Forage wagon road distance

Cowwilf · Apr 20, 2022

How far are people traveling with forage wagons?

Our job would average 3/4 miles field to clamp 2 / 3miles good main road, the remainder lanes and farm drives contactor recons it'd work out dearer than forager but obviously that depends on volume of crop.

Would be a contractor payed on the hour doing the job. buckrake would work out dearer as would be here longer unless several wagons could be put on.

My thinking is 1st cut forager, later cuts wagon

I know of people going further but with there own wagon so not as worried about time

jerseycowsman · Apr 20, 2022

Cowwilf said:
How far are people traveling with forage wagons?

Our job would average 3/4 miles field to clamp 2 / 3miles good main road, the remainder lanes and farm drives contactor recons it'd work out dearer than forager but obviously that depends on volume of crop.

Would be a contractor payed on the hour doing the job. buckrake would work out dearer as would be here longer unless several wagons could be put on.

My thinking is 1st cut forager, later cuts wagon

I know of people going further but with there own wagon so not as worried about time

I am wondering exactly the same thing.
at the moment we need a forager and 5 or 6 trailers to do off ground. Surely 3 or 4 forage wagons would be as fast and cost less?

acorn · Apr 20, 2022

If you are cutting early, with lighter crops, wagon is the way to go......

sidjon · Apr 20, 2022

We use 2 wagons to run 2/3 miles, to many trailers don't work for us as my farm track is mile long without any passing places. Still work's out cheaper as Don't have trailer traffic jam's.

Mc115reed · Apr 20, 2022

How many acres are we talking here? The answer differs if it’s 300 acre to if it was 30 acre…

pappuller · Apr 20, 2022

We have 90 acres round the farm that 2 wagons will easily clear in a short day and 60 acres between 3 and 4 miles away, usually do a majority of the 60 acres separately as its much later ground. Too few wagons can be a slow job, too many and it makes the pit man earn his corn

davidroberts30 · Apr 20, 2022

I dont like working more than a mile from the yard,
I tell the customer he's paying me just to run about then it's up to them

jondear · Apr 20, 2022

@Devon James .He does it all close ,far .1or 2 could be 3 now!Seems to work for us .Done with high horsepower grass blowers and umpteen trailers running the roads .That's was before fuel got so expensive .Must be £50 hour now for 14 t tractor and trailer +man

farmer pickles · Apr 20, 2022

Cowwilf said:
How far are people traveling with forage wagons?

Our job would average 3/4 miles field to clamp 2 / 3miles good main road, the remainder lanes and farm drives contactor recons it'd work out dearer than forager but obviously that depends on volume of crop.

Would be a contractor payed on the hour doing the job. buckrake would work out dearer as would be here longer unless several wagons could be put on.

My thinking is 1st cut forager, later cuts wagon

I know of people going further but with there own wagon so not as worried about time

I help a friend of mine out with a 5 mile draw with my wagon. He has two wagons drawing too. He has ground around the yard too so when we come back from the long draw we bring in a load back from the near field and that keeps the loader man busy all day and not under pressure.

Its not heavy grass but its still taking the most of an hour to get a load on that draw. One wagon would be far too slow on that job.

Cowwilf · Apr 21, 2022

Mc115reed said:
How many acres are we talking here? The answer differs if it’s 300 acre to if it was 30 acre…

100 acres

ploughman1963 · Apr 21, 2022

We regularly do ground 3 miles away from the clamp - on multi-cut system 2 wagons cope fine - if it was heavier cuts I'd put another wagon on.

With regard to using forager gang for first cut and wagons for later cuts - what is it you are trying to achieve? If you are thinking you will have a bulkier first cut done with forage gang to justify the cost (assuming they are charging by the acre) you will compromise quality. If ever there was a year to make quality your priority, this is it. Perfect storm of diesel cost and high grain price will make every kg of cake saved by feeding higher quality forage more important. Overall production with 4 cuts will exceed 3 cuts and be higher quality. Cost per tonne with wagons will be way less with fuel use of around 200+ litres per day/wagon compared to a fleet of trailers.

kiwi pom · Apr 21, 2022

How heavy are those wagons when they're full of grass?

ploughman1963 · Apr 21, 2022

kiwi pom said:
How heavy are those wagons when they're full of grass?

need to be more specific - vast range of sizes - ours are mid-range (?) - holding 12-14t of grass at 30%DM depending on how you drive. Well wlited, sugary grass gets a hell of a load on as it compresses into 'briquettes' as it goes through the knives

Martyn · Apr 21, 2022

Has anyone any recommendations for a silage additive applicator, have been priced £3k for adding 1 to a wagon,looking at pumps last night they arnt that dear, and just for ourselves I'm sure a homemade job can be done.

puppet · Apr 21, 2022

kiwi pom said:
How heavy are those wagons when they're full of grass?

They have a weigh cell, our contractor has it set to 10 tons so 17 tons gross. A lot more grass than your average 12 ton trailer.
On a longer haul you would need 2 wagons so they will seem to be wasting time carting rather than cutting but alternative is 6 trailers which cost a lot in hire and fuel too and have idle time between loading following the forager round the field.
150 litres per trailer and forager at 300l gives 1200l per day.
2 wagons maybe 500l to do a similar area. £700 saving.

ploughman1963 · Apr 21, 2022

The selmech supplies ones are good. I ran one wagon with a homemade system for 9 years but finally gave in and replaced it with selmech.

Sid · Apr 21, 2022

If money can be saved on using a wagon now.....surely it could have been before as well?

ploughman1963 · Apr 21, 2022

Sid said:
If money can be saved on using a wagon now.....surely it could have been before as well?

its just that as fuel prices increase the relative costs become even more obvious and more people start to appreciate the size of the gap?

vantage · Apr 21, 2022

ploughman1963 said:
its just that as fuel prices increase the relative costs become even more obvious and more people start to appreciate the size of the gap?

Absolutely. Unfortunately round here not many wagons, my former silage contractor with wagons gave up, current contractor runs two SPFHs. Don’t have a tractor here to pull a wagon if I bought one, or the labour force for the rest of the operation, cannot see the contractor wanting to pull it and do the rest of the job.

kiwi pom · Apr 21, 2022

ploughman1963 said:
need to be more specific - vast range of sizes - ours are mid-range (?) - holding 12-14t of grass at 30%DM depending on how you drive. Well wlited, sugary grass gets a hell of a load on as it compresses into 'briquettes' as it goes through the knives

Just wondering how many stay under 18 ton gross? The big ones look very heavy. I suppose its no different to the chopper boys with their tri axle trailers though.

Forage wagon road distance

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0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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