Which forage harvester for longest chop length?

[Martin Holden]

absolutely

Think the best I’ve ever seen was vacuum made silage. Not very practical but by golly amazing stuff

 

[freelancer]

what is vacuum made silage?

 

[YELROM]

what is vacuum made silage?

Vacuum Silage

Bales Pod and Sheet Seam demonstration Yesterday I finally had everything together to make that video. A Bales Pod was used to show the use of new Silage Sheet Seam and old Strip-Seal and test both the Sheet Seam and the BL42 Side Channel Blower. It is heaps better quality than the 1986 VHS...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[Martin Holden]

what is vacuum made silage?

I saw it on w made by an advocate of the system David Lance on Dartmoor at the time. Flail cut grass, wilted then flail harvester pick up and placed in a plastic lined Earth pit (small scale size but bigger than an Ag Bag type system). The pit is rolled and afterwards the plastic lining is folded over sealed and a vacuum pump attached to the outlet and run for several days to draw any remaining air.

 

[james ds]

I agree, however, in reality in the heat of battle trailers are coming in from a SP thick and fast (or should be) the time per load on the clamp is much less than a one man band with a loader wagon, when the man on the buck-rake has much more time to manage the clamp. To deal with large volumes, the clamp equipment is usually bigger and heavier in a SP team than a one man band's buck- rake tractor also. So it's time v weight.

But, taking all factors in, with the right equipment and driver, short cut grass is much easier to consolidate in the clamp, plus you can get more in if under pressure.

As regards feeding, it's more complicated, and depends what and how you feed. The objective is to increase DM intake, however the ruminant must also have time to process what it eats. Longer cut grass maintains stomach PH better.

Given the world we live in now, it would interesting to know which creates the most methane, short or longer cut grass ?

Longer chop silage has a lower carbon output as there is a lot less fuel used making it, then as cattle eat less of it you need to make less silage , so wagon silage has to have a far lower carbon output figure.

 

[Speedstar]

Longer chop silage has a lower carbon output as there is a lot less fuel used making it, then as cattle eat less of it you need to make less silage , so wagon silage has to have a far lower carbon output figure.

all so because the cattle eat less the do not get fat as quick or give as much milk , which is not good at the cost of inputs today

 

[james ds]

all so because the cattle eat less the do not get fat as quick or give as much milk , which is not good at the cost of inputs today

Actually they thrive better as they lie down happy chewing their cud , the precision chop runs through their stomach far too quick for all the nutrition to be taken in.

 

[Rob Holmes]

all so because the cattle eat less the do not get fat as quick or give as much milk , which is not good at the cost of inputs today

Cows are ruminants, the longer chop length allows them to ruminate for longer, i.e. getting more nutrient out of less grass/silage

 

[Speedstar]

Cows are ruminants, the longer chop length allows them to ruminate for longer, i.e. getting more nutrient out of less grass/silage

If you want out from any cattle the more they eat the better the do ,put cattle in a field of long grass then in field of short grass and see which do the best

 

[mf7480]

You can’t really simplify it that far to say long chop length= better.

There is a different requirement between say 40%dm third cut which is a mostly a load of Bennetts, to 26%dm April cut clover ley. The high DM high fibre grass needs chopping down to 15mm, the clover ley needs to ideally be about 50mm.

The issue with a wagon is they chop grass exactly the wrong way about- high fibre high DM grass doesn’t get chopped, and low fibre low DM grass gets very well chopped.

In an ideal world we’d be chopping 30dm young grass all of the time, but the practicality of that isn’t always possible.

These two samples are a case in point. On the left is some grass that was harvested 2 weeks late in the last week of May. 30%dm, chopped to 18mm. It was very high fibre, low protein grass. The sample on the right is westewolds ryegrass chopped in April. 25dm, chopped at the max possible chop length of 26mm theoretical. What I’ve found is with the feed rolls flat out the actual chop length is much longer than 26mm, I guess the grass is being bundled into the chopper so fast it’s going in all directions.

Both harvested with a brand new forager so decent blades and same setup for both samples.

 

[daijd]

If you want out from any cattle the more they eat the better the do ,put cattle in a field of long grass then in field of short grass and see which do the best

And wagons are for harvesting the short high value grass that cows would graze. You’d be suprised as to how many people don’t understand this and start slagging off wagons.

 

[tr250]

But not as good for the cows who eat more fine chop but produce no more .

No but if it’s rolled and ensiled better they will perform better whatever chop length

 

[james ds]

all so because the cattle eat less the do not get fat as quick or give as much milk , which is not good at the cost of inputs today

No they thrive better , they don’t waste as much, we did trials and the cows ate less wagon silage and milked better than when fed sp silage.

 

[mtx.jag]

Wonder why none of the 1000 cow herd’s around us don’t use a wagon

 

[Speedstar]

Wonder why none of the 1000 cow herd’s around us don’t use a wagon

Because jimmy does not understand or work for big out fits

 

[michael N123]

Buckrake men complaining of a 12t unwrapped round bale......

I was on a pit on Saturday using one of them train wheel roller things while long chopped box grass was coming in… and really fealt sorry for the lad on the pit It would be hard work without a dedicated rolling tractor and that stuff coming in

 

[ollie989898]

Cows are ruminants, the longer chop length allows them to ruminate for longer, i.e. getting more nutrient out of less grass/silage

So small chopped stuff that requires less chewing gives no bonus from the smaller particle size?

There are a lot of top performing herds on shorter chopped silage that seem to do very well at it. I'm not so sure the long vs short argument is as clear cut. The cows eating shorter chopped material are surely ingesting more dry matter in any 24 hour period than those eating longer chopped stuff?

 

[ollie989898]

I was on a pit on Saturday using one of them train wheel roller things while long chopped box grass was coming in… and really fealt sorry for the lad on the pit It would be hard work without a dedicated rolling tractor and that stuff coming in

Most contractors around here now bring the train wheels with them for someone to roll the pit with.

 

[michael N123]

Most contractors around here now bring the train wheels with them for someone to roll the pit with.

First time I’d used them was impressed

 

[ollie989898]

First time I’d used them was impressed

The first time I saw them used I was shocked at how heavy they were and the size of the tractor they contractor had sent. JD 6250R sure squatted down when lifting them up. The farmer had a mixer wagon with a weigher and we worked out that the stuff at the bottom of the clamp we took out with the shear grab was basically twice the density of the uppermost layers.