Trailed forage harvesters

mf7480 said:

1500/ year so really not a lot compared to the contractors. This was an exceptionally expensive year but next year will hopefully just be a case of adjusting the knives forward and a good check over. Perhaps engine oil and filter and fuel filters.

If I spend £3500/ year as an average, it’s still less than £2.50/ acre on R&M.

What would really throw it out is if the hydrostat or feed roll gearbox goes pop, or the engine puts a leg out of bed and all of a sudden you have a £25-£30,000 bill on your hands.

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M-J-G said:

Poor Gary must spend a lot of his time cringing.

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mf7480 said:

1500/ year so really not a lot compared to the contractors. This was an exceptionally expensive year but next year will hopefully just be a case of adjusting the knives forward and a good check over. Perhaps engine oil and filter and fuel filters.

If I spend £3500/ year as an average, it’s still less than £2.50/ acre on R&M.

What would really throw it out is if the hydrostat or feed roll gearbox goes pop, or the engine puts a leg out of bed and all of a sudden you have a £25-£30,000 bill on your hands.

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agri knives said:

Actually we do have no waste on pits unless there are holes in the plastic.

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milkloss said:

Need to replace blades on an SH40 this year, has a good stone and shear bar that will be flipped. Where's the best place to get and brand of blades? Doing our own silage approx 250acres on a JD 6920 (155 horses?) and not looking to spend mega money if we can help it.
Appreciated.

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Enry said:

dry matter losses are hidden - air slows down fermentation and leads to more losses

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agri knives said:

Every bit is eaten , there is no air in the pit after we roll it , so that’s not an issue.

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Speedstar said:

This a nice pit face with 0% waste at 39D/MView attachment 960174

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agri knives said:

A pity it’s chopped to dust , not good for cows stomachs .

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shumungus said:

Well done everyone, this thread nearly got to 245 odd posts before the usual suspects started the same old sh!te again which has nothing to do with trailed harvesters. I was quite enjoying this thread up to now, maybe learning a bit too.

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agri knives said:

To get it back on track , from my experience and I started at silage with a side mounted Jf fc80 in 1987 ,progressed on to a Kidd crop chop T , then I bought a jf 900 and went on to a tarrup tenX , they were all great in their day but foreign objects were their demise , I blew every one of them up at some stage , the worst break I had was with the tenx , picked up a piece of angle iron and done €3000 worth of damage, that was the day I realised that when cutting for hire it wasn’t possible to survive with a trailed harvestor, I bought a class 840 after that with a metal detector and it could take in a stone with little damage . I now run wagons who can take in any foreign objects and never break down. The problem nor for trailed harvestor is that the market is gone for them , and so has the parts supply for most of them. So if you can’t get parts easy it’s not possible to run a machine.

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Treemover said:

How much is a new rotor for a wagon James? And dont say they dont go. I think the point that you dont get is that there still is a place for each machine, but sadly, you think that because you decided to go wagon and Valtra, everyone else has to.

A wagon isn't going to suit everyone, some farmers may need to invest in trailers, hell even tractors or staff, they may also have long draws. Others may team together, whats wrong with all of that?? A trailed machine, is a logical choice for some and when I was running a wagon, I was even toying with going for a jf1100/1350, and as we often see here, some spfh can be got for small money, and if not pushed on, can be very cheap to run. I dont see it as black and white.

A new wagon is not cheap, and many I looked at second hand, couldn't hold knives, which means the rotor teeth, knife holders were out of line. Not easy or cheap stuff to sort out.

I am not knocking wagons, there is a lot to be said for 1 tractor, I machine, less diesel; but I am not going to knock other peoples choices just because they are not in line with mine.

And at the end of they day, it matters little what colour the tractor is or what chops the grass. Its the weather and the quality of the grass that matters most, then ensiling and then maybe machinery.

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agri knives said:

The reality is their sales have collapsed due to farmers moving to more efficient systems , it is now almost impossible to buy a new trail led harvestor and it’s also very hard to get parts , so those facts are not my opinion but real facts . There are tarrup tenx harvestors around the country but it’s not possible to get parts for them.

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fieldfarmer said:

Walk into any new holland dealer ship, I'm sure they would sell you a trailed forager, some parts are still available for ten x foragers, not bad really considering some might be 25 yrs old now, there would be alot younger machines out there that have no parts backup now.

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