Straw Spreaders / Bedders

And if ypu go Kuhn make sure its a newer kind with the bigger flywheel and swept spout rather than vertical spout
@Big Vern will attest to the hardship of the older kind!!
 
The problem with trying to carefully feed straw into the rotor if underpowered is that you need a good volume of straw flowing to help blow it a good distance. When I doubled the oil flow on my tractor and could really let the straw into her I literally buried all the cattle at the back of the shed in straw.
 
Asked neighbour about his one there he sent me a couple of pictures . He can feed a bale of silage with it too . He said youd need min of 80 hp for straw but need 90 or 100 for silage, it will blow straw up to 60 ft with the side spout but the swivel spout won't blow it as far.
20200913_141405.jpg 20200913_141352.jpg
 
I don't know anything about , nor have I a straw blower.

The most popular blower I have seen would be Lucas Castor G. Would have known of 5 or 6 of them , but all would be the guts of 20 years old now . Some bought new some bought SH. One fed and bedded a large sheep flock for years , first behind a Zetor6340 , and latterly an MF 5455. Would be blowing 50 odd feet.
It has been replaced last winter or winter before by a new McHale . Which seem to have a fairly good reputation. The Lucas would have been late 90s.
 
I don't know anything about , nor have I a straw blower.

The most popular blower I have seen would be Lucas Castor G. Would have known of 5 or 6 of them , but all would be the guts of 20 years old now . Some bought new some bought SH. One fed and bedded a large sheep flock for years , first behind a Zetor6340 , and latterly an MF 5455. Would be blowing 50 odd feet.
It has been replaced last winter or winter before by a new McHale . Which seem to have a fairly good reputation. The Lucas would have been late 90s.
The Castor has a full set of blades and can handle straw, hay or silage and has a chain driven rotor eliminating the need for a decent oil flow. The Raptor is a straw only, can be fitted with some blades if needed but is dependent on the tractors oil flow to drive the rotor.
The Raptor is available as mounted or trailed but when you go mounted you need over 100hp sized machine to carry the blower as the weight goes back a long way. I’ve only ever seen trailed Castors. Both can be got with lever/cable control or electric joystick controls. The Raptor here has electric joystick control which I find very handy, it’s a 2008 built machine.
 
Right after all the talking, I'm going to have to take the plunge on one of these finally!

From speaking to end users, my beloved little 3 cylinder Ford's are out :cry:from a power and oil flow perspective so it will have to be on the Landini for now until another tractor comes along at some stage.

Main requirements are:
Trailed
Blow into a 45 foot deep shed and over a barrier at that
Manual controls
Something reasonably simple.

I've looked online and some of these are quite big and You'd need an airport runway to turn them around in, I'd like something much smaller and compact, even if It's one bale at a time which would be perfect here. Something as manoverable as a 10x6 trailer would be ideal.

It's not going to do a huge amount of work here but It's definitely more labour and above all else safety point of view. So I don't need a Rolls Royce model and don't want to spend huge money on it either.

I know very little about the makes so want advice on any particular models to suit the above.

Thanks in advance.

IMHO unless your going to buy a new one I would have a look at some farm sales, OR maybe just maybe a trade in but it would need good looking at, as most that are traded in are proper shagged usually in the bed area or the feed chains etc
Will u be using squares or round bales??
You could if you were handy in the workshop pick up a good little used mounted job and weld on a drawbar and an axle which could work out less than buying a shagged out trailed unit??

Edit, if your getting a cable control one make sure you have a gas blow lamp handy to thaw the cables on a proper frosty morning, as they will get water in them and they will freeze up,, and you will repeat will break or snap the lever of you try and force it to move,,,,, or snap the cable,,,

Also I appreciate were not all millionaires but you only nred buy something half decent once and if it's not doing a lot it last for years and save you a fortune in straw AND make for better shyte
And finally don't buy an old KHUN Primor with a fixed spout COZ if your straw Is like cardboard it will block up,,
 
Last edited:
The problem with trying to carefully feed straw into the rotor if underpowered is that you need a good volume of straw flowing to help blow it a good distance. When I doubled the oil flow on my tractor and could really let the straw into her I literally buried all the cattle at the back of the shed in straw.
Neighbour has some Italian make, cattle have to be out of the shed as if there is a stone in the bale he reckons it would kill an animal
 
Neighbour has some Italian make, cattle have to be out of the shed as if there is a stone in the bale he reckons it would kill an animal
I'd avoid using turned straw if at all possible for the blower as a stone could take the eye from a cow alright. Obviously this year and many others this isn't possible.
 
