Machinery Photo/Discussion Thread II

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122816151#Comment_122816151

What make is the tractor? Or is it 6 cylinder or 4?

A neighbour here pulls a McHale F5500 on a 6320 John Deere and she’s well able for it and they’d be around the 105hp. He’d be doing 2,000+ bales a year. I wouldn’t like to be pulling it with a T5060 new Holland though and the hp would be about the same.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122816151#Comment_122816151

Stay with your contractor, just bargain, no point in being a busy fool. Buy a rake if you want to cut costs and manage the system better

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122819217#Comment_122819217

Your have a real hatrid of spending money ,it is only a few grand on a baler .A low bale count 550 ,as parts are cheaper are also a good bet.

weatherbyfoxer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122816151#Comment_122816151

Currently on the lookout for a baler myself here,will go with a lely as I'm more used to them than anything else.A decided 245 with a low bale count will be around the €20k mark,,if your on hills chopping silage your 105hp will struggle alot.have 135hp here and wouldn't like a whole lot less

50HX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122816151#Comment_122816151

Can't advise you on baler type but just wondering have you factored in the following re baling yourself.

Labour, time, tight weather windows esp if it goes mechanically wrong. What about wrapping?

Cut rake& draw yourself to reduce cost

2 lads here went that route (80 cow men each) and ended up selling baler after 2 years & that was them working together....labour constraints, weather windows even post baling snookered them.

Hard to beat having a reliable contractor & gear for that number of bales

9935452

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122816151#Comment_122816151

Krone were always known for needing low power. A friend has a 1250 on a 7740 95hp nh and swears by it.

Lad i work for had a jd 568 which we did run on a 7740 at one stage. Able for it but picking grass slower. A lot different when it went back on a 130hp tractor. Always gave bits of problems .

As the other posters are saying , stay with contractor if you can .

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122819416#Comment_122819416

This year bale silage cost me about 12/ bale to cut, rake bale and wrap. I operate with two tractors 80hp 2wd and 90hp 4wd value about 30k for the two.

At 500 bale for Jim it a bill of 6k/ year. The baler will cost 20ishK, a conditioner mower is 8-10k+ minimum., a single rotor rake is about 3-4k+ minimum.

But you need a 110+HP tractor and maybe a 130hp tractor, another 10-15k added in machinery value. That 40-50k of machinery to reduce a 6k bill to probably about 2-2.5k and that is if you can manage repairs yourself. You will need the time to do all that work. Which is probably up on 100 hours a year.

There used to be a program in TV in tge 70's called lost in space, the robot use to go "dose not compute, dose not compute" when something was illogical, will IMO not using a contractor "dose not compute".

Why I suggested the rake is contractors tend to run the rake just ahead of the baler, it should be a minimum of 6 hours ahead abd ideally 8-10. 500 bales at 8/ acre is about 750 euro @12/ acre. If this reduces your bale count by 1/ acre it worth nearly another 1k. When you allow for plastic.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122820352#Comment_122820352

12 is very keen.

I paid 10.5 and mow myself.

What you are missing is the depreciation value of any machinery bought. It changes the calculation a good bit.

Also missing the convienece of having your own outfit. Not dancing to the contractors que.

Also then it’s understanding what happens to the “saving”. If half the 6k saved is going to the tax man then I would agree not worth the hassle.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122820415#Comment_122820415

Even at 14/ bale cisting Jim 7k it would not make sense. I forgot that the machine is probably a baler only so you either need a wrapper or pay a lad that runs a wrapper. That costs about 2/ bale so even at 17/ bale we are back to 12.

Jim Simmental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122820352#Comment_122820352

thanks for the replies every one, my contractor is €15 a bale which includes, mowing, raking, baling and wrapping.

I’m after writing a hefty cheque to the contractor, which got me thinking about the baler

What would be the best way to reduce the contractor price per bale ?

I have an eight disc foot mower, maybe I should be mowing myself (I have the time)

Would a rake be a good investment?

50HX

@Jim Simmental

If you've time you definitely should be mowing yourself

Contractor mowing is ok if you are clearing 10/acre, 2nd 3rd cuts then it's not economical esp if crops are light/ taking out paddocks

Bale rake & wrap here for 10,I supply plastic

Talk to him & offer pay goin out the gate, you might haggle a bit

#1 shop around...most people are afraid to move baler contractors

Jb1989

Common sense tbh would be to use what you have before you buy more equipment.

If you've an 8 foot mower already then it should be paying it's way.

If you haven't been mowing all your silage yourself already then a baler is stupid.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122820531#Comment_122820531

What is he baling with, are theygrand big bales, do you will much. How many bales per acre. The biggest problem with buying machinery is having to upgrade your tractor. I have seen a couple of lads get caught that way. How many cuts is the contractor doing for you. Definitely mow paddocks if you are taking out bales but for main cuts a conditioner is invaluable. As wella contractor will cut cleaner than you with an 8' mower.

GrasstoMilk

did all our silage this year in bales, had been doing half of it in pit but 1st cut acres were down this year so it wasn’t a big job to bale it all ourselves. Once the first cut is done the rest of the silage isn’t as big a job imo

If we didn’t have the machines I highly doubt we’d be going out to buy it straight up to do it.

