Bale shredder - any ideas on which is the best?

[cheeseypeas]

We have a "Spread a Bale' which we bought secondhand at a farm sale after two of my friends recommended it as as a straw spreading machine. It does not feed silage but for bedding straw it is an quick and economical machine. The staff love it and not much to go wrong and nothing to block up. It spreads rather than chop and we think the straw bedding lasts longer before having to be topped up as it doesn't go as flat. Just don't let a uncoordinated old person loose on it as it does stick out the front of the loader a long way.

 

[deleted user 837354]

You can get some of these machines mounted on a telehandler headstock, using hydraulic power from the third service, makes a quick and easy way to do the job that is for sure, presumably less electrics and the like involved as well- just hydraulic motors?

 

[peclova]

I started this thread.

If anyone is remotely interested; we narrowed the field down to McHale or Teagle, and opted for a Teagle 8100. The main reasons for this were:
1. We couldn't get a demo on a McHale
2. The price of the Teagle was more attractive
3. Instant delivery as apposed to 2-3 weeks.

We've had it a week and I can't believe how much straw and time it is saving. The cows also appear to be eating more silage when it has gone through the machine.

It clearly prefers square rather than round bales, especially if silage.

 

[Beef farmer]

I started this thread.

If anyone is remotely interested; we narrowed the field down to McHale or Teagle, and opted for a Teagle 8100. The main reasons for this were:
1. We couldn't get a demo on a McHale
2. The price of the Teagle was more attractive
3. Instant delivery as apposed to 2-3 weeks.

We've had it a week and I can't believe how much straw and time it is saving. The cows also appear to be eating more silage when it has gone through the machine.

It clearly prefers square rather than round bales, especially if silage.

Appear to be eating more, is the milk up to agree with that?

 

[Serup]

we narrowed the field down to McHale or Teagle, and opted for a Teagle 8100.

2. The price of the Teagle was more attractive

Did you quote other machines?
I got a quote for a teagle last year, and it was about 40% more than a kuhn and 50% more than a kverneland with the same spec.

 

[peclova]

Appear to be eating more, is the milk up to agree with that?

No, but solids are.

 

[peclova]

Did you quote other machines?
I got a quote for a teagle last year, and it was about 40% more than a kuhn and 50% more than a kverneland with the same spec.

Yes. Kuhn was about the same cash price, but without interest free finance. Kverneland was way more expensive although they were in stock. Maybe, things are different in Denmark.

 

[Single Suckler]

We have a Castor 60R with a swivel chute, I had a basic Westmac/Jeantil mounted straw chopper, then a Teagle mounted Straw Chopper, then a Teagle Trailed DualChop , still have a Deboffles Loader mounted spreader, I had the Lucas set up by Halse of Honiton, their man is a dab hand with them (which is what you need), it follows brilliantly in the yards due to the pivot point , blows straw for 50 feet and doesn't bump about on the road or tracks as its nice and heavy, two six stringers go in easily, very very pleased. Just wish I was twenty years younger for getting up on top of the bales !

 

[Dog Bowl]

Does anyone feed clamp silage down feed fences through a bedding machine? Just wondering how much capacity they have? How many shear grab fulls would they hold at a time?

 

[Chips]

Does anyone feed clamp silage down feed fences through a bedding machine? Just wondering how much capacity they have? How many shear grab fulls would they hold at a time?

I get about 3 and a half 5ft shear grabs in my teagle 8100 . Feeds out really well

 

[hally]

My teagle 8100 has just blown the gearbox so I'm starting to wonder of it is strong enough for chopping round bales. Apparently there has been an "issue" with this gearbox so teagle recommended using a different gearbox which included me having to shell out not just for the gearbox but also new drive shafts, modifying the guards etc so a 2k repair. Really annoys me when a company build something that is not fit for purpose and expects the customer to pick up the bill for the failure. Surely they should at least subsidise the replacement part or help when they know they have an issue. Wished I had bought a Mchale.

 

[Sid]

My teagle 8100 has just blown the gearbox so I'm starting to wonder of it is strong enough for chopping round bales. Apparently there has been an "issue" with this gearbox so teagle recommended using a different gearbox which included me having to shell out not just for the gearbox but also new drive shafts, modifying the guards etc so a 2k repair. Really annoys me when a company build something that is not fit for purpose and expects the customer to pick up the bill for the failure. Surely they should at least subsidise the replacement part or help when they know they have an issue. Wished I had bought a Mchale.

Did the extra milk pay for the 2k repairs?

 

[hally]

Would have a job suckler/ sheep here. If I were a dairy farmer I would just change it every year. Tin hat on

 

[mo!]

