Bale shears

Tanco seem the pick of them, I looked into buying one but didn't pull the trigger. Keltec probably have the best way of cutting as ya done need to have it up in the air but they are to heavy for a tractor imo.

have a Tanco bale shear with a yr and a half and very very happy with it... but as has been said your bales should also be chopped by contractor.. i would kick up a fuss with him/her to make sure that they are... makes some difference...

Was considering getting one purely to make the plastic and netting removal easier. This year went with a different contractor who has one of those balers that don't use netting. Some difference in feeding out the bales. Makes the job much easier.

I can only speak of my own experiences but I don't see any increase in the amount of plastic that comes off the bale. I know mowing, wilting and baling conditions determine the bale dry matter and how solid it is, but the bales this year are rock solid, packed well and no waste. I'm not a big machinery person so don't know the ins and outs but the baler/wrapper used this year is a KHUN. The plastic is all one wrap and comes off is one piece, no other bits. I guess every year is different and you can't judge bales on one year but at this point I don't see myself going back to the Fusion with netting. This is just my opinion on my experiences.

Maybe we're talking about different systems alright. I was talking about a white inside layer instead of the net. There was always bits in the first few layers of silage which were a pain with the bale shear.

I know that but 40% of 3500 is better than paying full price for a shear grab which I will use for about 70 bales a year anyway. I think I will chance a prodig shear genius.

70 bales and 400t of pit silage. Yeah I could chance a second hand shear grab but would prefer to buy new as have been burned before with second hand tine grab and I have the grant coming too.

What kind of feed passages have you OP? If you've a central passage way and feed barriers either side I think a round bale unroller is a great job. Chopped or unchopped, if it's driven right you'll do very little forking. We've a hustler bale unroller bought 2nd hand 4 years ago. Priced a new one in Johnstons and it's over 8k but they are good value 2nd hand. I don't think bale shears are that great a job to be honest. IfarmWefarm had a demo one in a video a while back but I wouldn't rate them unless it was for splitting a bale that's being let into a diet feeder.

This 2nd hand one in the link above is good value and are well made machines

Could you get a demo bale shears from a local dealer to try out?

From looking @IFarmWeFarm7615 video on the bale shears it looked like using a bale shears leaves a good bit of the bale out of reach of the cattle and requires this to be pushed in. If your aim to cut out the graping I don't think a bale shears will solve that. You might need to get some sort of a silage pusher too perhaps. I know the bale shears might work out at 1400 euro after all is claimed back but in a way for the volume of silage you'll be feeding out, 400 bales or so per winter I wouldn't let the price of the machine be the main factor within reason.

Could you not just push in with the shear as well the next day or whenever? Tight on feed space here so feed fresh in the evening and push in what remains in the morning, be it bales or pit. Would like a shear here as well but passage is too low and narrow to take advantage of em