Straw bedder for silage

[Bossfarmer]

fair mix of breeds youve got? whats your system? selling store or fat?

 

[Norfolk Hill Farmer]

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Made four of them about 6 yrs ago .
Put 2 round bales in each @Grass And Grain

Yes.
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Biggest is the waste is the 4 straw bales across the front but I change them every week so they are still OK for bedding ( cos I'm a tight old bugger)

like the idea. could you extend the feeders to do away with the straw ?

You are very trusting of one piece of string

 

[Nithsdale]

Ok thanks. Sounds like a mchale is the only option. I was going to maybe try an unrolled first for the simplicity and diesel option but think I might have less bother with stuff getting dragged through onto slats with the bedder idea.

McHale isn't the ONLY option - there are several makes out there.

McHale is just a copy of the Kuhn and I've used both. Personally the Kuhn is better but there is little between them - if you're buying new it'll come down to price.



If you look at other makes the rule is the same for them all - make sure it has a Hi-Lo gearlever on the machine. This means it is designed to do silage (hi for straw and lo for silage).

 

[HundyMundy]

We have put plenty of chopped silage bales, out of a vicon belt baler so solid bales, through a KV bedding machine. Worked fine, just takes time. I put extra blades on the rotor of the bedding machine to chop the silage more. Other thing to watch was making sure first bale was finished before tipping the second one in of the back door. As if it was the wrong size left it could get wedged under the rotor.

 

[HarryB97]

Did it with a Teagle for a few years and it worked well. Unchopped bales were a complete no go but otherwise it worked well as long as you didn’t feed them through to fast. If it was really young sugary grass it could bridge as it came out the spout.

 

[Pistonbroke]

Don't try silage through a dedicated straw machine. Some makes do them with just tines on the rotor and no knives. After that they'll all do it with sharp knives. Our McHale struggled with some very old ,dry bales last year. Tough shite fodder but it was all we had. Blocked the chute a few times when it took a matted lump at lower revs

 

[big rough farmer]

Put over 10,000 bales of chopped haylage (over 40% dry matter) through a Mchale. Silage bales are easier on the machine. As said, Mchale is the bedder designed to cope with the rigours of feeding bales

However my Mchale now "retired" from feeding, and only used for bedding now

Bought a hustler bale unroller. Only need one tractor to load and feed out. Use a thimble full of diesel in comparison, and there's far less metal getting worn out. Bedder is tidier and more even feeding out, but farmer is fitter with the unroller; I use a grape to tidy up and push in stuff the cows can't reach through the feed barrier

 

[big rough farmer]

Put over 10,000 bales of chopped haylage (over 40% dry matter) through a Mchale. Silage bales are easier on the machine. As said, Mchale is the bedder designed to cope with the rigours of feeding bales

However my Mchale now "retired" from feeding, and only used for bedding now

Bought a hustler bale unroller. Only need one tractor to load and feed out. Use a thimble full of diesel in comparison, and there's far less metal getting worn out. Bedder is tidier and more even feeding out, but farmer is fitter with the unroller; I use a grape to tidy up and push in stuff the cows can't reach through the feed barrier

so do you use your hustler bale unroller to bed pens eg put it in rows so can spread with grape etc thanks

 

[Nithsdale]

so do you use your hustler bale unroller to bed pens eg put it in rows so can spread with grape etc thanks

Read his post again....

 

[DrDunc]

so do you use your hustler bale unroller to bed pens eg put it in rows so can spread with grape etc thanks

Unroller used for haylage

Still bed with the Mchale blower

 

[big rough farmer]

Unroller used for haylage

Still bed with the Mchale blower

thanlks

 

[Drillman]

Unroller used for haylage

Still bed with the Mchale blower

We tried a straw blower machine, I hated it so got a hustler on demo. It stayed and does bedding as well as silage. Yes we gotta drive in the yards but we’re set up to do it and scary finance lady opens gates for me and finds the net end while i rotate the bale to remove net.

reckon we can unroll a 5ft 6in straw bale in around a minute and use about 1 per yard per day. So it’s not a long or hard job bedding.

keep hustler well up above cattle and find it leave straw in fluffy heaps which cattle knock about easily with no manual labour involved

 

[Grass And Grain]

We tried a straw blower machine, I hated it so got a hustler on demo. It stayed and does bedding as well as silage. Yes we gotta drive in the yards but we’re set up to do it and scary finance lady opens gates for me and finds the net end while i rotate the bale to remove net.

reckon we can unroll a 5ft 6in straw bale in around a minute and use about 1 per yard per day. So it’s not a long or hard job bedding.

keep hustler well up above cattle and find it leave straw in fluffy heaps which cattle knock about easily with no manual labour involved

Well it doesn't sound like a long or hard job for the loader driver sat their with the heater on. What about poor Mrs Drillman handling all that wet netwrap in middle of winter.

 

[Fendt516profi]

Well it doesn't sound like a long or hard job for the loader driver sat their with the heater on. What about poor Mrs Drillman handling all that wet netwrap in middle of winter.

Scary finance lady, he just reminds her that if she aloud a bigger budget she wouldn't have to do it

 

[Drillman]

Well it doesn't sound like a long or hard job for the loader driver sat there with the heater on. What about poor Mrs Drillman handling all that wet netwrap in middle of winter.

I let her put her new coat on the farm account

 

[Grass And Grain]

I let her put her new coat on the farm account

Wise move.

My long suffering wife not allowed such perks, but then as a result she booked a HOLIDAY to the Med. Thankfully I've got an uncle lives there, so it's free digs.