Weighing out feed using auger bucket

[Tim G]

I'm not sure the RDS system is dynamic, so it might not be of much use feeding out as you'd have to feed a bit and re weigh it each time.
I said ad lib feeders earlier in jest, but that's what we did on the farm I used to work on. When I left school and worked there I was one of five, plus the owner and all feeding was from bags, mixed 1t at a time on farm. 12 years later and the owner did less physical work and original employees had either left or retired, I had two new colleagues who were both in their 60s and going in yards of cattle with a bag of feed on your shoulders became dangerous. We changed to AD lib feed hoppers and a trailed 2t feed mixer which augered it into the hoppers. Didn't save work but made it easier.

 

[newholland]

@Grass And Grain We have an Emily mixing auger bucket on weigh cells. If you want to look at it or buy it, drop me a PM as we don't use it any more as no longer have cows to feed.

We got the system to work well - we did a mix of 200kg soya, 200kg rolled barley, 15kg minerals etc put this out for 100 cows each day. You could watch the weight going down and then feed varying amounts of the mix to different groups.
Oil weighing won't work - its not accurate by a massive amount - we bought a system initially and it was a complete waste of time due to temperature difference of oil as loader goes from cold to hot.
Fitting a set of crush weigh scales under the bucket and then carrying it on the pallet tines works very accurately to +/- 2kg and is the cheapest best option. But you have to obviously fill your auger bucket using a standard bucket or hopper spout.
There is a company in Europe who sell loader brackets with weigh cells built in that can take the force of digging and lifting, but they are big dollars.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Have a look at the technology on the snacker feeders. Would that be compatible?

 

[Nukemall]

Feed Weigher - D6 with Mechanical Counter - to be used in conjunction — Dalton Engineering

Mechanical feed weigher When used inconjunction with our Auger Batch Control (33CPTIPWEIGHER) the D6 Feed Weigher enables you to dispence the days feed consumption. The Diplomat batch weighers are a continuous batch weigher where the material flows constantly through the weigher from your auger.

www.daltonengineering.co.uk

 

[Grass And Grain]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Some good ideas.

 

[organicguy]

We feed barley from an auger bucket on top of silage. Adjustable slide on side of bucket calibrate for time, select gear. Not sure it will be accurate enough for you.
Just thought of weigher that can be attached to conveyor to weigh grain into store, just a counter and calibrate the box.

 

[milton-95]

Not an auger bucket but we use a hopper with a small hydraulic conveyor underneath, pick it up with pallet forks on loader tractor. The tractor has a front linkage with a third service so we plum the hydraulic pipes into the third service and that means we can slow the rate of flow through the spools.

We just drive up the pass with the tractor in a set gear at tick over.

It's not 100% accurate but we know the hopper holds 600kg of bruised barley when filled level ( weighed on a set of weigh scales) and can divide that by the amount of days the hopper lasts and can adjust either the gear or the spool flow till we're happy

Own cattle and barley off the heap so doesn't need to be 100% accurate like the op does but doesn't work out far wrong.

 

[IOW91]

The farms I used to work for, after giving up dairy, did heifer rearing for their farms in Dorset.

We had a RDS weigher on a JCB 526. We fed the heifer nuts using it and a auger bucket. It was very good. Accuracy to within 10kg normally. You could weigh what was in the bucket or if you held the arm at a certain height so the sensors/magnets were level it would give you a live read, as you emptied the bucket.

To make it accurate always had the revs to 1500 when weighing a bucket. DONT crowd the bucket hard back when weighing. Also make sure your stationary when weighing. Keeping the machine well greased and pins looked after helps keeps it accurate aswell.

 

[Drillman]

@Grass And Grain keep it simple, forget the bags, there just make work. Scoop a bucket full of feed up with the loader and drive to where cattle are, then using a nice handy size bucket just scoop what you need into each trough. Takes no time at all. And can weigh a few buckets to get an average weight. It’s what we do.

Edit- get grass and grain junior to drive the loader then it saves you getting on/off and speeds job up even more

 

[beltbreaker]

@Grass And Grain keep it simple, forget the bags, there just make work. Scoop a bucket full of feed up with the loader and drive to where cattle are, then using a nice handy size bucket just scoop what you need into each trough. Takes no time at all. And can weigh a few buckets to get an average weight. It’s what we do.

Edit- get grass and grain junior to drive the loader then it saves you getting on/off and speeds job up even more

I have an auger bucket and RDS weigher, it's not accurate enough for cereals until they go ad-lib. I use a larger shovel 1 heaped shovel is 5kg and work from there.

 

[alomy75]

We use an rds weighlog on a trailer. There are ways of getting them to work pretty accurately. It’s not going to help the op specifically but;
Isolate the oil from the tractor so it doesn’t get hot-we plumb into a scissor lift trailer. Also as it’s scissor lift it doesn’t matter where the load is located.
Isolate the 12v feed-tractor stopped for us gives a good stable feed.
Calibrate with the sort of weight you want to be weighing. We weigh 8-10t so use seed bags etc.
I just can’t see how one mounted on a telescopic would be accurate enough based on the above…

 

[fergus]

Currently feeding cereal blend out using bags (housed cattle, feed passage, into troughs). 330kg/day, twice a day feeding. Getting tired of filling and lifting 20/25kg bags.

We have an auger bucket on farm which goes in front of telehandler.

Is it possible with the auger bucket to have a method of weighing what we feed out, which will give me the required accuracy. I just want to be able to know when I've lightened the load by say 45kg after I've fed a bunch of 30 heifers 1.5kg each in a morning feed

Weigh cells?

Oil pressure based weighlog type device.

Or some sort of mechanical metering out device? And I know how much each delivered segment weighs.

All good ideas appreciated!

Or anyone doing this successfully?

Give me a shout, we can supply a metering system for you machine. a simple counter box that counts down the number of turns the auger does, a simple sensor on the auger with a magnet is att that is really needed.

 

[Grass And Grain]

Give me a shout, we can supply a metering system for you machine. a simple counter box that counts down the number of turns the auger does, a simple sensor on the auger with a magnet is att that is really needed.

Thanks. Auger doesn't always meter our same amount per revolution. i.e. when the bucket starts to get empty of cereal blend.

 

[ollie989898]

Am I being thick or something. Can't you use an RDS weigher on the loader and just stop the augur bucket periodically so it is still and check the weight then? I can see you can't do it any sense whilst it is moving and unloading. Not 100% accurate but better than guessing or trying to time it discharging?

 

[IOW91]

Am I being thick or something. Can't you use an RDS weigher on the loader and just stop the augur bucket periodically so it is still and check the weight then? I can see you can't do it any sense whilst it is moving and unloading. Not 100% accurate but better than guessing or trying to time it discharging?

Yeah that works fine. Just stop and re weigh. Normally will be accurate to within 10kg.

 

[fergus]

Thanks. Auger doesn't always meter our same amount per revolution. i.e. when the bucket starts to get empty of cereal blend.

interesting, we can do it on load cells if needed. will be ££ though.

 

[upnortheast]

Had an RDS weigher on terex 200, very accurate.
Changed to a Manitou 629. Never worked right. Turns out there is something in the Manitou plumbing which prevents accurate weighing

 

[cattow]

Mate has aKW auger bucket for feeding corn, that has a counter on the auger for measuring