Trailed silage harvester outfit

I see a reasonable looking mex 6 in Kelly's Abbeyleix is any has an itch to scratch.
 
My father and late uncle started cutting silage between them in 1961 , with a Taarup inside single chop . Slow , but the option was shite hay .
I have a trailed JF 850 here since 2012 , which I bought for €2500 , mid winter .
Put a chute and spout off a donor machine last year , few diamond chains about 5 years ago . Needs a new shear bar this year . So spend 2 3 400 max on it any year . Cut 50 to 55 acres first cut , and 25 or 30 2nd cut . Have an 8 ft trailed mower . A 30 year old Zetor 12145 drove it up to last year . A 100 hp 4wd Zetor with a 10 ft push off rake shoves up. Made the slab 15 ft wider last year which made that job much easier . All grass is within a mile and a half , which makes a huge difference. Last few years , we have had a neighbour , and a nephew of the wife's drawing using their own tractors . Both excellent pilots , which is better than having 4 useless lads . I have a 14 and a 15 ft trailer , and sometimes borrow a 16ft Cronin tandem axle from a neighbour , who used to own the 15ft that I have. He gets that back occasionally .
Most farmers have a tractor worth more than the entire outfit I have .
Try and start at 9 am , and have often done 28 to 30 acres by 8.30 pm , milk again .
In 2020 my own mower was out of action , so got a contractor friend who does baled silage to mow it . It worked very well , but he was sort of between busy times . Mightnt work as well in a catchy year . But freed me up to milk myself at normal times , and 1 son followed harvester . 2 different local men , who both incidentally have cattle lorries , cut their own , one with a Jf900 , behind an MF 6465 and tired JCB 412 on the pit.
Other lad has an 1100 behind a Valtra , JcB 320 shoving up
He gets a man to mow for him , with a 10ft mower with grouper , and picks 20s .
 
A JF 1050 or 1060 will pick 50 acres a day in a heavy crop lifting 10fts keep trailers under it is all.
Thats the biggest issue with making your own silage, gear is only half the battle, the experience helps too, when i was 17 odd and like every young fella, i was desperate for speed and big loads (some sort of misguided notion about having larger genitalia or something, i don’t rightly remember, just feel a little embarrassed in hindsight) but i used to go cracked at him when he’d let me off with 3/4 of a load and send me on a 2 min drive each way down a battered cow track that would shake the fillings out of your head.

now i realise looking back, he was being more efficient with time and man, he’d always be letting you off near the gateway, there would always be another trailer, there would never be any spillage, the lighter loads were easier on land and man, the smaller load were also better for the pit man, carrying less burned less diesel, very little ‘idle time’ on trailers.

as i travel the country today i still see trailed harvesters with one trailer full still under the spout trying to fill the very last corner of the trailer with a tractor and trailer 25ft behind empty driving along filling its rad with grass and chaff. Mind boggles.

but as above, if you had your 180hp tractor on a 1050 picking 10fts of good heavy stuff, you’ll travel at 8-9k without abusing the harvester. Only swap trailers when driving dry (headlands etc) to maximise the amount of time you are actually chopping, and without trying too hard you’ll pick 50ac in a 12 hour day. If you are in a multicut system with lighter grass raked, no question you’ll pick more.
 
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There was a guy on the old BFF that modified a jf900 and then 1100 after fairly cheaply with a good 200hp in front of it and was clearing raked 25fts in a three cut system. He was clearing a lot more than 35 acres a day, our resident new Holland man might remember more. Tagging doesn't seem to be working for me for some reason

that was a chap called ‘Biggin’ i think. Ironically i think he has a small SP bought since then.
 
I see a reasonable looking mex 6 in Kelly's Abbeyleix is any has an itch to scratch.

What are like to deal with ?
It could be €1500 or €15000..

I don't know what parts availability is like for those now .
Mengele 40 parts are available . Not cheap , but machine was the same basic simple layout from 1st one back in 1986 .
 
