So you think you’re an engineer…..

john432

Member
Location
Carmarthenshire
That‘s where I too think it falls down

Purpose built ZG are too fragile/slow/ and it looks as though front mower and forage wagon may be better option but limited by mower size whereas SPFH wholecrop disc mower can be 5m plus
I'm sure I've seen a Krone front mower on YouTube zero grazing, and the mower could be 4m plus wide, with both the outer sections folding in for transport mode.
 
I seen a dirt bird of a 6850 try it years ago with half knives.. it didn’t work but they were also trying to lift heavy silage covers so the grass was long,
I assume your going for zero grazing 3000ish dm/ha so grass will be shorter.

A good fx58 is what you need, many a day we had no blades left in her and she still lifted away.. soil included
 

Sausage

Member
When I worked for a contractor we cut some whole crop and were going to put grass on top. The mower broke down with one field left, so we cut a field of grass with the whole crop header. Went quite well. I personally wouldn’t want to clamp it with no wilting though.

In Austria a lot go out with a walk behind finger bar mower (yes you did read right) in the morning and then pick up in the afternoon. Mainly small farms though. Saw one crew with mower on front and wagon on back.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
image.jpg

Completely unrelated but looks cool.

Direct cut with wholecrop header on SPFH and trailer on the back? Would have smashed up grass that nothing wants to eat and heats up in few hours, a awful lot of money tied up, needless hours on expensive to run/maintain machine, all which could be done with a 30 year old tractor and 20k ZG wagon, ideas a none starter imho.
 

horace

Member
Location
shropshire
Have a word with Dave Ashley at Malpas Tractors. He was involved when they were trying to get Fx's to harvest hemp. An FX has a short travel distance from the shearbar to the blower. Dave will tell you the fewest blades you can run in one, theoretical chop length and whether anyone actually made a disc mower fit one. Rather than the Fortschritt finger bar header they used for wholecrop. Though they will cut grass.
 
Experimented with zero grazing for cattle/ad a few years ago but yea, standalone zg's are too slow, 3m front and wagon is an improvement but still too slow for a daily chore.

Had thought about mounting a 5m disc header on the front links but quite expensive to do just for a trial, Something like a 30ft honeybee front mounted would be awesome if it would work.

You could get something like a reverse drive 939 with triples and swathers up front and then the wagon attached to a front hitch but expensive, would be a big rig for daily use down laneways/small roads etc and also heavy.

IMO something like the modern ELHO harvester converted with a 5m folding disc header would be some weapon, but no idea if that is even remotely possible. I'm nearly sure I seen a few years ago a trailed forage/wagon hybrid that was basically a glorified conveyor belt but it's back to the mowing and speed again.

Zero grazing defiantly has legs but there is a lot of but's.
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Experimented with zero grazing for cattle/ad a few years ago but yea, standalone zg's are too slow, 3m front and wagon is an improvement but still too slow for a daily chore.

Had thought about mounting a 5m disc header on the front links but quite expensive to do just for a trial, Something like a 30ft honeybee front mounted would be awesome if it would work.

You could get something like a reverse drive 939 with triples and swathers up front and then the wagon attached to a front hitch but expensive, would be a big rig for daily use down laneways/small roads etc and also heavy.

IMO something like the modern ELHO harvester converted with a 5m folding disc header would be some weapon, but no idea if that is even remotely possible. I'm nearly sure I seen a few years ago a trailed forage/wagon hybrid that was basically a glorified conveyor belt but it's back to the mowing and speed again.

Zero grazing defiantly has legs but there is a lot of but's.

We like the theory of ZG but it is too slow hence the interest in SPFH with wholecrop discs but conveyor machine would cause substantially less leaf damage
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Butterfly mowers with groupers and one of them fliegel (I think) pick-up and conveyor into a trailer jobbies. There was a thread last year on them.

Got butterflies but the last thing for ZG is to use conditioners as the leaf needs to be as undamaged as possible to prevent the grass heating too quickly & to preserve nutrients.

That Fliegal thing looks useful if the knives can be dropped out
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
What about non conditioner butterfly mowers with augers, like the Pottinger Cross Flow?

Problem is leaving 3 swathes.

My ideal would be one engine only which sort of brings me back to front mower & wagon. But then that runs in to cut width & forward speed hence the interest in converting a SPFH.
Remove knives & shear bar and think of a way to send 6" plus grass up the spout without blocking
 
Problem is leaving 3 swathes.

My ideal would be one engine only which sort of brings me back to front mower & wagon. But then that runs in to cut width & forward speed hence the interest in converting a SPFH.
Remove knives & shear bar and think of a way to send 6" plus grass up the spout without blocking
Parmiter engineer talking about bale choppers once said the hardest thing in agri engineering is to persuade silage to round a corner without blocking
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
Experimented with zero grazing for cattle/ad a few years ago but yea, standalone zg's are too slow, 3m front and wagon is an improvement but still too slow for a daily chore.

Had thought about mounting a 5m disc header on the front links but quite expensive to do just for a trial, Something like a 30ft honeybee front mounted would be awesome if it would work.

You could get something like a reverse drive 939 with triples and swathers up front and then the wagon attached to a front hitch but expensive, would be a big rig for daily use down laneways/small roads etc and also heavy.

IMO something like the modern ELHO harvester converted with a 5m folding disc header would be some weapon, but no idea if that is even remotely possible. I'm nearly sure I seen a few years ago a trailed forage/wagon hybrid that was basically a glorified conveyor belt but it's back to the mowing and speed again.

Zero grazing defiantly has legs but there is a lot of but's.
Why does it have to be so wide when the road system is so restricted. My neighbours milk 600 ish cows and ZG. They use the front mower from their triple set and a pickup wagon on the back. They are in a field and loaded in no time and back on the road without leaving the cab. No extra cost as the mower and and wagon are used for silage.
 

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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