Thoughts please 2

[lazy farmer]

We don’t use a huge amount of straw. Maybe 40 tons a season. For large calf pens. (7) calving pad and colostrum group. Would the savings in straw usage given the ever rising price warrant the dust and cost of some
Sort of straw chopper/shredder? all but one pen would be easy access.

 

[Nearly]

@Dave W
@Drillman has an unroller.

 

[Dave W]

I’ve an unroller with flicky spreader rotor on it. No dust

 

[DairyNerd]

Buy it if you can justify it to make life easier, rather than to save straw. Never thought it saves much at all, just marketing spiel IMO, I'm sure plenty will disagree though. The increasing price is a worry, heard of one 2000 acre arable farm which has gone from 5 full time staff members to 1 and is putting every arable acre into one or another SFI payment!

 

[Dave W]

We don’t use a huge amount of straw. Maybe 40 tons a season. For large calf pens. (7) calving pad and colostrum group. Would the savings in straw usage given the ever rising price warrant the dust and cost of some
Sort of straw chopper/shredder? all but one pen would be easy access.

My take on it is you can put as much straw in a pen as you need. So if a little pen only wants 1/3 of a bale then that’s all you put in. The rest stays in the spreader.

 

[Bury the Trash]

the dust especially from barley straw.

 

[Rossymons]

We don’t use a huge amount of straw. Maybe 40 tons a season. For large calf pens. (7) calving pad and colostrum group. Would the savings in straw usage given the ever rising price warrant the dust and cost of some
Sort of straw chopper/shredder? all but one pen would be easy access.

I dont miss the dust and noise from the chopper. That might change as I push up numbers but the less dust around young calves the better. I don't think it does them any harm to shunt it around themselves especially when they start moving the bale themselves

 

[Beef farmer]

We don’t use a huge amount of straw. Maybe 40 tons a season. For large calf pens. (7) calving pad and colostrum group. Would the savings in straw usage given the ever rising price warrant the dust and cost of some
Sort of straw chopper/shredder? all but one pen would be easy access.

40 ton of straw. If it goes from 100 to 200 quid a ton, 4k extra. You won't save more than 10 ton of straw max, probably none. So best case a 2k saving. 12k machine and tractor depreciation. Nope. Have a sit down in a dark room. The weather will get better and you'll see things clearer.

 

[Beef farmer]

Also, will fill your blue barrels with straw and dust.

 

[Milkcow365]

We don’t use a huge amount of straw. Maybe 40 tons a season. For large calf pens. (7) calving pad and colostrum group. Would the savings in straw usage given the ever rising price warrant the dust and cost of some
Sort of straw chopper/shredder? all but one pen would be easy access.

@lazy farmer not everything needs justification but if you want somthing to justify it, perhaps 2 members of staff with bad backs is good enough.

 

[In the pit]

You won’t save any straw at all ,if anything I think you would use more with a chopper

 

[frederick]

1 you won't save any straw but it will make life easier.

2 we have a straw blower but all calves are bedded up by hand until after weaning 1 because we just can't make milk drums work with blowing straw and as others have said don't really like flinging the straw and dust at young calves.

Bedding up by hand the quality of the straw is critical though hard biscuits are a soul destroying nightmare.

Would milled straw and dropping it in in a bucket perhaps make life easier and treating it more like sawdust. Would need a shed for the milled straw.

 

[Beef farmer]

@lazy farmer not everything needs justification but if you want somthing to justify it, perhaps 2 members of staff with bad backs is good enough.

I'd recommend using a handler to move the bales about. Bedding up shouldn't be to strenuous

 

[Cowwilf]

My take on it is you can put as much straw in a pen as you need. So if a little pen only wants 1/3 of a bale then that’s all you put in. The rest stays in the spreader.

You can do that with a loader bucket or grab just have an open bale at the stack and take what you need.

 

[lazy farmer]

I'd recommend using a handler to move the bales about. Bedding up shouldn't be to strenuous

For the record the bad backs weren’t caused by levelling straw and we don’t own a handler.

 

[pappuller]

We don’t use a huge amount of straw. Maybe 40 tons a season. For large calf pens. (7) calving pad and colostrum group. Would the savings in straw usage given the ever rising price warrant the dust and cost of some
Sort of straw chopper/shredder? all but one pen would be easy access.

how much straw do you anticipate saving ? reduce your straw usage by 25% is circa £12/1500 a season but payback on a mechanical monster could be 5yrs + but would make life physically easier, we have had the same dilemma around our calving pen, the outcome after some debate was just make sure you buy the best straw and keep the pikel shiny

 

[Beef farmer]

You won't beat small squares for calf pens.

 

[Devon lad]

Bought a 2nd hand spreadabale 3 years ago, absolute game changer for us spring calving, calves and calving cows get bedded without reminding people now, easy to just use part bales rather than people getting tired with a pick or shaking the hell out of the grab.

 

[In the pit]

We’ve just had some of these delivered ,21 small bales wrapped to be the size of one large bale

 

[Martyn]

We demonstrated a straw chopper last year, about £12.5k dust everywhere, and never had so many eye issues on stock before, I couldn’t afford it, we are paying a bit more for baling but buying 4 string bales as far easier to handle, just slice in half with shear bucket and drop where needed. I would think you need 200+ mature beef to warrant a straw chopper to be honest.