Forage wagon road distance

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.
get an old 400l sprayer tank for near scrap money make a frame to mount it on front of wagon
get a 10amp PWM controller off ebay for peanuts
get a 10-14lpm diaphragm sprayer pump
and a 15lpm flow meter
whole lot with some pipe and cable 3/400 quid
 
If money can be saved on using a wagon now.....surely it could have been before as well?
the biggest issue ive seen since having a wagon is a farmers mindset to change his forage system

ive had numerous calls over the years and turned the work down as i can tell by chatting with them they cant or wont change
ive been to jobs where they come out and start going on about "doesn't seem like much happening" and "seems quiet"

ive got a nice round now on about 12/1300 acres and all my guys know about quality not quantity
 

Cowwilf

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

I've gone from doing my own with a trailed forager to a farmer with a self propelled charging per hour and finding trailer men and buckrake else where, worked well but takes some organizing. last 3rd cut 1 phone call to one contractor job done very easy but charged by the acre adds up on lighter cuts.
 

Conrod96

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co. Antrim
What is the rate per hour of a wagon? Just curious as we are cutting quite short grass although we have land that’s miles away and cutting quite a few acres but have tractors and labour to do some ourselfs
 

Cowwilf

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
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

How long does a round trip take?

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.

How long does a round trip take?

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.

Would like to cut younger grass unfortunately the contractor only has one wagon but several farmers and one man band contractors locally also have one so could probably get a team together.
 

jondear

Member
Location
Devon
the biggest issue ive seen since having a wagon is a farmers mindset to change his forage system

ive had numerous calls over the years and turned the work down as i can tell by chatting with them they cant or wont change
ive been to jobs where they come out and start going on about "doesn't seem like much happening" and "seems quiet"

ive got a nice round now on about 12/1300 acres and all my guys know about quality not quantity
Some farmers like all the shiny big kit turn up on their place.!
 

Martyn

Member
Location
South west
get an old 400l sprayer tank for near scrap money make a frame to mount it on front of wagon
get a 10amp PWM controller off ebay for peanuts
get a 10-14lpm diaphragm sprayer pump
and a 15lpm flow meter
whole lot with some pipe and cable 3/400 quid
That's exactly what I'm thinking, would your ruffly work on 1l of additive per min/ruff tonne?
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Use contractor with SPFH for 1st and 2nd, do any odd bits myself, (got 10 year old lely wagon bought for zero grazing originally) did 20 acres the other day, local contractor came in with rake and then a buck rake once I had 3-4 loads tipped so he had something to get on with, did 20 acres of autumn planted grass seeds in 3 hours without breaking sweat.

Do 3rd/4th cut myself with another contractor coming in with his wagon to help, don’t like having 50+ acres on the floor solely dependant on 1 machine.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
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.
not sure where you are, but Huw Waunllwyd has a forage wagon, as well as a self propelled.
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
So since nobody is really offering up any maths I will (with imaginary figures before anyone looses there sh!t over prices I quote)

on that distance doing well the forage wagons will do 2 load an hour each…
each load holding 1.5 acre of roughly…
So it’s gonna take 2 wagons 16.5hours to do it @ £200hr = 3300
Then Youv the rake on £6acre x £100 = £600
Mower on £15 acre x 100 = £1500
Buckrake on £45hr x 17= £765
So roughly £6165 all in

then too chop, clamp, rake and mow 3 trailers with forager all in @ £60acre x 100 £6000

100 acres probably take 6-7 hours with 5 trailers on that distance so Youv an extra

2 trailers x 7hrs x £40hr = £560

so £6560 too chop it with a forager

prices are based on last years prices I know of people charging… I’d imagine you can double it this year…
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
There’s a guy not far from here got his own last year, 350 cows so would make a fair heap, it took him roughly a week to do first cut, which is fine if the weathers like last year. Unless the big contractors are on board running multiple boxes it’s a bit of a non starter for me with the layout of my land but no doubt with fuel only heading in one way the questions will be being asked this year.

Another interesting note when comparing fuel usage on the tractors leading last year the ones doing 40k were using about 1/3 less than the ones doing 50k. Might suggest a speed limit just for a laugh see how it goes down! 🤣
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
There’s a guy not far from here got his own last year, 350 cows so would make a fair heap, it took him roughly a week to do first cut, which is fine if the weathers like last year. Unless the big contractors are on board running multiple boxes it’s a bit of a non starter for me with the layout of my land but no doubt with fuel only heading in one way the questions will be being asked this year.

Another interesting note when comparing fuel usage on the tractors leading last year the ones doing 40k were using about 1/3 less than the ones doing 50k. Might suggest a speed limit just for a laugh see how it goes down! 🤣
Our former contractor ran two forage wagons, worked very well, kept the shovel busy and covered the ground at a decent pace. Unless it’s a very short haul, one wagon can be tedious, but on the short haul jobs it’s more than acceptable.
Worked out on cost at about 2/3 the price of SPFH when diesel was cheaper.
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Our former contractor ran two forage wagons, worked very well, kept the shovel busy and covered the ground at a decent pace. Unless it’s a very short haul, one wagon can be tedious, but on the short haul jobs it’s more than acceptable.
Worked out on cost at about 2/3 the price of SPFH when diesel was cheaper.
There’s 3 or 4 contractors local to here and all run SPFHs at the moment. My shortest haul here is 2 miles and the furthest is 4. I suppose by default if it’s within cow walking range it’s not going to get cut, that’s the cheapest way to harvest forage.
 

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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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