Forage wagons question

[MB Trac]

Just a question for the guys with experience of forage wagons? Can they be used for picking up swathed oats/triticale? We don't do grass silage around here ,mostly silage from cereals. Don't really know much about wagon silage, they are pretty scarce over here in South Africa. What are these Pottingers like, how much hp would one need? What are maintenance like on them? Was thinking about doing one man silage contracting, easier than running around with a baler and wrapper I would think

 

[BDBed]

@ploughman1963

 

[ploughman1963]

Hi
that machine is a bit lightweight for contracting and not much capacity. Biggest issue would be the relatively wide knife spacing giving a fairly long chop length - assuming chop length is an issue?
We do wholecrop silage (spring barley) with our pottingers and it works well - longer chop length than precision chop - longer chop than our grass silage but we are currently feeding out a clamp thats been in 2 years and its good feed - analysed well and a very high proportion of grain retained according to the company analysing it. We mow with a plain mower and rake it vary gently to make bigger swaths but also to turn the crop at 90 degrees to the knives to maximise chopping.
We rate the Pottinger kit very highly - one 7 year old wagon, one 2 years old and very few problems.
Hope that helps
Colin

 

[Yale]

As said it’s whether the chop length is conducive to getting good consolidation.

You don’t want a pile of fluff which is difficult to deal with.

We have a Europrofi which may be OK for wholecrop however if going into contracting I would suggest a Torro at a minimum due to stronger build and shorter chop.

An option to complement the wagon would be a silage compactor made from train wheels to assist pit compaction.

 

[bez]

Sorry for asking a question a bit of the topic but what are the thoughts on that compactor as opposed to the train wheels idea. I really like the look of that one. I was thinking the narrow rings would push in better than the wider train wheels. If that makes sense?

 

[Yale]

Sorry for asking a question a bit of the topic but what are the thoughts on that compactor as opposed to the train wheels idea. I really like the look of that one. I was thinking the narrow rings would push in better than the wider train wheels. If that makes sense?

Funny enough I only thought after I posted that video that it wasn’t train wheels.

I think a lot of the benefit of the action is to have a high pressure so a small area of contact so you could be right with rings being better.

 

[bez]

Saw the Fleigl machine at the highland show during the summer and really liked the idea. Overall wasn’t as heavy as the train wheels but I thought with the narrow rings it might do as good a job if not better than the train wheels.

 

[fiat 9090]

I have a 14 ton loader on 20.5 wheels and it just buries the grass down esp this year when it was so dry

 

[holywell farmer]

As said it’s whether the chop length is conducive to getting good consolidation.

You don’t want a pile of fluff which is difficult to deal with.

We have a Europrofi which may be OK for wholecrop however if going into contracting I would suggest a Torro at a minimum due to stronger build and shorter chop.

An option to complement the wagon would be a silage compactor made from train wheels to assist pit compaction.

That looks like leaves tidy clamp to sheet !