Loader Wagon vs Self Propelled

drizzle

New Member
Trying to persuade the Old Man to take silage making back in house and like the look of a wagon. Anyone experienced with wagons care to take me through the positive and negatives?
 

fiat 9090

Member
Location
co offaly eire
On the thread here. I have used all 3 trailed , wagon and self propelled so the questions are 1 how much labor have u .2 what size are ur tractors and how many 3 long or short draw 4 do u have trailers 5 when do you cut ie may or late June 6 how much have you to spend 7 do you want it all cut in a day or do you mind if it goes on for a few days , 8 are you a spanner man , every method has its advantages and disadvantages
 

BDBed

Member
Location
Melton Mowbray
With this being me first season with a wagon as a contactor it has really impressed me. With the acreage you can cover, chop quality and the flexibility I can offer the customer. BUT you have a lot to think about to get the best out of the wagon, from keeping knives sharp to rowing up correctly and clamp management. It is worth looking at but do your research. Go and see what can be achieved in the clamp and ask about best practices. The salesman will tell you what you want to here but 'professional' users will really help to understand the limitations of the system.

A trailed/SPFH will always have a place and may suit better if long hauls involved and labour is in good supply. The plus about these if it goes in it'll chop it. From my own point of view cost and labour made it hard to justify either. But it was something I definitely considered.

As above really what is your situation? It'll make a big difference to which will suit.
 

Lofty1984

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South wales
With this being me first season with a wagon as a contactor it has really impressed me. With the acreage you can cover, chop quality and the flexibility I can offer the customer. BUT you have a lot to think about to get the best out of the wagon, from keeping knives sharp to rowing up correctly and clamp management. It is worth looking at but do your research. Go and see what can be achieved in the clamp and ask about best practices. The salesman will tell you what you want to here but 'professional' users will really help to understand the limitations of the system.

A trailed/SPFH will always have a place and may suit better if long hauls involved and labour is in good supply. The plus about these if it goes in it'll chop it. From my own point of view cost and labour made it hard to justify either. But it was something I definitely considered.

As above really what is your situation? It'll make a big difference to which will suit.
Fantastic post totally unbiased for once on this topic (y)(y)
 

Sackofnuts

Member
Location
Cumbria
With this being me first season with a wagon as a contactor it has really impressed me. With the acreage you can cover, chop quality and the flexibility I can offer the customer. BUT you have a lot to think about to get the best out of the wagon, from keeping knives sharp to rowing up correctly and clamp management. It is worth looking at but do your research. Go and see what can be achieved in the clamp and ask about best practices. The salesman will tell you what you want to here but 'professional' users will really help to understand the limitations of the system.

A trailed/SPFH will always have a place and may suit better if long hauls involved and labour is in good supply. The plus about these if it goes in it'll chop it. From my own point of view cost and labour made it hard to justify either. But it was something I definitely considered.

As above really what is your situation? It'll make a big difference to which will suit.
It’s nice to read a good all round opinion that isn’t totally biased to one or the other. It’s these sort of user opinions which keeps me a member on here.
 

fiat 9090

Member
Location
co offaly eire
If you already have trailers and drivers then a John Deere 6750 at 20 k or fully serviced at 26k would b worth looking at they are v reliable nice to drive and don’t depreciate much , if you have 170 hp then a strautman giga2 or a Bergman 35 at 25000 I don’t know about the krone. There is not too much to go wrong with a wagon but some are v light and are just farmers machines
 

KB6930

Member
Location
Borders
Only tried a wagon once it was a field clearance job/demo as we couldn't get our usual contractor it was grass that was cut for hay but rained every day for a fortnight so was older hard dry stuff (not nice silage at all) it didn't chop it very well at all I'm told they're good with fresher grass where a forager will chop anything you put into it
 

fiat 9090

Member
Location
co offaly eire
That would have been tough stuff to chop but they do chop well if the knives are sharp this year we swarted dry grass with a grouper on the mower versus a rake and because the grouper left it crossways it chopped it as well as our old 6810 silage harvester , I do the pushing up so I would notice it very quick and it’s tough going when the grass gets long and stringy
 

KB6930

Member
Location
Borders
That would have been tough stuff to chop but they do chop well if the knives are sharp this year we swarted dry grass with a grouper on the mower versus a rake and because the grouper left it crossways it chopped it as well as our old 6810 silage harvester , I do the pushing up so I would notice it very quick and it’s tough going when the grass gets long and stringy
I've nothing against them we gave it a fair go but it wasn't for us it was a 6 mile round trip to the field so took a long time to lift 17 acres they've definitely got a place we just prefer a chopper either trailed or sp we get better silage out the pit after a trailed machine as it's not coming in as fast but nothing wrong with a sp either
 

fiat 9090

Member
Location
co offaly eire
I agree on most of what u said but the wagon does make good silage six mile if v heavy and weather bad is slow but wilted 8 to 10 Ton crop with two wagons can b fast enough we drew 18 acres 5 mile in six hours but that was no stops and grass was well wilted it took us a day to draw 14 acres non wilted 7 mile with one wagon so that was slow
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Trying to persuade the Old Man to take silage making back in house and like the look of a wagon. Anyone experienced with wagons care to take me through the positive and negatives?

First question should be, can you show a significant financial benefit to the (old mans) business by taking the job back in house?
If you cant what's the point?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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

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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/
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