do straw choppers/shredders actually save straw

[Douglasmn]

Better for who? You? The muck spreader? The worms?


so what was a twice a week job now becomes everyday task? And thats better hooking up and unhooking a machine?

Meaning that the muck is far shorter and easier to handle. It will effortlessly go through the spreader straight from the shed which means no need for making a midden, so it cuts out the need for double handling. I don't suppose worms care too much whether a bedder is used or not. One thing I would add is that I clean out the water troughs regularly with a home made seive to lift out any straw. Failure to do this will result in filthy water which is probably the ultimate form of animal cruelty.

 

[Bossfarmer]

Scraping definitely reduces straw use. Do you have a blower?

Deutz used to be a good chunk cheaper than NH, don't know how they compare today though. The deutz has a much higher spec as standard, so comparing them on price alone is a bit misleading.

Deutz dealer network coverage isn't very good, but I'm lucky to be near enough to the biggest one in Scotland (which isn't saying they're very big).

Joke locally is that the NH dealer has the best mechanics in the area, because they get so much work, they need to be. Think that's a bit unfair now though, there's getting to be a lot of Deeres being replaced by NH, and they seem a lot more reliable.

Yes but never use it, interesting i always though deutz woukd be cheaper made than NH thats why its cheaper but i may have been misled

 

[Bullring]

Meaning that the muck is far shorter and easier to handle. It will effortlessly go through the spreader straight from the shed which means no need for making a midden, so it cuts out the need for double handling. I don't suppose worms care too much whether a bedder is used or not. One thing I would add is that I clean out the water troughs regularly with a home made seive to lift out any straw. Failure to do this will result in filthy water which is probably the ultimate form of animal cruelty.

I have homemade flip down lids on my water troughs to stop straw getting in them when I use the chopper to bed down. Nothing worse than troughs full of straw.

 

[ollie989898]

If you were starting a building from scratch, heck yes, the ability to pen animals back and have a scrape passage will save a lot of straw and keep animals cleaner as they tend to foul more there as they are stood at the feed fence and at water troughs.

Used to work on a place where they did exactly this. If you were careful with the straw blower, you could scrape up quite often with nothing more than bucket but it wouldn't exactly be slurry in consistency, it would contain straw and so be technically FYM and stackable.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

best bedding saver is dryer feed, what goes in comes out and clean pens out to floor every 3 weeks

 

[Sid]

I don't suppose worms care too much whether a bedder is used or not.

I think they probably do. Fresh FYM takes longer to disappear verses composted or stacked FYM

 

[Sid]

Perhaps the OP's question should have been , do straw choppers actually save money? It may be quicker, it may use less straw but it cost capital and fuel to chop all this straw.
Which is the cheapest and at what price/t does it become economic?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Every situation will be different and always used to be very anti straw choppers. If you have your own arable ground and you can make, haul and store rounds then dropping them in with a loader may well be the best option but if your straw comes on a lorry then you're stuck with squares which do t generally spread as easily as rounds.

In early Feb I'll have 550 cows on straw yards. I have a 20 year old lad who works here who's quite happy to come in weekend mornings and sit on his shiny tractor for an hour or so blowing straw but he's not going to want to spend 3 or 4 hours forking out 6 or 8 hestons by himself. There is no doubt that owning a straw blower makes my life easier.

 

[sidjon]

Perhaps the OP's question should have been , do straw choppers actually save money? It may be quicker, it may use less straw but it cost capital and fuel to chop all this straw.
Which is the cheapest and at what price/t does it become economic?

There's other factors too, after visiting a mate a few years ago in hospital after he was pushing round bales in his shed which he has done for 20 old years and a cow to a dislike for some reason to the bale and smashed him up the wall , likely a driver was delivering fuel and saw what happened and pulled him out, few bust bones and has damaged back now, if the driver hadn't been there don't think he would be here today as he lives on his own.

 

[Sid]

There's other factors too, after visiting a mate a few years ago in hospital after he was pushing round bales in his shed which he has done for 20 old years and a cow to a dislike for some reason to the bale and smashed him up the wall , likely a driver was delivering fuel and saw what happened and pulled him out, few bust bones and has damaged back now, if the driver hadn't been there don't think he would be here today as he lives on his own.

Well cattle should not be in the shed when using a blower or when bedding up by hand as either. I guess neither really happens.

 

[Sid]

There's other factors too, after visiting a mate a few years ago in hospital after he was pushing round bales in his shed which he has done for 20 old years and a cow to a dislike for some reason to the bale and smashed him up the wall , likely a driver was delivering fuel and saw what happened and pulled him out, few bust bones and has damaged back now, if the driver hadn't been there don't think he would be here today as he lives on his own.

If it takes two people to deliver whitegoods from Argos then it would be a 2 person job to bed up cattle etc etc. I don't see supermarkets paying extra for that either.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

cows love pushing bales about .don't make work for yourself

 

[DrDunc]

cows love pushing bales about .don't make work for yourself

Note that the man who makes his living selling straw doesn't want you to use a straw blower.

In fact, Derrick doesn't even want you to reduce how much you use by spreading it out evenly and covering the dung

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I am advising you to buy round bales which I don't sell. just can't get farming thoughts out of my head. never make a salesman will I

 

[milkloss]

So how does just dumping whole bales in yard work. Say I put a six string half ton bale of wheat straw in the middle of the yard and cut the strings and walk away? Surely it's a bit of a waste having all that thick wodge of unspread straw growing like Mount Vesuvius in the middle and cattle covered in crap laying against the walls round the outside.

Have to muck out more often too I guess.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I used round bales .I guarantee you that if you came back after breakfast in my bull shed you would not know it had not been spread by machine

 

[milkloss]

I used round bales .I guarantee you that if you came back after breakfast in my bull shed you would not know it had not been spread by machine

What about cows with calves?

 

[pappuller]

It dosent just leaves a fudgin great pile trodden to shite.

So how does just dumping whole bales in yard work. Say I put a six string half ton bale of wheat straw in the middle of the yard and cut the strings and walk away? Surely it's a bit of a waste having all that thick wodge of unspread straw growing like Mount Vesuvius in the middle and cattle covered in crap laying against the walls round the outside.

Have to muck out more often too I guess.

 

[beefandsleep]

So how does just dumping whole bales in yard work. Say I put a six string half ton bale of wheat straw in the middle of the yard and cut the strings and walk away? Surely it's a bit of a waste having all that thick wodge of unspread straw growing like Mount Vesuvius in the middle and cattle covered in crap laying against the walls round the outside.

Have to muck out more often too I guess.

That won't work but put it out in 4-5 lumps spread about and half an hr later it will look like you've spread it over the whole bed and shaken it out with a pitchfork.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

What about cows with calves?

I would probably spend a few mins rolling the bale out for those .