Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
A lesser alternative to a forage harvester end of, one machine for chopping grass FORAGE HARVESTER everything else is a pretender so don’t bother they have teeth or they shouldWhat about a wagon
Have .
A lesser alternative to a forage harvester end of, one machine for chopping grass FORAGE HARVESTER everything else is a pretender so don’t bother they have teeth or they shouldWhat about a wagon
we have a 'licence' for home mixing, how/why or what, it just gets shown occasionally for RT, had it years.I have another slightly stupid question. If you are making a home mix, you need to notify your NIFQA or Red Tractor, depending on where you are - to the best of my knowledge they're meant to go through your mix ratios and facilities with a fine tooth comb. Is this the case if you mix your own straights into a TMR?
Hi wondering is it pit or bales you use just now and is it into bunker troughs or feed barriersI'm coming from a place of zero experience with this so I'm hoping some people on here with experience can help:
I'm planning on upgrading my feeding method to use a diet feeder. The only problem is that most of my loader work is done with an old JCB 3cx or a NH 7740 with front loader, so I don't have a massive lift height.
I'm thinking that this probably limits me to a paddle mixer like a Keenan. Everyone seems to have an opinion of the Keenans but I've never really heard the justifications. Just how slowly do they run and are they reliable? Is there any way of feeding bales with them that doesn't involve some sort of additional chopper?)
Additionally, I feed cows, youngstock, finishers and for part of the winter, sheep in the same yard, so will I really be saving any time over just bucket feeding meal?
Thanks in advance for opinions and suggestions
we have a 'licence' for home mixing, how/why or what, it just gets shown occasionally for RT, had it years.
our first diet feeder we parked under the dung ramp to load, that was an oswold, never seen another, paid £400 for it, it was truly massive, mixed with 2 horizontal augers, fantastic machine.
having gone back to a tractor loader, and a kneenan, just load down hill. Chopped bales are very different to mix than normal bales, usually all 21 knives, currently using unchopped (breakdown) huge huge difference in the grass length, and weight.
different to the OP but just bought a wagon and put up a silage pit rather than dealing with 4000 round bales. Gone from 4 people feeding out every 2 days down to 2-2.5 and will get that down to 1-1.5 with some further changes. Less plastic, stock more content not having to fight for feed space in rings/trailers. Lot less plastic to deal with. Stock out wintered but fed on hard standings now so not trashing fields dragging 17t through the mud. Quality of life That’s our situation but win win so far.
Crikey 4000 bales sounds horrible.
Why does it take 2-2.5 people to run a mixer?
In the yard it's nearly always chopped clamp silage at the moment. However, we outwinter a lot of stock on bales and forage brassicas. The plan is to bring some of these cattle indoors as the amount of outwintering isn't currently suiting our system - as a result, due to lack of clamp space we're probably going to find ourselves having to feed bales in the yard in future. Eventually I'd like to erect a larger silo and convert the old covered silo into space for early calvers - but that is firmly on the back burner while I erect my slatted house!Hi wondering is it pit or bales you use just now and is it into bunker troughs or feed barriers
I believe so, but I will be hoping to get demo kit to test this theory. Our system of feeding is very labour intensive, as the yard is well spread out and we're just driving up and down like lunatics every morning and evenig with loaderfuls of silage then trough feeding concentrates by hand! We'll have a lot more stock in the yard next winter too. I've a family to get home to at night and eventually my dad will be hoping to ease up a little.If you spend money your money on a mixer, a tractor to run it and the running costs of said unit, will all your pennies come back to you in increased profits or efficiency? Will it save any time?
In the yard it's nearly always chopped clamp silage at the moment. However, we outwinter a lot of stock on bales and forage brassicas. The plan is to bring some of these cattle indoors as the amount of outwintering isn't currently suiting our system - as a result, due to lack of clamp space we're probably going to find ourselves having to feed bales in the yard in future. Eventually I'd like to erect a larger silo and convert the old covered silo into space for early calvers - but that is firmly on the back burner while I erect my slatted house!
Also, and at the risk of droning on, I'm trying to make my suckler, beef and sheep system as efficient and heavily stocked as I can over the next few years so that if I have the opportunity to convert to dairy then will be well placed to do it. I'll try and see how Brexit goes first though.
I wouldn't say that the bales are a problem, just that they will need to be part of the equation. There's always a possibility that I'll decide against the diet feeder approach, I'd like to demo it first and see how it would work. Generally I find that asking the farming forum for advice is a pretty good place to start fact finding Alternatively, you speak to a dealer and they have a tendency to forget to mention the downsidesIf bales are your problem would a silage chopper/blower not work for you? then you can bed down with it and maybe save some straw at the same time. No idea if you can put clamp through them.
You could put the meal on top with an auger bucket.
Just a different approach to the problem.
You and the owner of the Keenan must possess more patience than most.