Trailed forage harvesters

Are trailed harvesters confined to the past. Ive only seen one this year working excluding my own. Mine is now in its 23 season,although semi retired as 3 years . I now get a contractor for 2/3 of my grass. Everyone used to have them here in ni. Mine been driven by a zetor 12145 1 year,fiat 110.90 turbo 10 years, newholland tm120 9 yeaes and a case puma 130 for 3 years. Theyve become very expensive to replace. Heres a pic of it. Spent nothing on it this year and has been a very reliable machine compared to my old deutz fh900
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milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
We still run a mengele sh40 with a jd 6920 up front. The mengele must be 20yrs at least (2nd hand to us ten year ago) and the jd is now knocking on 15. The figures for a replacement tractor bandied about on another thread must be £75k + and a lely storm would have to be 25k at a guess. Add on a fleet to cart and stack the pit including labour and no wonder you don’t see too many about!
 

Khan

Member
Location
Emerald Isle
Had a big blow up with our Mex 6 late 2016 so got contractor in 2017. We have trailers and tractors with the tillage so we were only paying for chopper, rake and Volvo on pit. 2017 wasn't a good year to look for a contactor, first cut was ok but second cut was 3 weeks late with weather and contractor booked up. Bought 3 year old Mex 6 last autumn and 2 cuts this year absolute breeze though you couldnt make bad silage this summer. Have three full time on farm plus 2 good self employed to call on and the father so labour isn't a huge issue for us luckily. 240 acre first cut, 150 acre second. MF 6495 on chopper, can do 60 acres on long day.
 

Martin Holden

Member
Trade
Location
Cheltenham
That’s a good question in the opening post. Having been involved with them for over 37 years (until Jan 2017) I have had a ringside seat so to speak. Contractors with self propelled’s, round and square balers, and now loader wagons have taken the market. Also the availability of Labour has driven some to contractors as well. As manufactures of trailed machines seek more performance for higher hp tractors the price becomes a major factor. So today in Europe there are only 3 manufactures and maybe only 2 if Agco decide to drop the old Lely Mengele production in the future. Total production numbers including machines for maize aren’t big these days. I think many users will continue to use what they have so long as spare parts are available. If you know your way around a chopper they can be run efficiently.
 
We have a jf 1350 similar to above post have the tractors and trailers in the shed anyway for grain so only need chopper we have 3 people and call on a good neighbor to come and drive a few days a year to make the team up
A 1350 has a similar drum to the 1100. I have a tortoise hare theory to lifting grass. Lift a gear lower than harvester will take and keep moving. It Works. Minimum stoppages
Labour is our biggest problem. We have the kit but no drivers
 

Dog Bowl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
There’s not many sights better than seeing a trailed forager side loading!

We still have a JD 3765 parked up in the shed; spout extension to side load, wide pickup for when dad used to put 2 into 1 with a Taarup 307 autoswather.

Now I ring the contractor to do the chopping. Finding drivers was/is our problem!
 

james ds

Member
Location
leinster
Are trailed harvesters confined to the past. Ive only seen one this year working excluding my own. Mine is now in its 23 season,although semi retired as 3 years . I now get a contractor for 2/3 of my grass. Everyone used to have them here in ni. Mine been driven by a zetor 12145 1 year,fiat 110.90 turbo 10 years, newholland tm120 9 yeaes and a case puma 130 for 3 years. Theyve become very expensive to replace. Heres a pic of it. Spent nothing on it this year and has been a very reliable machine compared to my old deutz fh900View attachment 701724
There use to be a lot of them around here years ago , but now there are only a few farmers still using their own, there are none working for hire , mostly JF 900 and 1050 s still working , there are a few reasons why they have dropped in popularity, one is the new price of them , the second is the lack of labour on farms now compared to years ago, and the main one is effeciency , since wagons became bigger and reliable they have taker over a lot of trailed work, as one farmer who cuts his own and a few neighbours silage when he switched from a JF. 900 to a wagon , what he saved on fuel and labour with the wagon over the harvester paid for the new wagon. He has one wagon doing more acres a day than the JF could do with two trailers side filling , so a huge so a huge saving overall.
 

Dog Bowl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
I’ve just been thinking, next door has a Mengele they use for 100ac a year, big dairy down the road uses a new JF 1050 (?) and a few others dotted around use older JF’s. One chap sold his JF, bought a wagon and contracts a bit with that too. We are spoilt with contractors here, all different sized outfits to appeal to all different sized farms, but all use a self propelled.
 

jf850

Member
Location
Co laois
I , and my father before me , have cut our own silage since 1961. Taarup single chops up to 1984 . JF precision chops since 1985. An FC 80 , 3 different FCT 110s , and a FCT 850 since 2012.
A few farmers still at it around here. A couple of 900s , an 1100 A few 1050s and a 1060. A friend bought a demo Lely Storm this year , and has the 40 N and the 30N that he previously used , "in storage ".

Help has got very hard to get , and the shocking price of new machines , has helped the decline.
 

Thomas5060

Member
Livestock Farmer
Have had this Jag51 for 2 years now, it had sat about for a few years before I got it. The flap motor is seized but other than that it is not too bad a shape, lifted a few acres with it a few weeks back and it seems to be ok, now I know it works I will spend a bit and get a flap motor and put more paddles in her and change a few tines this winter. Not bad for £550
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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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