Production years: E 280: 1971–1978; E 281: 1978–1982; E 281C: 1982 – early 1990s (?) A self-propelled forage harvester built at the Schönebeck tractor plant of the East German agricultural machinery combine «Fortschritt». Such machines were widely used on collective and state farms in the Estonian SSR from the early 1970s (first the E 280, later the E 281 and E 281C). The forage harvester is designed to harvest forage crops either by mowing or by picking up swaths and to load them into a truck driving alongside or a towed trailer. For this it comes with three interchangeable headers: a mower header, a pick-up header and a maize header. A trailer for transporting the mower header is also included. As the chopping drum allows the chop length to be adjusted over a wide range, the chopped material is suitable both as green feed for animals and for making silage, haylage and grass meal. The longest chop is suited to green feed. The forage harvester has a 6-cylinder 6 VD 14.5/12-2 SRW diesel engine with 125 kW (170 hp). The mower header is 4.25 m wide, and the base machine without header weighs 5300 kg.