Automatic Scraper For Cubicle Shed

pakalasa

Anyone have an idea how much these cost?
My shed in question is about 55ft long including run outside of shed, channel width is about 7Ft (haven't measured).

Also how do you find them ?
I know they have a force limiter, via the hydraulic pressure, but do cows tails get caught up in them etc. How much do they cost to run etc.
I'm a suckler farmer so cost is an issue (I guess these days, same with dairying).:o

leg wax

fitted 1 scraper in 07 o donovan dairy services from cork, length 80 f long scraper 8 f wide , price 4600 euro + vat 621 euros total 5221 euros .no problem with cows tails

mooverlive

have 4 fitted a number of years ago not sure of cost now , super job should have put them in 20 years ago ,they are delavel no problems since the day they went in

irish_bob

pakalasa wrote: »

Anyone have an idea how much these cost?
My shed in question is about 55ft long including run outside of shed, channel width is about 7Ft (haven't measured).

Also how do you find them ?
I know they have a force limiter, via the hydraulic pressure, but do cows tails get caught up in them etc. How much do they cost to run etc.
I'm a suckler farmer so cost is an issue (I guess these days, same with dairying).:o

a scraper would cost about 500 euro a year to run , thier expensive to run if you ask me and personally i would go with a tank and slats every time over scrapers , thier very tempremental and finicky but thats just my opinion

you wont have a problem with tails getting caught

mooverlive

dont know where u got that figure it sounds way ott , urs must b going 24/7 all year round

leg wax

mooverlive wrote: »

dont know where u got that figure it sounds way ott , urs must b going 24/7 all year round

yes totally agree way out for modern scraper.my esb bill for shed with scraper + 4 low energy lights ,which are on dusk till dawn, 2 halogens which are on all night when a cow is in maternity ward,comes in at100 euros for 2 months:p

Ginja Ninja

IMO,money is no object[never thought I'd say that] they are worth every penny you pay for them,regardless of what the price is.

oh and OP,I know our scrapers have a small metal flap that forces the scraper up when the load gets too heavy,so standing on the scraper increases the pressure,just for your info

irish_bob

i see no advantages in scrapers over a slatted passage but i realise they are handy when working with an existing shed , i would never ever put in one when building a new shed , they are especially troublesome when situated at the feedface , any silage that is pulled in by the cows ( this is more of a problem with bales ) gets scraped out with the slurry and by the time its reached the receptor tank , you have nothing but dongue which often blocks the slats , this is particulary problematic when thier is frost , this can result in the scraper blade getting stuck in the dung , ive seen it on my brothers farm , the scraper blade will try and reseed back but will eventually unhitch itsef from the blade which stays in the dung , this means having to drag the blade back on to the ram , my brother had this problem several times over the winter gone by in his new shed , they work pretty well in a passageway between cubicles though but i still think they have no advanatages compared to slats and many disadvantages , once you put in slats , your done with them for 30 years, scrapers require servicing every year and cost money to run , i know some people claim that passageway is cleaner with scrapers , it is , 5 mins after the scraper has run, 5 mins before the scraper has run , its much dirtier than a slatted passageway

leg wax

irish_bob wrote: »

i see no advantages in scrapers over a slatted passage but i realise they are handy when working with an existing shed , i would never ever put in one when building a new shed , they are especially troublesome when situated at the feedface , any silage that is pulled in by the cows ( this is more of a problem with bales ) gets scraped out with the slurry and by the time its reached the receptor tank , you have nothing but dongue which often blocks the slats , this is particulary problematic when thier is frost , this can result in the scraper blade getting stuck in the dung , ive seen it on my brothers farm , the scraper blade will try and reseed back but will eventually unhitch itsef from the blade which stays in the dung , this means having to drag the blade back on to the ram , my brother had this problem several times over the winter gone by in his new shed , they work pretty well in a passageway between cubicles though but i still think they have no advanatages compared to slats and many disadvantages , once you put in slats , your done with them for 30 years, scrapers require servicing every year and cost money to run , i know some people claim that passageway is cleaner with scrapers , it is , 5 mins after the scraper has run, 5 mins before the scraper has run , its much dirtier than a slatted passageway

when your cows pull silage onto the slats what do you do with it?

kfk

pakalasa wrote: »

Anyone have an idea how much these cost?
My shed in question is about 55ft long including run outside of shed, channel width is about 7Ft (haven't measured).

