Tedding for wagon silage to improve cut quality?

Winklepicker

Member
Livestock Farmer
Had the 1st day out with the wagon yesterday (Pottinger Europrofi) and whilst I'm pleased with it the chop quality wasn't the best, even with brand new blades in and was difficult to clamp.
We did row 3 into 1 straight out of mower swath and are just wondering if the centre swath which hasn't been moved isnt presented to the knives correctly.
Would tedding out then rowing in improve the chop quality?
N.B. I know wagon silage wont be chopped like a precision chop.
 

marco

Member
Had the 1st day out with the wagon yesterday (Pottinger Europrofi) and whilst I'm pleased with it the chop quality wasn't the best, even with brand new blades in and was difficult to clamp.
We did row 3 into 1 straight out of mower swath and are just wondering if the centre swath which hasn't been moved isnt presented to the knives correctly.
Would tedding out then rowing in improve the chop quality?
N.B. I know wagon silage wont be chopped like a precision chop.
Conditioner or straight mower?
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
Had the 1st day out with the wagon yesterday (Pottinger Europrofi) and whilst I'm pleased with it the chop quality wasn't the best, even with brand new blades in and was difficult to clamp.
We did row 3 into 1 straight out of mower swath and are just wondering if the centre swath which hasn't been moved isnt presented to the knives correctly.
Would tedding out then rowing in improve the chop quality?
N.B. I know wagon silage wont be chopped like a precision chop.
Tedding will make you want too feed yourself into the foragewagon head first… if you wanted chop quality should have bought a forager
 

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
You often find that the chop is fine, it is just the way the grass stays together in 'blocks' that get pushed through the knives together. Foragers literally blow the grass apart.
Buckraking wagonned grass does require a little more thought and a different technique.
The end result can still be as good, if not better.
 

dowcow

Member
Location
Lancashire
Yes tedding helps. We went from using a conditioner to a plain mower after deducing the best cut from the forage wagon was from rowed up tedded grass. Conditioners were great when picking up rows straight out the mower with a trailed forager. The big game changer this year has been the swap from a single rotor rake to a twin rotor which leaves a nice wide and more even swath. I can now fill the wagon much more consistently and more quickly too, and the blades seem to stay sharper longer too. Previously the centre blades would be very blunt while the outer ones would still be fairly sharp.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Always watching these wagon threads with interest, mainly for the reasons discussed above such as stemmy grass (beef cattle) and whether it's tedded and raked.
so our system: stemmy big crop mowed with a JD moco and untedded wouldn't be kind on a wagon?
 

Yale

Member
Livestock Farmer
If there is external moisture then I’d ted out for our Europrofi. Also it mixes the swaths so they are presented across the knives rather than more in line out of the mower..

Wagon grass to clamp does present its own challenges hen clamping however I manage OK.

First thing I did was take every other tine off the buckrake as it makes handling the grass easier with no sticking between tines.

Also tip most of the grass up the clamp to save on pushing until it gets too steep.

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Usually when you row up, you run the tractor over the centre swath of 3 and pull the outer swaths in, on top , of the middle swath. If you run your wheels on top of two swaths with bare gound under the tractor, you will rake in 2 full swaths and two half swaths - all the grass will have been moved and your chop length will improve dramatically.

We rarely have to do this now as most of our customers are now on a multi-cut system for quality and so leafy grass and very little stem.
 

Chev54

Member
We put 2 10 ft rows into one, bulky crops and the contractor eats it up with their wagons . Buck raking pit takes more skill and care but this isn’t a bad thing.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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