I've a trailed Teagle, think its a 808s, cable controlled operated by the Ford 4000. So I wouldn't discount using your 3cyl. It will bed a shed 40' wide over the feed barrier easily enough but can't give it full flow of straw as the tractor wouldn't be able to maintain revs and could lead to a blocked spout.
The straw could be spread further with more power and a full flow to the rotor, but it is convenient to leave hooked up for the duration of the winter.
The Teagle doesn't have any way of starting the flywheel without the rotor but I don't find this a problem.
The body is smaller than some other makes I usually only put in one bale at a time as the second is a tight fit, exaggerated by the bales from the Claas 255 being a bit more than 1.2m diameter.
 
Just to say there are no knives fitted to my straw blower and I don't know if chopping it would be any advantage except maybe for additional distance of spread.
I'm bedding suckler cows and cattle while in their pens all the time
 
Firstly Thanks for all the replies, I was not expecting to see so many today to be honest.

I've a Jeulin Reco and it was bought fairly right as it's a lesser know brand. It was on the 3 point but I stuck an axle and hitch on it so the handy tractors could work it. 362 and the 168 have absolutely no problem powering it. Your 3600 would be fine on it. Just feed in the bale slowly. Chopping silage is when there power hungry. Have a chat with N where I got mine. He had a few choppers when I was there.

Jeulin are a local brand here with plenty on the ground. You’ve got a pailleuse/ensileuse (straw/silage) chopper. Those are kinda out of fashion because the silage part adds a lot of weight.
We’ve a few choppers and one of them is a mounted straw/silage that’s considerably heavier...saying that, it’s welded onto a Fiat 880 (?), I think that’s the model anyhow, and she handles it no bother. It’s mounted.
For a small yard/buildings with cul de sacs to be reversed out of, the mounted is the job. For large buildings etc the trained is your only job. The trained are bigger, bulkier and awkward.

I think a Jeulin and Jeantil are the same one only different colours, t etc don't have a great website anyway! I don't really need or want a silage version anyway which helps weight wise and getting something which should be in better condition hopefully.
 
I've a trailed Teagle, think its a 808s, cable controlled operated by the Ford 4000. So I wouldn't discount using your 3cyl. It will bed a shed 40' wide over the feed barrier easily enough but can't give it full flow of straw as the tractor wouldn't be able to maintain revs and could lead to a blocked spout.
The straw could be spread further with more power and a full flow to the rotor, but it is convenient to leave hooked up for the duration of the winter.
The Teagle doesn't have any way of starting the flywheel without the rotor but I don't find this a problem.
The body is smaller than some other makes I usually only put in one bale at a time as the second is a tight fit, exaggerated by the bales from the Claas 255 being a bit more than 1.2m diameter.

There is hope for me yet:laugh:, my desire would be to use the 47hp 3600 or 64hp 3000 if possible and do as you do Ray, by leaving it on for most of the winter.
 
Last edited:
Its mainly Teagle in this area the 8080 was new in 02 doing about 600 straw bales per winter a fair proportion would be baled straight behind the combine and be difficult to unroll manually 165 then the 362 never had a problem with lack of power, one spool cable and its on its second set of knives , be a fair chance it will out last me
 
we had one of those jeantil machines as well the blow was fine on it 45 50 ft on the 168 ,there's a unusual knife set up on the flywheel and can't remember if there was a better blow with the extra knifes in or out
 
I ran my jeantil on my little Renault,kept the floor speed slow and it was fine,it would block up now and again but it did the same when I had 240hp on the shaft:laugh:
 
Anyone on here running a trailed KV like a 842?
If thats the one I'm thinking of you'd probably throw the straw further with a rusty fork then it can.
Whatever ones you look at be sure and look at the size of the flywheel as the bigger that is the better the blow.
 
Have a mchale here and very happy with it. Have used a teagle on another farm and it seemed to be able to blow it a good distance. Your horsepower should work it but if you get bad bales it will make it tricky when a lump goes in if the power dies off and you get a blockage. From what I heard the teagle isn’t the nicest machine to unblock. Older kvs don’t have the best reputation but I have never used one so reputation could be unjustified.
 
My vote would be a Teagle as they do a decent job, plenty of them about and they are good guys to deal with. Brother had a T8080DC but now has a Telehawk
 
Back
Top