Also how do you find them ?
I know they have a force limiter, via the hydraulic pressure, but do cows tails get caught up in them etc. How much do they cost to run etc.
I'm a suckler farmer so cost is an issue (I guess these days, same with dairying).:o

I had a Dairymaster scraper for the last 12 years, never gave an ounce of trouble. Recently put in two Dairypower scrapers. I find that they work very well. It is important not to let too much dung build up in front of them. I had a feed face on one side of the scraper and it worked fine. It was scraping it into an open slurry pit though. Scraping onto slats does not work with a feed face as I found out. The two dairypower scrapers are costing approx 150 euro on electricity while the cattle are housed. Both scrapers are coming on every 2 hours and cover 60 foot runs each. 500 euro as irishbob suggested to run a scraper is way off the mark.

irish_bob

kfk wrote: »

I had a Dairymaster scraper for the last 12 years, never gave an ounce of trouble. Recently put in two Dairypower scrapers. I find that they work very well. It is important not to let too much dung build up in front of them. I had a feed face on one side of the scraper and it worked fine. It was scraping it into an open slurry pit though. Scraping onto slats does not work with a feed face as I found out. The two dairypower scrapers are costing approx 150 euro on electricity while the cattle are housed. Both scrapers are coming on every 2 hours and cover 60 foot runs each. 500 euro as irishbob suggested to run a scraper is way of the mark.

ok , i could have been wrong about the running costs but im interested to hear that you found scrapers dont work at all well at the feedface when scraping into slats


ps

in response to the question by leg wax , when silage is pulled in on a slatted passage , it isnt a problem because thier is no scraper coming along to push it into a big pile of dung outside the door , its eventually falls down into the slats , its not really a problem

with scrapers , when the silage is pushed out the door , you have to come along with a grape , otherwise you end up with a dungstead outside the door and the scraper will unhitch itself from the ram

leg wax

irish bob i dont want to sound like a prick but ,scrapers work perfectly fine at the feedface when pushing direct into a open slurry pit, the man who would push into a slatted tank/ channel was just not thinking of the problems that obviouslywould arise from silage,it sounds like layout fault not the scraper fault. ps the power scraper stays on the ram driven guide running up and down the passage, may be the older models give a lot more problems

irish_bob

leg wax wrote: »

irish bob i dont want to sound like a prick but ,scrapers work perfectly fine at the feedface when pushing direct into a open slurry pit, the man who would push into a slatted tank/ channel was just not thinking of the problems that obviouslywould arise from silage,it sounds like layout fault not the scraper fault. ps the power scraper stays on the ram driven guide running up and down the passage, may be the older models give a lot more problems

the vast majority if modern farms dont use scrapers in conjunction with open slurry pits , in fact the majority of farmers dont use open slurry pits anymore at all , my brothers teagasc man came up with the idea to put the scraper at the feed face and the scraper is a dairymaster , apparently , its an 18 year old design , the brother recokons he will have to throw out the scrapers eventually and dig out tanks where the concrete passages are , some mess eh

Sam Kade

leg wax wrote: »

irish bob i dont want to sound like a prick but ,scrapers work perfectly fine at the feedface when pushing direct into a open slurry pit, the man who would push into a slatted tank/ channel was just not thinking of the problems that obviouslywould arise from silage,it sounds like layout fault not the scraper fault. ps the power scraper stays on the ram driven guide running up and down the passage, may be the older models give a lot more problems

I have an open slurry pit and a scraper in the feed passage. When feeding baled silage it is a disaster as the silage the cows pull in is scraped into the tank and builds up and is impossible to move. I had to get in a digger to break it up and mix it with the slurry. Unless you take out the waste silage from the passage a few times a day (which defies the idea of scrapers for labour saving) you cannot prevent the problem.

kfk

I sort of knew that I would have trouble scraping onto slats. However, it was not a design fault. The open slurry pit was replaced with a new slatted house which I now feed the cattle from. I was stuck for place to house the bull so I penned him into a cubicle house with a scraper. One bull managed to pull out enough silage for me to clear the blocked slats twice a day with a pike. I will be converting the feed face to cubicles later this year, so all problems solved.

leg wax

irish bob says his silage goes down under the slats , you have a open tank and need a digger to move it, bob must have a great pump or your cows are pulling in a dam lot of silage or is it long stemmy haylage did you try chopped bales. last year was my second winter feeding on slats only had problem when i bought bales that were very stemmy , but found that if you made the cow stretch out to reach the bale it was a lot better.farming is never easy we sure have to earn it

pakalasa

Guys, thanks for all your replies.

