Fertilizer Spreader and Topper

TUBBY

Hello everyone.
Asking for a bit of advice.

What do people reckon is the best fert shaker on the go at the minute for a ton or so. Wagtail or twin disc. Dont want to spend a fortune. Have an aul single spinner Cavallo that does a job but isnt even.
Main thing is that it has a cover and maybe a sieve, can do lime maybe the odd time it would be needed but most important is low maintenance, nothing worse than a finicky machine.

The other thing I was wondering (as it is out of season and could pick one up cheap) is what the best adjustable height topper there is on the go. I have one that needs replacing cause its grand for rushes but cuts too high and is just a cosmetic job. Disc mower no good to me cause I have stones and stuff. I know the disc mower would be the best job but i cant use one. would not last a round of some of the fields. Was thinking Conor or maybe Bridgeway.

Am going mad into grassland management now that fert so dear;)

Any suggestions would be welcome, cheers - TUBS

bogman_bass

We have an Amazone for the past 10 years and it still as good as the day we got it

GERMAN ROCKS

we never look beyond kuhn and rauch

vanderbadger

have a cosmo wagtail, does the job, takes the half tone bag, think it was about 1500 although cant really remember, its supposed to have vicon gearbox whether it does or not, have a conor topper, it the one straight behind tractor just slightly offset, think they are about a grand..have hit a share of rocks im afraid to say but no bother to it anyway, simple machine but does the job

irishh_bob

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

we never look beyond kuhn and rauch

very robust spreader but a tad complicated to set

OP , a very good option is the SULKY , slightly dearer than an amazone but cheaper than a rauch

funny man

Good value in second hand, just make sure that the pans are in good condition for a spinner, i've no experience of a wagtail but they work fine also, make isn't all that important unless spreading alot of fertilizer.

There is no topper that can match a disc mower for cutting height, and if your not cutting tight enough your just wasting money on diesel taking out weeds which you were better spraying to try and kill them off.

reilig

funny man wrote: »

There is no topper that can match a disc mower for cutting height, and if your not cutting tight enough your just wasting money on diesel taking out weeds which you were better spraying to try and kill them off.

I'd totally disagree. The whole purpose of the topper is not to cut too low in order to have a faster regrowth. The topper breaks down the higher grass and weeds but leaves an inch or 2 of cover for faster growth. The disc mower cuts too low unless you have skids on it to keep it up. All grass growing trials that have been conducted tell us that pasture grass regrows faster if topped with a topper at a height of 2 inches or greater than if cut closely with a disc or drum mower.

Muckit

funny man wrote: »

There is no topper that can match a disc mower for cutting height.

That all depends on what height your talking about. Yes no topper is designed to cut less than 2", because below 2" you are 'mowing'. So yes I'd agree a topper won't mow, but likewise a mower won't top (unless raised on skids)


We all know how long it takes for silage ground to come back after being cut, all because it's cut at the butt. The less leaf that's left on the grass plant, the longer it takes to grow back. With 'topping' you only want to stop the grass from heading out and promote further tillering of the grass plant lower down, but NOT to the detriment of plant growth. topping low (50mm max), will achieve this.

Mowing will thin the swarth and add at least an extra week to grass growing to same height. Your asking the grass plant to do more than it needs to. Why would you do it?

I think the clue is in the name...... 'topping' :rolleyes: If you want to 'mow' grass, use a 'mower'

Another advantage of using a topper, as Reilig pointed out, is that it breaks up the trash.
Grass only drops behind a mower.
A topper is better designed/equipped to deal with foreign objects, stones, sticks etc

Tipp Man

Having had toppers for 30 years we bought a Kuhn disc mower 3 years ago. Its like chalk and cheese, the mower actually cuts the grass promoting regrowth and dramatically improving quality. The topper simply breaks and/or flattens the grass, it certainly doesn't cut it in a manner to promote growth.

We have seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of our grass after the mower, much thicker, much lusher and far less heading out

but a couple of points to bear in mind - we are using it on a dairy farm where we are grazing tightly and operating a strict rotation but quality is key. On the beef farm we tend to stick to a topper as you don't need the ground grazed as tight (by a long way) and the older grass takes much longer to come back. We try to limit topping as much as possible on the beef farm (waste of money) but we are going to start using the mower more on the beef farm as we are progressing with our reseeding on this farm. The mower is a lot better on reseeded ground

I think it is nearly certain that it takes longer to come back after a mower but the quality is multiple times better, when you look in a paddock after a mower ever blade of grass is the same height and same quality, much more leaf in it. Last year especially we noticed that the paddocks were like looking into a field of aftergrass

With regards to thrash not being spread with a mower - well this is true but some would say if there is that much grass to be topped the field isn't eaten properly. With regards to stones and foreign objects surely to god nobody serious about farming has any of these kind of things in their fields in any kind of numbers??

