Forage wagon - I don't believe the hype

DGC1

Member
Location
Scotland
Maybe the knives weren't set correctly as this stuff was awful, wish I'd taken some pictures, it was some tough old grass though. I was clamping with a tractor weighing approximately 12 ton. Seems ironic that you need a similar horsepower tractor on the clamp to that of of a small sp forager, I'm sure you don't need that much power just the weight of the that size tractor.


Yes correct, 939 is hardly using any of its power hence why it can pit 200ac and the fuel tank has hardly been touched. It is its ability to push right through full 16t loads that are ejected into tight pits that means it can keep on top of the job. Once the grass is shifted a quick roll at low revs and its ready for the next load- effortless.
 

DGC1

Member
Location
Scotland
Also, this was a grouped row, would that make it worse as most of the grass would be fairly straight. I assume teddded and rowed up would be best??


We dont ted anything- just rake normal spread or unspread mower swaths with claas 3100 or kuhn into big rows & the chop length is 100%. Young leafy grass or old dead single cut grass makes no difference as long as knifes are sharp every morning.
 

DGC1

Member
Location
Scotland
I don't know how to quote but in regards to fitting forage waggon silage in our pit, I did say it probably can be done. I also said we had to work with what we had available to us. Not being cheeky, a 939 may do a good job of the pit, or a loading shovel but I don't have any of them! I reckon I could build another pit cheaper than the price of a 939! Please don't take any offence to this post as I admit forage waggon silage can be consolidated properly. We just don't have anything here that weights close to 14.5tons. Also, don't get me wrong...there are days we wish we had a waggon...nice and simple. It seems more appealing at the moment as I have snapped my Achilles tendon and cant do feck all! If I appear a grumpy git then now you know...wife only has another 6 weeks to put up with me

No offence taken...
I agree that 939 is an expensive pit machine at face value but being honest it is hired and it has a fixed price per hour. it uses less fuel per hour than any shovel, is fast on the road, lower cab height and gets used on the triples, seeder etc etc so is not a one trick pony. its weight and ability is only needed when the pressure is on when we have to pair the wagons in wet weather.
90% of our pits last year (when it was dry!) were done with one wagon and grass handled with teleporter or smaller tractor/buckrake mostly supplied by farmers. Pit compaction was fine and wastage very low but this year we have only had 939 on all pits so far due to the weather windows... other than on one farm where it was needed on the wagon due to steepness and wetness of the fields (We swapped manitou 840 & puma onto the pit for one day)
We cleared over 450acres on 4 farms in 3 days with alot of travel between farms, small tight pits and very heavy crops and only a big shovel or 939 type machine would have managed on the pit on its own whilst leaving a good job.
Fixed cost hire, low fuel use and o feel that its being run cheaper than alot of shovels and they are becoming the norm now in many sp teams.
 

DGC1

Member
Location
Scotland
Your right its not possible to put as much wagon silage into a pit as precision chop , I have customers cutting less acerage now with the wagons as it lasts longer , when I as thinking of changing from the sp to wagons , I raised the question with the salesman that i might have trouble getting as much into the same pits , his answer was that you wont need as much silage as it wont run through the cows , I thought this was just a load of salesman talk but it has turned out to be true , I have one customer who always had to buy in extra silage , since I cut for him with the wagons he hasnt had to buy silage , with the same stock levels and same silage area.

Sorry james, i have to disagree re not getting same volume in. If the wagon silage is spread in layers and rolled between every load with enough weight then it will match even the best chopper teams at packing grass in.
Not trying to diss shovels but with wagons running a fendt 900 can shift grass very very fast from the pit floor and this leaves it time to roll even with 3 wagons running at it. Its faster at rolling than shovel on steep face and even with two wagon loads tipped end to end it will drive out through the loads and up the pit pushing grass ahead of it. The pit is rock solid once its done so weight & hp DO make the difference.
We trialled many pit setups in 2012/2013 and a very big tractor proved the best every time with the wagon silage. Never tried it in sp chop so cant comment but for wagon silage big tractor is best.
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
What a nice old Fendt ;)

:banhappy:

21aba0b907b1bab33d80da41498d9222.jpg


:hilarious:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 67 35.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top