Jedburgh Station inland from Wyndham, Southland , owned by Tim Story and managed by Murray Kennedy, covers 3300 Hectares, running 18 500 stock units on 1800 effective Hectares. They crop about 100 hectares of winter crop & shut up around 70 ha every year for silage, they generally top the rest of the farm, which equates to around 1600 Ha of topping every year.

After Christmas, Jedburgh took possession of a set of SIP double front & rear mowers from Webbline.

“It was a logical choice”, This was a passing comment from Jedburgh Station’s manager Murray Kennedy when asked why he purchased the first set of SIP Double mowers ever sold in New Zealand.

“They are simple, and heavily built and easy to drive”, he said..

Jedburgh’s Tractor driver Gavin Richardson commented “The Silvercut Doubles are a pleasure to operate, to date we ran only a Kuhn GMD 800 mower, so this set up with the front mount makes such short work of a paddock.”



Gavin is impressed by the way the Silvercut Doubles follow the contour when topping, “The centre pivot & hydraulic float system means it’s also very easy to drive. We are getting a good tidy job even on the really gnarly paddocks. In the real rough area’s I lift the front mount off the ground, just to save it getting damaged.” He said.

“Quiet operation, simple and easy to set up”, were the other comments made by Gavin. Considering the hours he spends in the saddle, this is very important to him.

“We mow around 1600 Ha per year, and going from a 3 metre cut to a 6.7 metre cut has more than halved our hours in the tractor.”

This year they are running the S.I.P. Mowers on a Valtra 191 tractor. “That in itself has been an eye opener!’’ Commented Murray. “ Compared to our old 3 metre mower on a 110 HP Same, our tractor hours are way down and we are burning only a fraction of the diesel.” “It goes to show. With the technology in these new tractors & mowers , farmers can save a huge amount every year in mowing costs”. “Sure, your investment cost of two mowers is a lot higher, but you more than get it back in operating costs. It means we can employ the best operators like Gavin and still be better off at the end of it”, he said.

Murray also noted the ease of daily maintenance, “Things like the grease nipples are easy to find, it’s easy to unhitch & hitch up to the tractor as well”.

“I have also found the guys at Webbline good to deal with. Service is brilliant , we had a couple of teething problems earlier on and it was great being able to ring them at 7am and get a reply “, he said