Valmetal bedding chopper for cubicles

[sjt01]

Our cubicles are at present on deep straw over chalk. We are in the process of installing matresses, and want to cut back on straw use. We currently use a Teagle Tomahawk for bedding up, but wonder if the Valmetal machine would do a better job with less dust, less straw and less fuel.

Has anyone experience with one bedding up cubicles? Good or bad?

 

[Wheatonrotty]

@Valmetal Inc
We use one for our turkeys and it's a good machine. Before we got it we went and looked at one being used for cubicles near Coventry. If you get in touch with valmetal I'm sure they will put you in contact with one not too far from you.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Our cubicles are at present on deep straw over chalk. We are in the process of installing matresses, and want to cut back on straw use. We currently use a Teagle Tomahawk for bedding up, but wonder if the Valmetal machine would do a better job with less dust, less straw and less fuel.

Has anyone experience with one bedding up cubicles? Good or bad?

I would contact the straw grinder man and ask him. I had a few customers who use him, he drives all over the shop, grinds the straw real fine and then you can spread it very easily with a woodchuck or similar. Saves a lot of straw.

 

[devonboy]

as ollie said , check out haybuster type hammer mill , we grind wheat straw down to 10mm , and put it onto mattresses with a sawdust dispenser ,have done this for 3 years now and works real well, we are on slats and it causes no problem in the tanks as well. Our bedding cost for the milkers was twelve pounds a cow last year.quite a few contractors supply this service around here.

 

[sjt01]

Unfortunately we are not in a dairy area so no suitable local contractors, also short of under cover space to store milled straw. We are borrowing a Valmetal machine to try, looks good value for money so we will see if it will do our job.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Unfortunately we are not in a dairy area so no suitable local contractors, also short of under cover space to store milled straw. We are borrowing a Valmetal machine to try, looks good value for money so we will see if it will do our job.

The man in question has a newish Case and goes miles in all directions. The saving on straw would pay for a small shed to tip stuff under!

 

[sjt01]

Just tried the machine, really impressed, does a fantastic job at a sensible price.

 

[pappuller]

Just tried the machine, really impressed, does a fantastic job at a sensible price.

How short will it chop the straw ? We are wondering whether to look at chopping straw along side sawdust in our cubicles.

 

[bigw]

Roughly how much straw do you need to put in? Sawdust is only going to go one way in price.

 

[sjt01]

Works well for cubicle bedding, and for feed straw. It is slower now we are in damper weather than we were just after harvest, and uses a bit of petrol. I am looking at making it electric drive. I hear one has been converted to hydraulic drive to fit on a loader. Difficult to quantify exact chop length, but I would say about 4" average, up to 6" or so.

 

[pappuller]

Works well for cubicle bedding, and for feed straw. It is slower now we are in damper weather than we were just after harvest, and uses a bit of petrol. I am looking at making it electric drive. I hear one has been converted to hydraulic drive to fit on a loader. Difficult to quantify exact chop length, but I would say about 4" average, up to 6" or so.

Are you scraping into grids or straight into a lagoon ?

 

[sjt01]

Are you scraping into grids or straight into a lagoon ?

Tractor scraping to a concrete pad, then loader bucket into the AD feed hopper

 

[vantage]

I would contact the straw grinder man and ask him. I had a few customers who use him, he drives all over the shop, grinds the straw real fine and then you can spread it very easily with a woodchuck or similar. Saves a lot of straw.

Presumably pay by the hour.Any idea of the cost?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Presumably pay by the hour.Any idea of the cost?

I can find that out for you. The man is based in Tiverton and you see his outfits all over the shop!!!

 

[Beef farmer]

100 quid an hour i think

 

[The Grinch]

What sort of price is one ?

 

[Grassman247]

What sort of price is one ?

£100/hr for grinding.

Rota grind is £18k I believe but my man has just switched to a teagle machine with a conveyor on the back and the cost of that is an eye watering 68k [emoji15]

 

[Derrick Hughes]

The one my man uses cost £90 k from us

 

[The Grinch]

Sorry, I mean't the valmetal chopper mentioned in the original post. Also has anybody had any experience with Skovbo strawchoppers, seem to be more common on farms abroad. Was thinking of perhaps putting one on front of a pivot steer as they seem quite reasonably priced and liked the idea of only picking 1/4 or 1/2 a bale up at a time and not being to long in length as restricted for space in some places.

 

[Valmetal Inc]