Go way and buy a few pallet of plastic between them.
Cheapest way out
I think the notion is medium to long term.

plastic isn’t going to get any cheaper. The greens are going to levy it harder, and its only a matter of time until a measured disposal service is properly enforced.

bales will always have a place but i strongly doubt many will be making 500+ in the future.

strictly my opinion of course.
 
Nicest harvester here was a pottinger mex6 bought new in the early 90s. Easy enough maintain but would need a metal detector. Never tried 20 fts but you’d need a very tidy swart I’d say.

I got a man with a Pottinger mex6 to do the 1st cut in 08 and 09. We had a break down about 7 acres in from start in 08 , and he was cutting my neighbours . We drew ourselves and his son shoved up with an L50 . He had it behind a 06 Deutz 165/7 , and was able for 4 acres an hour from 10 fts . Drew it ourselves . Got him to do the 1st cut the next year as well .
Milk was 40 c in 08 , and 20 in 09 , so I didn't notice it in 08.
 
Drew silage for a contractor the past 2 years beside a jf 900 on either a 6485 or a 7720s and jesus it motored along. Once the headlands were gone, it would fly
 
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Don’t forget you’ll also need the local auld lad that says he’ll give ye a hand, but will spend the entire time breast feeding the sprang, drinking tae, aten sandwich’s and keepin 3 lads idle. And when it comes to covering it will have to go look at a heifer that’s near calving.
 
What's the story with parts for all these yokes going forward? To cut a long story short JF are now owned by CNH and what was Mengele is now owned by AGCO, have both discontinued the trailed harvesters or are new ones still available?
 
What's the story with parts for all these yokes going forward? To cut a long story short JF are now owned by CNH and what was Mengele is now owned by AGCO, have both discontinued the trailed harvesters or are new ones still available?
farmers weekly did a whole thing on trailed foragers few weeks ago. lely has stopped making new foragers. kongskilde are still making them from what was mentioned
 
if i remember rightly, a brand new 1060 with metal detector is a fair chunk of change. was around the 60k mark +vat
 
What's the story with parts for all these yokes going forward? To cut a long story short JF are now owned by CNH and what was Mengele is now owned by AGCO, have both discontinued the trailed harvesters or are new ones still available?
Kongskilde and Elho are the only European brands still making them,

lely and pottinger could return, pottinger most likely in my guess if one does go back at it

a lot of developing markets have their own brands that we wouldn’t have heard of.

in the states there is an altogether different selection of machines, CNH and JD still offer pull type machines as do ‘Dion’ who make a machine fit for 400hp.
 
I'd say about 200 altogether for first cut and maybe 130 or 140 for 2nd cut. They're talking about a trailed harvester because the theory is all their existing gear would handle the output nice and steady, they wouldn't be able to handle the capacity of a self propelled without further upgrades elsewhere along the line. The other part of the discussion was cost, how much per acre to charge for the harvester, trailers, loader on their own.
If they bought their own spfh, they don't have to go any faster than they want.


Saw an add for a 1990 sh40N with supposedly less than 500 acres on her recently. Buggered if I could find it now, but that would be some buy!
Just under £10k.


One small matter to consider is quality of trailer drivers with a trailed, you need to be in close and VERY steady, not like a spfh that can blow to a trailer half a field away!
 
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Or you could buy a shed full of sh30's for very little money, don't know how much less output they had?
 
If they bought their own spfh, they don't have to go any faster than they want.


Saw an add for a 1990 sh40N with supposedly less than 500 acres on her recently. Buggered if I could find it now, but that would be some buy!
Just under £10k.