My teagle 8100 has just blown the gearbox so I'm starting to wonder of it is strong enough for chopping round bales. Apparently there has been an "issue" with this gearbox so teagle recommended using a different gearbox which included me having to shell out not just for the gearbox but also new drive shafts, modifying the guards etc so a 2k repair. Really annoys me when a company build something that is not fit for purpose and expects the customer to pick up the bill for the failure. Surely they should at least subsidise the replacement part or help when they know they have an issue. Wished I had bought a Mchale.

There are plenty of manufacturers who would have just sold you another dud gearbox...

 

[Suckndiesel]

For silage as well as straw, the best machine is the Mchale.

When Mchale designed theirs, they looked at every machine on the market, copied the best bits, and then added a few excellent design features of their own.

To prevent blockages in long stemmy haylage, it has a blade at the bottom of the chute which runs against the edge of the flywheel paddles (copied from Lucas).

The feed rotor is started independent of the flywheel after it gets up to speed (belt driven, copied from kuhn). This prevent blockages because you don't need to reverse the floor of you don't completely empty the machine before stopping it. It also means a smaller HP tractor can be used to drive the machine.

The comb above the feed rotor is hydraulically moveable from the control box. This is useful for controlling the feed rate, and is essential for large Heston square bales of straw, especially if there is the odd mouldy section in the bale.

The flywheel has a unique manual unblocking system. In the very rare event that it becomes jammed, there is a metal bar that inserts into holes around the flywheel, allowing you to reverse it with the bar. The plug drops down, thenbought allowing the tractor to restart the flywheel with no drama. In over 5000 silage bales and several hundred tonnes of straw, I think I've blocked mine about three times. It takes a couple of minutes to get going again. My previous machine would block several times a year, usually breaking a shear bolt at the time. It could take hours of forcing the flywheel back with a wooden post pushed into the chute, swearing, sweating, and getting cuts from the comb knives to get going again.

The knives on the Mchale are serrated sections that require no sharpening. I find they'll easily do over 1500 bales of haylage before needing turned or replaced. With straight edge blades on my previous machines, they'd need sharpening every week, and replaced annually.

The feed rotor on the Mchale has large teaser fingers which aggressively pull apart the bale (very similar to Lucas). They don't wear out, unlike others that have triangular shaped sections welded between the knives. The triangular sections are fine in straw, but wear quickly in haylage use (and aren't designed for replacement, so you need a new machine).

The sides of the Mchale are high and taper out at the top. This is needed if you're spreading large square bales of straw, otherwise larger lumps will be spat out over the top. Other machines either offer greedy board extensions as an option. Some brands don't even offer these and you make a mess spilling out straw.





As an engineer, I spent a long time analysing which machine was best designed before I purchased the Mchale. There simply aren't the faults in operation and machine longevity which my previous blowers possessed.

For blowing straw only, any of the machines on the market do the job, but if you are using it to feed out silage and haylage bales, then only the Mchale offers all the best design features of the competition put together in one machine, plus unique features of its own.

Can you make the Mchale spread the bale and not chop it at all? Also how long does it take to spread a round bale or a Hesston this way?

 

[DrDunc]

Can you make the Mchale spread the bale and not chop it at all? Also how long does it take to spread a round bale or a Hesston this way?

Take out the blades and it won't chop, though it doesn't exactly chop it fine with the blades (you need something like a teagle with a dual chop kit to chip kit for cubical bedding).

Mine takes approximately 40 seconds for a 220kg 4x4 round of good barley, or about 70 seconds for 330kg quad. Makes 120hp grunt a bit at that rate though.

 

[DaveGrohl]

I can't believe there are so many thumbs ups for the McHale on here. We had one for three weeks over the Christmas period. There are good things about it, I got it for the independent feed roller and the fact that lots of people like them. It went back and I got a Kverneland 864 to replace the 853 that we were trading in.

If we made a lot of alterations to the McHale it would've made a good machine but I couldn't see the point of doing all these alterations when the machine's basically badly designed for decent sized square straw bales. We never feed forage through it so don't know if that's where its strengths lie. I could list everything that's wrong with the design on here for our job but I'd be here for quite a while doing it!

Anyhoo, the new Kv 864 is a significant upgrade on the 853, which had a couple of flaws. We extended the back door and took the front plates off just behind the spout to be able to see when backing a bale up the back door as minor mods but it's a great machine for bedding with big square bales. Soooo glad we didn't stick with the McHale. Credit to the dealer who allowed us to send it back.

 

[KJL]

Realistically how much of a saving in usage of straw will you get using one of these machines?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

This is our first winter with one and I'd say the straw savings are negligible but the sweat savings are huge. Being able to put out 7/8 rounds in half an hour without getting dusty and sweaty had made mine worth every penny.

 

[sidjon]

We use more, sales BS you use less especially if your feeding out with it and you need to swap between silage and straw.