Straw/Silage Choppers

Madisonmenece

Hi Folks,

Getting winter ready and trying to make winter work some way easier to save time and to take work of the old as I work fulltime.

What's the thoughts on a Kuhn 3560 vs mchale c460 for both silage and straw.

Cows a straw bedded, so cleaned out each day and 2-3 round best used to bed

Likely 2-3 bales of silage depending diet beet/maize.

Are they handy to load silage and get netting away, how long to discharge a bale

Also have eye on a spread a bale but then need another machine for feeding

Thanks

Col

Cows r us

Have a Mchale here absolutely great job for straw and we feed a good few bales of silage with it too. Takes about 2 or 3 minutes to feed out a bale of silage once they are reasonably dry bales, it doesn't like wet or saggy bales

MfMan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121078150#Comment_121078150

Does it get clogged or jammed any time? Have you tried pit silage with it?

Like that, was considering getting a good second hand one if possible, as I don't bed much and mainly feed pit silage. The Kuhn 3570 and McHale c460 (which supposedly copied a lot of the Kuhn engineering) would appear to be the best out there, from my bits of research.

Cows r us

Only put pit silage through it a few times with no bother. Wet and out of shape bales are inclined to either block the shute or if the chains on the floor aren't tight enough they can slip at one side and are a pain to even up again.

We fed 600 bales through our one last year and maybe blocked it or jumped the chain 8 or 10 times in the year so not a major problem but it will always happen when your rushing.

We buffer feed a good few bales to the cows and its very handy to be able to spread one bale over 9 or 10 columns

Madisonmenece

Is there any hassle getting net off for silage , often wrapped under silage layer.

Last few winters we stand bales on end walk off the netting and flip a round feeder over them ( I detest the feeders)

Considering bunkers both sides so would need either a silage chopper or diet feeder with elevator. Also have maize and beet to feed this year which could go in with a feed bucket of some sort.

Cows r us

Not a problem with plastic film anyway. We place the bale on the back door then reach across and cut the plastic at floor level on the machine side and fold the whole lot out on the ground, when you close up the door the plastic is left hanging on the door. I presume it would be the same with net.

Cattlepen

Have had various ones over the years. First was a Lucas. Complicated mechanism. Constantly shearing bolts. Wouldn’t advise any1 to buy one.

had a trailed Mc hale which was grand but switched to a mounted one as the brother would be dangerous at reversing trailers. Grand for straw or hay. Saves on bedding. Silage can give problems clogging and such but you would want to be fussy and fond of making work for yerself to be feeding through it. Shove the bales up to them with front loader. They are doing nothing else so let them pull it out.

pit silage a no-no with it

Cattlepen

Newer type Mc hale machine has gotten to be very light looking. Doesn’t look that rugged. I suppose that’s what happens when the accountants start calling the shots instead of design engineers

Madisonmenece

Bought a used spread a bale for finish, right tool for our house setup,.now need to figure out feeding.

Was thinking about making square feeders that can moved to feed store area and filed with silage/ maize/ beet and dropped back into cow feed shed. Perhaps cheaper than diet feeder or feed trailer