For that length I'd say you'd need it pree chopped?
For chopping that fine you’ll need to be pre chopping the straw . Lob on 3 bales that’s the fill of an 18 cube abbey and go do something else . 15/ 20 minutes and you’ll have dust . That’s the way I do it in work now only feeding 1kg ahead to the milkers but they were selecting out the straw and leaving it after them .
When you say pre-chopping do you mean chopping the straw while baling with a baler equipped with knives or with using a dedicated straw chopper in the yard before mixing a diet?
We just put 3 bales of straw into the tub feeder and put it mixing give it say 15 mins and the straw will be very finelyish chopped hardly 30mm but of left for longer probably would go that fine . then throw the straw out of the feeder again . Then refill the feeder with the volume of straw you want in a set load and add silage . By putting the straw through the feeder twice it gets chopped much finer . We do the same with beet chop 8 tons at a time and reload with what’s needed for a set load beet is then chopped to potatoe wedge size .
Dedicated straw chopper.
Sounds good. Pre-chopped beet is the main ingredient in her mix at the moment but I need to get chopped straw into the diet without too much work.
No doubt it's the quickest way of getting it done. I was just hoping that there was a tub feeder out there that could do a similar job without the need for an extra tractor and machine.
Why so short, better cudding and much more effective buffering if its around 100 -125 mm ( width of the palm of your hand)
That's what she said
Good point. We recently took advice from a renowned nutritionist who recommended that a straw chop length of no greater than 30mm opens up the villi in the rumen which increases the rate of nutrient adsorption. I asked about cudding and buffering as it is essential when feeding beet but he claims that the amount of cudding won't be affected by reducing the chop length.
Doctors differ, I have found when feeding wholecrop wheat a small amount of longer fibre to be beneficial (0.25kg ish), but if you want convenient large volume of short chop straw then whole cropped wheat is a good option.
That's fair enough, true although the absence of a silage pit in our yard probably makes it a non-runner. But you are right, recommendations differ and we will be getting more advice before spending any money.
Can't disagree with you there. Our 25 year old MF375 and 20 year old paddle feeder uses no more than 2 fills of diesel per winter. But the feeder is nearly worn out and mixing very inconsistent now which is affecting animal performance. Feeding is taking too long and I need to get straw mixed into the diet, particularly when building up kgs of beet intake. But I have no intention of spending a ball of money on shiney new feeders and straw choppers.
Did a lot of this mixing chopping washing putting it in putting it out as well here and those pictures of beet been chopped gives me the shivers there was just too much work in it for us here. Hard enough putting silage into a feeder with meal not a mind that crack.
washing or even chopping beet in a diet feeder is nuts. You will wear out the feeder in no time and the chopping job at best can be described as very average. Free standing chopper or beet chopper bucket is the only job