One small matter to consider is quality of trailer drivers with a trailed, you need to be in close and VERY steady, not like a spfh that can blow to a trailer half a field away!
Would agree on the trailer lads. I struggled when I went drawing silage beside one. Especially at the corners of the headlands. Got lucky that my front tyre only made contact with the forager man's front tyres a few times
 
A bit of discussion for the weekend, came up in conversation during the week. A couple of famers, neighbours, making baled silage and discussing the price of plastic "it's getting very dear", reckoned they could put a trailed outfit together between them to do their own. They'd have a couple of good trailers, mowers and rakes, a fella with a good loader, all they're short is a harvester. Biggest tractor is probably about 180hp, what kind of harvester would you put behind it and what kind of output would you expect on reasonably short draws, would you pick 10ft or 20ft rows? And what would each branch of the enterprise be worth, as in what would the breakdown be per acre for the harvester, the trailers, and the loader? I haven't a notion about any of it, I never had anything to do with a pit silage outfit, I think I've drawn 4 loads of grass in my life. Discuss.
The same is being done around here. Believe the plan this year is to blow out the cobwebs on the jf1100. They used to only do 10ft swaths but I believe that was for the bennefit of the taarup that also used to be used along side it but I don't suspect that it will be in use this time round so might be possible to do 20ft swaths. It's meant to be the best job but the biggest challenge here is to get help, need around 6 here the day of lifting it, 2 on the pit, one on the harvester and 3 drawing. The 75 or the 820 are usually on the harvester, the new jcb 420 will probably replace the 300 on the pit with the 8400 rolling and anything else will be put drawing. It's the best job if you can do it yourself then you're not waiting around for contractors and can lift it and knock it whenever you're ready.
 
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If they bought their own spfh, they don't have to go any faster than they want.
I think the whole point of the idea was a trailed harvester is the only outlay that would be required, whereas a self propelled is another machine to service and maintain etc. and would likely have big acres gone through it at the kind of money they're thinking about, I would imagine you would buy a very fresh/reconditioned trailed machine for the price of a worn out SP.
 
The same is being done around here. Believe the plan this year is to blow out the cobwebs on the jf1100. They used to only do 10ft swaths but I believe that was for the bennefit of the taarup that also used to be used along side it but I don't suspect that it will be in use this time round so might be possible to do 20ft swaths. It's meant to be the best job but the biggest challenge here is to get help, need around 6 here the day of lifting it, 2 on the pit, one on the harvester and 3 drawing. The 75 or the 820 are usually on the harvester, the new jcb 420 will probably replace the 300 on the pit with the 8400 rolling and anything else will be put drawing. It's the best job if you can do it yourself then you're not waiting around for contractors and can lift it and knock it whenever you're ready.
Us and the neighbours used to do our own but wasn't the lack of men around but it was a lottery if 1 of the 2 jaguars would finish the job. What we do now is do our own mowing and draw the silage ourselves and let the contractor deal with the forager and pit seeming as we already have the mowers and trailers. Gets done in a few hours here and the contractors stay behind to help with the pits. We tend to do at least 2 of the 3 farms on the same day
 
Us and the neighbours used to do our own but wasn't the lack of men around but it was a lottery if 1 of the 2 jaguars would finish the job. What we do now is do our own mowing and draw the silage ourselves and let the contractor deal with the forager and pit seeming as we already have the mowers and trailers. Gets done in a few hours here and the contractors stay behind to help with the pits. We tend to do at least 2 of the 3 farms on the same day
We used to do that with getting the loan of farleys bros loader and harvester and dealing with the rest ourselves but would have to wait around till the harvester was at nothing so the boss is planning on busting out the jf this year.
 
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Us and the neighbours used to do our own but wasn't the lack of men around but it was a lottery if 1 of the 2 jaguars would finish the job. What we do now is do our own mowing and draw the silage ourselves and let the contractor deal with the forager and pit seeming as we already have the mowers and trailers. Gets done in a few hours here and the contractors stay behind to help with the pits. We tend to do at least 2 of the 3 farms on the same day
This would be pretty common in the UK where the contractor would only chop and pit, but would supply the trailers for the farmer to use on his own tractors.

Could see that working in ireland where the contractor offered similar service but charged by the hour for the loader and the chopper, would put the pressure back on the farmer to keep grass local to the pit or find extra drivers for a long draw. Also if productivity is slowed down because its badly raked, that again goes onto the farmer’s responsibilty.
 
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