TRAILED mowers don't get much bigger than Poettinger's latest Novacat T8.

With a working width of 8.4m, the three-deck mower is capable of some serious grass-mowing and conditioning.

A minimum of 147kW from a tractor is required to effectively run the Novacat T8, which weighs 6.7 tonnes and features three sets of 3m-wide mowing decks.

Each mowing deck has seven discs and each disc has two blades.

When combined with another mowing deck mounted on the front of a tractor, the cutting width can be extended to a whopping 11m.

Poettinger Australia sales manager Greg Quick said the T8 was one of the largest trailed mowers in the world.

"The Novacat is, without doubt, one of the biggest mower conditioners around," Greg said.

"It's made for large-scale work and the build quality matches the heavy-duty requirements of a mower of this size," Greg said.

"It's an excellent alternative to owning or running a self-propelled mower.

"You only need one tractor to run the T8 and then you don't have an expensive machine such as a self-propelled mower sitting in the shed for most of the year."

Greg said a Novacat was recently sold to a farmer in Queensland, where it had been running flawlessly.

"The mower has been working in cereal crops and lucerne and it's been fantastic," he said.

"A ground speed of 12km/h is no worries."

Helping the mower's ability to work at speed is Poettinger's Alpha Motion system, which allows the mowing deck to freely float over the ground and follow the undulations of a paddock.

Alpha Motion allows the mowing deck to move from side to side and fore and aft, as well as up and down.

There is 250mm of travel for both the up and down directions and the mower can be lifted to provide 350mm of ground clearance while working in the paddock.

The two outer mowing decks also have a break-back capability, which is used if an obstruction is hit in the paddock.

Despite the T8's large working width, it folds to a width of 3m for road transport. The drawbar telescopically reduces in length when the mower is not in use in the paddock.

"Folded up and with the drawbar reduced in length, a typical tractor and the T8 will easily fit on a 12.2m long truck deck," Greg said.

Each of the mowing decks of the T8 can be used as a stand-alone mower or as a mower conditioner.

Greg said the design of the mowers meant they could easily be converted to run as a tined or roller conditioner, as required.