You have to weigh up what you are trying to achieve from your topping to make the right choice in my opinion. I think a dairy farm has to be using a mower, for beefs lads a topper might suit better. Everybody's circumstances are different

5live

Hi tubs. On spreaders, i changed from an amazone to a vicon last year as the amazone was an 18 year old ZAF. It did its job but i needed a cover and hydraulic cut-offs to save my back. The vicon is much lower to the ground and my ursus can lift the bag up no bother now. New, both about 4k with cover sives and hydraulic cut-offs. Look for the CV(coefficient of variation) in the spreader as a low number will indicate more accuracy. Are you looking for a disc or wagtail spreader and what is your spread width? 10 12 15m? On mowing, i would have to agree with tipp man. If you cut to a max of 2 in then you will get a build up of low DMD grass up to 2 in and good quality low DMD above this. If animals forced to graze this it will hit performance:(

barryoc1

I bought a second hand 7ft fully offset Abbey topper for €1200 at the start of last summer. Being ambitious i did a bit of contract work toppin over the summer, place i was toppin had alot of growing stones. I wasnt happy bout it but hit a few of them and the topper only bounced of them. Bit of a dent in the blades but a rub of the angle grinder sorted them out. The skids can also be adjusted by opening a few bolts to cut lower or higher also. I would def recommend this topper.

Muckit

barryoc1 wrote: »

I bought a second hand 7ft fully offset Abbey topper for €1200 at the start of last summer. Being ambitious i did a bit of contract work toppin over the summer, place i was toppin had alot of growing stones. I wasnt happy bout it but hit a few of them and the topper only bounced of them. Bit of a dent in the blades but a rub of the angle grinder sorted them out. The skids can also be adjusted by opening a few bolts to cut lower or higher also. I would def recommend this topper.

We've same one. But bought ours new in 07. Great machine. Dairy farmer beside us has an 8' trailed abbey. Fully offset is the way to go with a topper. Ones behind are just a waste of time IMO, sure your driving on half it

Muckit

Tipp Man wrote: »

Having had toppers for 30 years we bought a Kuhn disc mower 3 years ago. Its like chalk and cheese, the mower actually cuts the grass promoting regrowth and dramatically improving quality. The topper simply breaks and/or flattens the grass, it certainly doesn't cut it in a manner to promote growth.

You have a point there Tippman. Depends on your grass quality and the type of stock grazing it. A herd of dairy cows will leave little or nothing behind because they're grazing better grass than on your typical beef farm... and they are cows;) I'd say you'd possibly get away without topping at all.

Then alot depends on your topper... and the way you use it.
A fully offset topper set down to 2" with blades sharp and in good order, should do a job to be proud of.

TUBBY

how ye lads. thanks for all the replies. some good info there. just want topper to kill off any sour grass gone strong if not grazed well in the rotation. nothing fancy. the abbey sounds like a good job and also my price range.

with fert, was thinking of going for a wagtail but not sure which better mechanically. spreading dist of 12m i be looking for. some makes there ye mentioned that i can Done Deal now and see how they fit the pocket.

thanks again lads. will let ye know what i get

F.D

have a cavallo wag tail, to get it to spread to 12m you need to have a lot of revs on and it really rattles the Sh*t out of its self, and at the end of last season the linkage for opening and closing the spreader broke off, on the plus side it has a stainless steel hopper, i would go for twin disc with them running you would hardly hear them behind the tractor and if you can afford it go for hyd open and close its a pain hanging out the window trying to close it off.
Toppers are fine our one is a few yrs old and the problem is the blades get dull you cant be bothered taking the bolts out of the blades as its awkard to get in at and they tend to have thread damage to take them off and grind them, then to try and sharpen them on the topper you do a half arsed job and it shows later in the field, at least on a mower you can lift up a cover and take off or turn over which ever blade gets damaged in mins. plus the added advantage of cutting your own hay or wraps if a paddock gets strong, its number one on my wish list at the moment to get one, as far as the grass not getting chopped up with a disc mower, my neighbour lets the cows or cattle back in after a few days and they lap it up like hay

Nutcase

Last summer i was using a McConnel Topper 9 thought it was great compared to our old offset conor topper. Tho to be fair the conor topper is over 15 years old and the McConnel topper was only 2 years old. The McConnel topped the grass very well and the regrowth came up even and very leafy. Our conor topper prob needs new blades but it didnt cut the grass/weeds as well and couldnt go as fast as the McConnel which was over10mph on good even ground. Plus the McConnel doesnt shear any bolts must spin on the shaft or something. Maybe all new toppers are made like this now a days?