Weidenmann Mower :: Crowborough Common Official Site, Crowborough, West Sussex

Crowborough Common - The Official Site

Weidenmann Heather Management System

This machine was specially designed in conjunction with Course Managers at the finest heathland courses in Surrey who were seeking better standards of mowing and presentation whilst at the same time harvesting valuable heather seed for re-use, rather than it simply dropping onto the ground as has been the case throughout history. This machine represents a major step forward in heather care for golf courses, heritage sites and SSSI conservation areas with its new heather management system, the first in the UK. This enables cutting at multiple heights for either mature or youthful heather plants, that is much kinder to the heather as well as making it much easier, cheaper and cleaner to harvest heather seed than before.

Instead of an old fashioned, traditional ‘flail mower’ which rips out heather plants, Wiedenmann’s system uses its advanced rotary mower specially adapted to cut grass at 200mm growing above the heather. Debris is sucked away to a collector at the rear. Once the seeds have ripened, the mower cuts off the heads and the seeds go into the collector. It takes only five minutes to lower the mower ready for normal cutting. The connecting device kit comprises a long hose and brackets attach it to the tractor via a front linkage.

Whilst deliberating over the considerable capital investment involved, we sought advice from three top Surrey heathland golf courses and received positive feedback as follows. “From many years experience of rotary cutting on heather on 3 different sites, all I have experienced is positives, the heather becomes tighter, therefore less chance of infestation from grasses/gorse, it then spreads via the continual kind cutting method, and it’s also a very kind to the mature heather. One of the problems of using older style machines is that on great heath land courses with uneven ground, a flail mower of 1.5 meters wide soon demolishes and makes flat. You have made a very good purchase, do not for one second have any doubt on this.”

“I personally think the heather management system is a great piece of kit. We use ours once or twice a year with great results in return. Last year I had no end of good comments about our heather and that it was as good as the members had seen it for some time. We cut it fairly low which encourages the heather to thicken up at the base of the plant. We cut through all leggy heather to again invigorate new growth. The machine removes all cuttings which in turn removes any nutrient from going back into the soil. It also stores any seed which can then be re used on the course where needed. I have nothing but good to say and knowing that Sunningdale the Berkshire and other top heathland courses use it to great effect, so it can't be that bad! The members love the cut of heather and think it is so much better than the finish we achieved with the flail mower. Are we golfers or ecologists? We have an ecologist who has worked for the club now for about 10 years. He has never once criticised the way we cut our heather. Any Golf Club serious about heather renovation and regeneration should own this machine as part of their fleet.”