur so that shock loads on the driveline and maintenance costs are reduced.

“It’s been a fantastic mower and I can’t see us replacing it anytime soon,” says Lewis Bartle.

“It’s easy to move around, simple to operate and produces an excellent swath.”