My father started buying bits of machinery back in the 80s when he couldn’t get lads to do his work when he wanted. Spiralled then into a busy baled silage contracting business come the late 90s and early 00s. Was doing up in 10k bales a year

The machines we have have been upgraded over the years making it cheaper to upgrade because you have money in the old machine to put towards it. Tractors are modern aswell, with the way things are now if you have new ones it’s quite easy to keep them new

We’ve a 2004 10 ft trailed krone mower that will be around for a long time yet because it’s not doing big acres

2011 fusion 2 baler with 55k bales that we bought last year for 20k after we sold our old baler and wrapper that fetched 10k together

A new 24ft bale trailer, 4 rotor Tedder and 2 tractors with loafers on then.

It does take up time but it’s saving a big contractor bill. We made 1200 bales of silage this year and 250 bales of straw. 12k bill there if we were to just pay someone to bale it all and we did the rest of the work

In saying all that if my dad stopped up in the morning the baler would be sold and I’d be gone back to mostly pit silage. It does take up time from other jobs you could be at.

Machinery is expensive now and you need fairly decent mechanical knowledge to maintain it /fix it and if you haven’t the time yourself and some help I wouldn’t recommend it

visatorro

No issue with anyone doing something that suits them. Lad I know is a one man band. Fell out with contractor and bought a wagon. Stripping the pit all the time. Brings in a couple of loads and pushes them up then himself. Does this for a few hours then mows abit for the next day. Belongs in the guntering thread. Said before if there was someone with Me here I'd do more machinery work.

awaywithyou

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821515#Comment_122821515

jaysus you and your father love yere machinery… fair play to ye.. i personally dont have much of a liking for machinery.. even if i am getting a little more into it…

hows the Keenan tub going?? have an Abbey tub here on demo at the minute.. big yoke.. take 9/10 roundbales.. handy to be able to give cows there nighttime feed in one go… doors on both sides very handy and steering axle as well..

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821624#Comment_122821624

the time spend feeding with a diet feeder all depends on the machine loading it- I can do 3 7ton mixes an hour with my abbey 15 twin tub

awaywithyou

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821724#Comment_122821724

are you not going to tell us what you have for loading feeder or is that classified?

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821749#Comment_122821749

have had a manitou teleporter with a 3 ton bucket for the last 7 years- she has been out of action for the last 2 months and I’ve been using the tractor and loader- it takes nearly 40 mins to do a load with the tractor

Gillespy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821724#Comment_122821724

How you putting the meal part in? Did you ever try soaking the meal in water overnight? Seems to be a lot of pros to it and not a lot of extra work.

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821767#Comment_122821767

I’ve an over head split meal bin that holds 24 ton

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821624#Comment_122821624

I wouldn’t say I love, tolerate it is probably better. I’d get awful thick if something broke, have zero time or interest in anything that’s not working right or is costing me time by not working right

I’d rather not to be doing so much but my father does like it and it keeps him busy. No interest in anything other than farming.

Fierce happy with the feeder. Mixed far better than the paddle we had. Lot of time saved. 8t a day going to milkers and it’s mixed and fed out in 30minutes. Would be all day with the old feeder

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821761#Comment_122821761

What's gone on her, had a yoke like that last year after putting 7k into her in six months and scavenging another 5k of parts of a donor machine we had, I put it up on a low loader and got a new loader of eci, was spending more time under it than driving it in the end…

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122821784#Comment_122821784

You said you made 1200 bales but you are feeding 8 ton a day just top milkers. Shure at that rate you only have enough silage for 90 days, not to mention the other animals about the place that need a bite as well.

stanflt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122822170#Comment_122822170

it’s overheating- needs new radiator and intercooler- it’s blowing main fuses if you drive it on the road- some days it won’t drive- needs main extension ram and a new set of tyres

she’s actually heading to Poland I wasn’t prepared to waste money

awaywithyou

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122822517#Comment_122822517

He has a pit of maize as well..

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122822517#Comment_122822517

500t of maize there

Feeding 4t of that a day to milkers. Heifers are contract reared. Will be feeding 2-2.5 kgs of straw to the cows once they go dry and would hopefully start grazing and zero grazing again in Feb. Good cover of grass on fields closed up a month now. Bar we get another wet spring like the one just gone we’ll have cows out by day in Feb

Yep, tight on silage for sure but we should be okay. Would have liked to have made more

K.G.

If you mow and move rhe bales yourself and contractor bales its probaly now the cheapest way to make silage.the key to bales is the bale count which means cutting dry,nice wilt and most important a contractor that makes a good bale.if you bale and wrap yourself you will handle that silage about 6 times which is alot of work .balers are tricky enough to keep going too.also you can use the mower for topping as well and the loader/handlers may during winter moving bales.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122822637#Comment_122822637

If you've a relatively short draw sub 4km round trip and mow/shove up yourself a wagon/rake hired in with wagon charged by the load would be hard to beat...

Bill this year for 230 acres was 10k incl vat, approximately 1700 ton of silage brought in, if you where to bale the above probably end up with 2k bales, only accounting for getting it raked and baled plus plastic your talking over 20k, and that's with you mowing/stacking inhouse

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122822543#Comment_122822543

Very good. We could only dream of letting cows out in February. Happened in 2023 but that was exceptional.

BTW did you get your maize tasted. Not expecting great starch % here and had a nice bit of juice out of it.