Firstly, don't diagonal feed barriers help prevent silage from being pulled in.

I plan to put in some kind of scraper, may even make up my own. Don't fancy landing out €4~5K though. I work off-farm with hydraulics so I know a little of what's involved. It's been a huge amount of work for me every winter. I was cleaning it by hand every day, not as crazy as it sounds. OK during wet weather but when dry, even the tractor would slide out over it. My back was starting to feel the effects.
I was even thinking of making up a electric wince type that would pull a hand held one (larger than normal) but I would need to be able to turn it on/off remotely and would need some kind of a slip-clutch for safety to limit the pulling force.....Don't know yet...

Also - Does the scraper blade have rubber along the bottom, or is it all steel?

Mrmoe

We have a Dairymaster scraper pushing into an open pit but also combines some slats as well. It pushes it a fair distance the equivalent of 7 blocks. The only thing I would say is that a cow can tip off the gear every now and then and knock it in to neutral. Generally we have it off during the night. Never really any trouble mechanically as long as the oil is topped up every winter. DEfinitely a labour saving device and it frees up atractor as well without having to put on a yard scraper on it.

Sam Kade

leg wax wrote: »

irish bob says his silage goes down under the slats , you have a open tank and need a digger to move it, bob must have a great pump or your cows are pulling in a dam lot of silage or is it long stemmy haylage did you try chopped bales. last year was my second winter feeding on slats only had problem when i bought bales that were very stemmy , but found that if you made the cow stretch out to reach the bale it was a lot better.farming is never easy we sure have to earn it

Yes it was more haylage than silage. I own a welger rp12 baler so no chopper for chopping bales.

Pakalasa yes diagonal feed barriers help prevent silage from being pulled in, with a narrow feed passage there would be the danger of getting cows heads caught between the feed barrier and the wheel of the tractor.

There is no rubber on an automatic scraper.

aristo

pakalasa wrote: »

Anyone have an idea how much these cost?
My shed in question is about 55ft long including run outside of shed, channel width is about 7Ft (haven't measured).

Also how do you find them ?
I know they have a force limiter, via the hydraulic pressure, but do cows tails get caught up in them etc. How much do they cost to run etc.
I'm a suckler farmer so cost is an issue (I guess these days, same with dairying).:o

Hi, my father recently got out of dairying and now we have 3 alfa laval scraper systems sitting idle, 7 scraper blades, approx scraping length is around 100 feet per blade, modest money would buy them, if your interested? in kildare.

pakalasa

aristo,

i would be interested alright. Could you leave me a contact number by Private Message.

Thanks
PAKALASA

jjn

aristo wrote: »

Hi, my father recently got out of dairying and now we have 3 alfa laval scraper systems sitting idle, 7 scraper blades, approx scraping length is around 100 feet per blade, modest money would buy them, if your interested? in kildare.

I'd also be interested in getting in contact with you about these scrapers, can you give me contact details?

vanderbadger

pakalasa wrote: »

Anyone have an idea how much these cost?
My shed in question is about 55ft long including run outside of shed, channel width is about 7Ft (haven't measured).

Also how do you find them ?
I know they have a force limiter, via the hydraulic pressure, but do cows tails get caught up in them etc. How much do they cost to run etc.
I'm a suckler farmer so cost is an issue (I guess these days, same with dairying).:o

in the same boat and interested, cows in old cubicle shed whose passage way leads directly onto slats, toyed with idea of getting scraper for quad but seems like a pain in the hole to be opening back door to shed twice a day and coming in with quad and stopping cows going out, automatic scraper would def be a better job

scaniaman

If your feeding bales even the chopped ones the cows can pull in a good bit of silage all right. I got a few sheets of 8x4 reinforceing mesh the six inch square type cut them in half and lay them on the silage in the feed passage. The cows have to pull the silage through it i find it works very well. I have dairymaster scrapers no trouble at all should have had em years ago. A neighbour has dairypower he says their a bit light they can jump in heavy going.Maybe their not coming on often enough.:)