Trailed silage harvester outfit

TAFKAT

Well-Known Member
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.
 
Be interesting at least. A return to lads putting in their own. Many farms now have better standard of equipment on site for the job anyway than in the distant past. Help may not be as big a problem anymore either if machinery is better.

(Poor wife's though.almost never-ending cooking & washing up)
 
No reason with a jf 1060 with around 26 ft of a raked sward you wouldnt put in 60 acres a day at least.our buck was comfortable at that with a jd7530 up front.short draw with 2 trailers.went sph since but like a few more contractors kept the jf in case of a break down
 
we are
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.
looking at similar ,biggest issue is getting a harvester .sh sp maybe
 
Most lads who ever did that ended up falling out over it.
There was a group of lads in Carlow I think recently who setup themselves. Was on the journal or agriland or something last year.
2 of those lads are my cousins. They probably only do about 1 big days of cutting each and a few smaller bits. 1 guy owns the loader, 1 the mower,and the other 2 own a trailer each. 2 of them have young lads coming home to farm. The harvester was bought between them all and I assume maintenance is worked out pro rata on the amount they cut.
 
Last edited:
I think it is easier for two and preferably three big farms to share machinery. A mower a loader and two wagons and one operator from each farm without having any effect on the day to day operations of each farm. No change in milking times or stopping to go milking. New machinery or possibly loader hired in with operator.
 
JF 1050 here, shared between 4 brothers originally. pulling trailers behind, field size and shape has a big impact but 35-40 acres easily done, a SH sfp will have more output but you'll need more help to keep it working to capacity. Falling out over weather and who cuts when would be a concern. That era of JF ( 2002) pickup wasn't fit for lumps so it's strictly 10ft rows, more modern kit might be ok with raked swarth.
 
2 of those lads are my cousins. They probably only do about 1 big days of cutting each and a few smaller bits. 1 guy owns the loader, 1 the mower,and the other 2 own a trailer each. 2 of them have young lads coming home to farm. The harvester was bought between them all and I assume maintenance is worked out pro rata on the amount they cut.
I don't remember the details now but it seemed they had a solid agreement in place which is the only way to avoid arguments.
 
Mm
JF 1050 here, shared between 4 brothers originally. pulling trailers behind, field size and shape has a big impact but 35-40 acres easily done, a SH sfp will have more output but you'll need more help to keep it working to capacity. Falling out over weather and who cuts when would be a concern. That era of JF ( 2002) pickup wasn't fit for lumps so it's strictly 10ft rows, more modern kit might be ok with raked swarth.
Loader capacity another issue for a SPFH most farmer loaders not capable of doing a good job with that volume of grass especially when the pit gets higher. The way we work it is the Harvester and mower ownership is shared, maintenance on a pro rata basis per acre, all diesel supplied by the farmer whose silage we're cutting, we also usually mow and push up our own bit as we all have similar sized loaders and it works out fairer in terms of tractor hours.
 
Hire in a forage wagon?

We used to have a 250hp engine on the drawbar so we could use the worst tractor in the fleet on it,if it had spools it was hitched up.

Limited supply of decent trailed foragers nowadays so I’d be looking at self propelled or another way is a tube liner a save a huge amount of wrap.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AYF
Hire in a forage wagon?

We used to have a 250hp engine on the drawbar so we could use the worst tractor in the fleet on it,if it had spools it was hitched up.

Limited supply of decent trailed foragers nowadays so I’d be looking at self propelled or another way is a tube liner a save a huge amount of wrap.
Those tubeliners are a great idea but they take up too much space
 
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.
 
We have a Mengele sh40 here, fairly bomb proof and no big issues in 15 years.
One front bearing and a few belts.
Other than the uncle jack knifing it and it needing a whole new drawbar and long shaft that is! Hardly the machines fault!!

I could see it being a nightmare alrite.
But we have managed. Everyone gets their turn of wet silage and whatever. That's life.

Going forward though I think it's going to be a contractor from this year on. Staff and time are valuable commodities by now!


Perhaps the way forward is inviting a contractor with just the chopper in. Give his staff a chance to catch up on other jobs.
I know of one lad who only ran a chopper and rake.
Some farms shared trailers, others had their own or hired lads in separate. He managed fine.
 
But I’m saying that I have a small bit of expeirence working with trailed harvesters. I used to push up for a friend of mine in Wicklow for a few years just for the month of May. He runs a pottinger mex 6, one of the last ones I think it’s 2015. Good harvester lifts 2 John deere 1365 rows, we used to cut 60 acres in about 14/15 hours of cutting. 2 trailers Is plenty without any draw, I pushed up with a 6920 and a push off rake, a 7710 drives the harvester. You can’t get knives for a 10x apparently so keep that in mind and also the flywheel type harvester is supposed to have less to go wrong with, now in saying that this is what Iv been told I don’t actually know I never worked the harvester.
 
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.
How many acres
 
A good jf 900 with a ten foot row straight from the conditionor mower will get 30 to 35 acres in a nice day, the jf is a good harvester and easy to maintain, no jf in my view is able to handle raked rows of grass, a jf can't be bullied on with higher horse power like a flywheel harvester can,
Keep it simple and get the job done, it's not a race, I use to lift my own with a mengele sh40, with lots of help clear 60 acres a day, help is a problem,
 
How many acres
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.
 
A good jf 900 with a ten foot row straight from the conditionor mower will get 30 to 35 acres in a nice day, the jf is a good harvester and easy to maintain, no jf in my view is able to handle raked rows of grass, a jf can't be bullied on with higher horse power like a flywheel harvester can,
Keep it simple and get the job done, it's not a race, I use to lift my own with a mengele sh40, with lots of help clear 60 acres a day, help is a problem,
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
 
Back
Top