Self propelled mixer wagons

[farmer1989]

Big on the continent but are they starting to get around in the uk whats are peoples expiriance
We are looking in the next year or 2 as we have a high hour tractor high hour telehandler and high hour loading shovel feeding cattle at 3 locations

 

[Serup]

They are not common here. They have a reputation for very high running costs.
And if something break or malfunction, you are dead in the water. A blown hose or a flat tyre, and you don't do anything. I have 2 mixers, 2 old tractors and 2 loaders. Combined cost was less than any of the self propelled mixers i had a quote on. and no matter what breaks on a sunday morning, i am still feeding.

 

[farmer1989]

They are not common here. They have a reputation for very high running costs.
And if something break or malfunction, you are dead in the water. A blown hose or a flat tyre, and you don't do anything. I have 2 mixers, 2 old tractors and 2 loaders. Combined cost was less than any of the self propelled mixers i had a quote on. and no matter what breaks on a sunday morning, i am still feeding.

We would still keep our tub as a backup and a handler so wouldnt be stuck but 1 machine on say 5 year finance 5 year service aggrement and a guaranteed trade in value surely its do able how can they do it on the continent but not here seen a trioliet go to a farm with only 80 cows

 

[Serup]

We would still keep our tub as a backup and a handler so wouldnt be stuck but 1 machine on say 5 year finance 5 year service aggrement and a guaranteed trade in value surely its do able how can they do it on the continent but not here seen a trioliet go to a farm with only 80 cows

There are many ways to spend your money if you can afford it

The cases i know of, the trade in value on a self propelled thats 5 years old, is less than a 5 year old mixer of the same kind.
I had a quote on 2 when i bought my last mixer. The buy back guarantied price was very low, and the sellers both told me i needed to keep it a least to 10.000 hours before i could make any meaningfull calculation on buying it.

 

[farmer1989]

There are many ways to spend your money if you can afford it

The cases i know of, the trade in value on a self propelled thats 5 years old, is less than a 5 year old mixer of the same kind.
I had a quote on 2 when i bought my last mixer. The buy back guarantied price was very low, and the sellers both told me i needed to keep it a least to 10.000 hours before i could make any meaningfull calculation on buying it.

Intresting that makes me wounder why they buy them on the continent

 

[deleted user 837354]

It may well work but I would go off to visit several existing owners to see how they are using them.

The cost savings will definitely be there if you are saving on tractors and wagons and loaders in multiple areas. May even be a labour saver.

All the farms I have seen them on (in Europe) were big farms where a lot of stock had to be fed and they were loading up a few ingredients pretty quickly and the machines were working for significant parts of the day.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Seems a lot of hydraulics, hydraulically driven motors. No way can they beat a loader and wagon on running costs.

 

[farmer1989]

Seems a lot of hydraulics, hydraulically driven motors. No way can they beat a loader and wagon on running costs.

It can be argued Sp more efficent 1 machine to maintain no shuttling back and forth to get ingredients more acurate, loading ingredients faster, no spillage around the yard cleaner feed face less tyre ware

 

[deleted user 837354]

Thinking about it, Boysground may know of a farm locally that had one, I understand they ran it ok for a time but only one main man drove it virtually all of the time and when it was replaced they opted for a tractor and trailer mixer. Not only was this outfit half the price of a self propelled unit, more importantly more members of the foreign workforce could operate the thing without needing a PhD in electro-mechanical engineering. I think a local ag dealer looked after the self propelled.

 

[vantage]

Local farm has a Keenan, Keenan engineer wasn’t impressed the sales team had sold them one, apparently they’re rather hard on machinery. He had to mend the intake elevator as they’d bent it trying to load too quick, perhaps time pressure when feeding 3000+! Definitely a one person machine, ideally with some mechanical compassion.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I can see it would make sense if you didn't want to have to buy a new tractor which would literally spend it's whole life on a mixer wagon. The forward view, ability to self load and having one skilled man who was kept in the warm and dry all day without having to mess about too much would be a bonus. Presumably these things are 40K on the road as well to get between sites.

Could even work for contractors who had a few clients farms to feed 365 days a year and a good reliable bloke to drive it.

Another one of those situations where the value of the machine is far outweighed by the time spent loading, mixing and feeding cattle and the value of the grub it is dispensing.