Feeding silage/grabs advice, puzzle etc.

Zimmer

Well-Known Member
:clap:Approaching feeding time again:

Based on last year, the procedure is as follows.
Part time farmer, come home from work, feed two bales daily into a 4 bay double slatted house with a narrow central passage. Did so last winter with a Quicke Q45 loader and fork.

The silage bales are on the slab and the slatted house is beside slab , so short run and no real lifting.
No diet feeders or any high lifting necessary, just get a couple of bales into them and distribute it around.

This year for better or worse, I have some ore plant at my disposal.

I have the McCormick MC115 with Quicke Q45 and fork as per last year.

I also have a 5' 3" McHale shear grab in good condition, have never tried it on bales.

This year, bought for other purposes, I will have a New Holland L216 skid steer comes with no implements.

The New Holland has a rated working load of 725 kg, with tipping load of 1450 kg. Bear in mind, heavy grab on skid steer = not much room left for silage load.
I know, I'm not too badly sorted, but what way would you go ?

Put McHale shear grab on tractor, horse two bales in passage, buy 4' tine grab for skid steer and dole it out to them.

Put shear grab on tractor, horse two bales in passage, buy 5' tine grab for skid steer and dole it out to them.

Put two bales into slatted house with tractor and fork, put McHale shear grab on skid steer and dole it out to them.

Put two bales into slatted house with tractor and fork and buy 4' shear grab to dole it out to them.

There are many more permutations, don't mind flogging shear grab or fork or buying an implement.

but

tractor and loader stays
skid steer stays.



How would you arrange the furniture ? :scratchhead:
 
:clap:Approaching feeding time again:

Based on last year, the procedure is as follows.
Part time farmer, come home from work, feed two bales daily into a 4 bay double slatted house with a narrow central passage. Did so last winter with a Quicke Q45 loader and fork.

The silage bales are on the slab and the slatted house is beside slab , so short run and no real lifting.
No diet feeders or any high lifting necessary, just get a couple of bales into them and distribute it around.

This year for better or worse, I have some ore plant at my disposal.

I have the McCormick MC115 with Quicke Q45 and fork as per last year.

I also have a 5' 3" McHale shear grab in good condition, have never tried it on bales.

This year, bought for other purposes, I will have a New Holland L216 skid steer comes with no implements.

The New Holland has a rated working load of 725 kg, with tipping load of 1450 kg. Bear in mind, heavy grab on skid steer = not much room left for silage load.
I know, I'm not too badly sorted, but what way would you go ?

Put McHale shear grab on tractor, horse two bales in passage, buy 4' tine grab for skid steer and dole it out to them.

Put shear grab on tractor, horse two bales in passage, buy 5' tine grab for skid steer and dole it out to them.

Put two bales into slatted house with tractor and fork, put McHale shear grab on skid steer and dole it out to them.

Put two bales into slatted house with tractor and fork and buy 4' shear grab to dole it out to them.

There are many more permutations, don't mind flogging shear grab or fork or buying an implement.

but

tractor and loader stays
skid steer stays.



How would you arrange the furniture ? :scratchhead:
God such a load of nonsense about feeding a few bales, I can't stand the sight of bales,
Pit silage pull the cover back once a week use tractor and shear grab every other day to fill feed passages, I turn the blocks of silage length ways to the feed barrier so no grappling, a lot cheaper to make a no waste
 
Put a line of bales in front of the cattle every 3 or 4 days, let the cattle eat away for the first 2 days, and them nudge leftovers in with bucket on skiddy on day 3/4

I was going to say buy a bale shear for the tractor. This is a better idea, put in enough for a few days and use the skid steer to push it up on day two or three
 
God such a load of nonsense about feeding a few bales, I can't stand the sight of bales,
Pit silage pull the cover back once a week use tractor and shear grab every other day to fill feed passages, I turn the blocks of silage length ways to the feed barrier so no grappling, a lot cheaper to make a no waste

such a load of nonsense reply, we made the pit for about 20 years, why do you think we had a shear grab, it's bales now though, no more pit.
 
I was going to say buy a bale shear for the tractor. This is a better idea, put in enough for a few days and use the skid steer to push it up on day two or three

Yeah, thought about that m8, sounds good, never had a bale shear though, so don't know a lot about them. Was thinking about trading in tor flogging the McHale shear grab.
 
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How high are the bales? Don't see the need for a shear grab for good solid bales, just use a simple two tine fork and away you go.

Do everything with the skid steer if it will handle the bales and do as Ozzy says above.
 
Try the shear grab and see how you get on, or you could sell it and buy a bale shear, go and see one working first

 
The bales are not high at all, two on top of each other on their side not ends.
I also have a two tine fork, but thats a 3 point linkage job.

The reason I posted here, for advice is because it's not as simple as trying this or that. To try anything on the skid steer means cutting off existing euro brackets, then buying and welding on skid steer brackets on the implement. A change of mind involves doing the same in reverse. All existing implements are euro brackets and the skid steer is quick attach.
There are various adapter plates available to buy , that's more dosh and most of the adapters are to put skid steer implements onto a loader. Also the weight of adapter plates doesn't help the skid steer cause.
So maybe to simplify the question, what implement should I choose from my existing stock :smile:, or what should I buy to put on the front of my skid steer. :lol:
 
Jaysus lad your giving your self horrid hardship with 2 bales in a 4 bay double daily.
If your were going to sell off some of the gear you have why not put ot towards a bale unwinder.
Johnstons of longford sells a powerful amount of them.
We dont make that many bales thankfully up to 300 a year but have 2 big pits aswell.
Use the pallet toes on the manitou to break up the bales and push them in.milkers in at night and have fresh calvers also .6 bales every 2 days
 
I’d be slow putting the shear grab on the skid steer anyway, it and a heavy bale out far will see the rear wheels off the ground most of the time
 
I cut bales in half with my shear grab,no problem but it’s generally on a 3.5t lift machine or the L70,I wouldn’t fancy one on a small skiddy
 
Jaysus lad your giving your self horrid hardship with 2 bales in a 4 bay double daily.

Yes and No m8.

Firstly apart from taking off the plastic, all is done with the tractor, so two bales every day is the same amount of work and same total amount of time as 8 bales every 4 days, albeit you get some evenings kinda off duty.

Because the passage is only 4 metres wide, using the 2 bales a day method, the tractor/bobcat will go anywhere, so you can shove it into them at all times if a pen is a bit slack. With the 8 bales together, its a real struggle to physically get the tractor in, so you could end up using the 3 prong fork :cry:

Also the auld fella, usually wanted to give some meal to a couple of pens, so the bales in the way was not ideal, so it's kinda swings and roundabouts. To further confound the issue, the slatted house is only open on one end.


I’d be slow putting the shear grab on the skid steer anyway, it and a heavy bale out far will see the rear wheels off the ground most of the time

Yes, I'm with you on that one m8, I think that's a non runner.
 
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