Machinery Photo/Discussion Thread II

Where would a lad look for an old but working tine grab?

Just needed for branches and the like.

Ideally to fit a Grays Loader but hooks could be changed I suppose.

Are they a thing that's thrown in everyone's yard now but that nobody sells?

Same thing happening and about to happen with solar panels and collars.for the cows...even the bloody robot scrapers have gone up about 6k in the last 18 months..no material what so ever in them..chips and batteries have gone up but still it's gouging I'd say.

I don’t know, but I suppose everyone looks at it differently. Those 7 or 8 years will go by very quickly. If 8 years is a third of the tankers life doing your own work, you have a tanker for the next 16 years after that costing little or nothing.

How much would the annual finance repayment be on the tanker over 5 years? If you subtract the contractor’s charges from that every year, it will make it a lot less. Also, say the contractor is costing €65/hr at the moment, there’s every possibility that will increase year on year. It may well be double what it is now in 10 years time.

Finally, depending on your ground type, and how important timing of spreading slurry is in your system, only you can put a financial figure on what it’s worth to you to be able to spread on the day you choose to…..

Is it in one block for the most part? If most of it would be going out in the spring see if there is someone with an umbilical, would knock it out in no time with very little damage.

I think there is one with a 3000g tank but I'm not aware of an outfit really set up for the job..it's suffering alright in fairness but it's only 22 acres in small fields, it's not ideal for big machinery and they not really interested in small jobs like that...so I've been trying to replace it with ground nearer home but haven't had any joy on that front either..will need to do something, doing something with ditches to remodel the place and make it more workable is nearly a non runner with new rules around replacing hedges.

Noticing here a few lads going away from pipes. Have them in for the first spread. Cover 60 acres or that then the rest with tankers after the cows. 10 to 30 acres at a time. Say once a fortnight or that

I got the umbilical in here last year but I am all small paddocks with original ditches between. The umbilical was far more expensive than a tanker would have been.

On the separator. The one that's doing the rounds is 3 phase. So if you haven't 3 phase you may hire in a 3 phase generator too. Probably if you were pumping it to a tower or similar you could run a pump off the genny.

Everything is money now.

Maybe it would be possible, have a nice bit if dung not spread last year so might look at getting that down there when weather permits. I won't have a massive amount if dung going forward as everything on cubicles or slats now.

Its trailing shoes that are really bonkers, priced a 9 metre here for tank no fitting needed, as tank is set up for a 3 point linkage mounted set-up was quoted 27k incl vat, their was a 3500 gallon hispec in the yard at the time with the 9m trailing shoe on 710 tyres and a few other extras was sold for 85k, machinery trade is definitely starting to soften though, looking at prices over in the UK fresh up in the years tractors and loaders are down 10-15k in prices quoted compared to last year

It's a risky business letting in a contractor on a dairy farm with slurry contaminated gear especially if going dribble/trailing shoe and grazing 3-4 weeks after application, you could be importing everything from bvd/salmonella/lepto and the biggest one T.B, would put out 70 gallons plus a day around yard with 2500 gallon tank here in 8-9 hours , have a 12000 litre jurop pump on her, makes a huge difference to workrate, 3 mins to fill her in normal slurry

The moscha is approved in germany for less

The Germans seem to be great at making rules for everybody else but themselves..aren't they firing up a fair few coal powered power stations, while Eamonn is telling us to leave the turf in the bogs.. the moscha would be great for us lads with the 1100g to 1600g tanks that can't justify retrofit trailing shoes.

I'd be blaming our own crowd before the Germans. The problem with the moscha is that the farmer wouldn't be spending enough money...

Maybe so but it's like we are so guilty about our corporate tax rate that we give in to every other rule from Europe/Germany, where they aren't necessarily as strict on themselves..

Agree on farmer not spending enough