3rd cut silage

Waste not want not. Nice equip.How many head?/

(quoted from post at 21:13:35 09/13/12) Waste not want not. Nice equip.How many head?/

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This farmer we are chopping silage for has 700 cows and increasing to 900 during next 12 months. 3 times a day milking.

His own farm is used for grazing, he rents all the silage land off other farmers who have retired but retained their land. We can be carting 5-6 miles from silage fields back to his farmyard.

50 foot wide 4 rotor rake, forager & 6 tractors + trailers, we cleared 130 acres in 7 hours. Forager travelling at 7-8mph in this light crop.

How does the custom chopper charge? By the ton or ???

Always great pictures and interesting machinery with landscapes most have never seen.

(quoted from post at 21:56:08 09/13/12) How does the custom chopper charge? By the ton or ???

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The contractors {custom operators} charge by the acre for all jobs.

On silage they offer the service of mowing, rowing up, forager, tractors + trailers & loader on the clamp. Tedding the crop is optional extra charge.

The contractor I help out runs two teams, each comprising of rake, forager, 3-4 trailers and loader. If the length of the cart from field to farm is long, then he will run 5-6 trailers at extra charge for those trailers per hour.

Each team aims to cut 120-150 acres per day of 8am to 10pm {or later}.

Because this is relatively small numbers of cows the silage cut can be 50 acres to 150 acres. The average dairy herd size is 200-300 cows.

They take 3 cuts of silage per year. Some grow winter sown wheat as another silage crop, and forage maize is becoming more popular.

The best farmers will grow heavy grass crops using manure, liquid manure and compound fertilizer. Normally the liquid manure called slurry is spread onto the grass immediately after the silage is taken off.

1st cut yields 10+ tons acre
2nd cut 8 tons acre
3rd cut 6 tons acre

There are several contractors in this area running 2 foragers. And some larger farmers buy secondhand foragers for thier own work, and do their neighbours silage to help fund their forager. So prices are very competitive - below the national average price per acre.

1st cut silage starts at the begining of May and runs through to early September. Wholecrop is end of August & begining of September. Forage maize starts early-mid October.

1st cut yields 10+ tons acre
2nd cut 8 tons acre
3rd cut 6 tons acre

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With those yields no wonder you guys don't need to mess with maize/corn silage. 24+ ton/acre is the kind of yields seen on very good corn silage in the US. Is your climate not conducive to alfalfa?

(quoted from post at 00:26:49 09/15/12)

1st cut yields 10+ tons acre
2nd cut 8 tons acre
3rd cut 6 tons acre

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With those yields no wonder you guys don't need to mess with maize/corn silage. 24+ ton/acre is the kind of yields seen on very good corn silage in the US. Is your climate not conducive to alfalfa?

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The western and northern sides of Britain have high rainfall. The south & east are drier with better soils. A few people there grow Lucerne but it is difficult to establish.

With our wet summers grass silage & haylage produces good tonnage and is easier to grow & harvest either in clamps or wrapped bales. Very little hay is grown here now because they only get one crop.