PÖTTINGER Agricultural technology - What the experts say

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SELF LOADING SILAGE WAGON "WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY"

Pöttinger means quality and reliability worldwide. The "What the Experts Say" section takes you on a tour to farming operations all over the world. Farmers report on their experience with Pöttinger agricultural technology.

Hope Acres Farm, Pennsylvania
Hope Acres Farm in Pennsylvania: 300 cows Dairy + 1500 Beef Hay/Silage: 200 ha, total 750 ha. “I was on a trip to Europe, saw the wagon work – decision was quite easy. When we came home and did a bit of research, it was clear that Pöttinger's wagon was exactly what we were looking for. We were told about the capacity and it sounded really good, but when we got the wagon into work it was even much better! We are doing mainly alfalfa, and the work where we were in the past 3 – 4 persons we are now only 2!
This new principle of silage making is working very well in our conditions. The chopping process is a lot different to the exact chopper, but for our use it is better in all way… We are now getting better feed, we are saving money on fuel, manpower, machinery investment, and the "power supply" for the wagon is a tractor that we can use for other things when we are finished the silage“! “We are thinking about a Jumbo wagon because we will have to do more silage in the future, and this wagon will fit our Fendt 926 better“. Hope Acres Farm Pennsylvania

Claus Herron, Thomasville, Georgia
	Claus Herron run a dairy unit, milking 900 cows at Thomasville, Georgia. He runs Pöttinger Europrofi 1 & 2, Jumbo 7200, Novacat 306 FED. They farms 600 acre hay/silage. “We were in a situation where we would like to do more than the normal 3 cuts a year. The problem was just that our contractor charged us by the acre and not by the hour! This would have made it more costly for us and therefore we decided to do it our self. Our local dealer was already dealing with Pöttinger and then the decision was easy, because we knew those machines from Germany.
We are happy about the loader wagon capacity; we save a lot of money when we do this our self and we think it will be difficult to find a better way to make grass silage. We are doing ryegrass, and with the loader- wagon we are getting more structure in the feed. Because of the structure, we are able to feed more silage to the cows“. Claus Herron Thomasville, Georgia

Ferme Berthole Larouche (Quebec, Canada)

I had owned some used self loading wagons of other brands so when it came time to purchase I went for the best; I bought Pottinger. I am a one man dairy operation milking 60 high producing cows; to accomplish this I need to assure good feed; I cut and ensile 150 acres (60 hectares) of 75% alfalfa in a bunker silos; the reason I like my 7200 harvester/wagon is that when alfalfa is ready to cut at its highest feed value (under 10% flowers) I need to do it right now!

I cut the whole crop at once and with my harvester/wagon I can transform the complete crop into high protein silage in a matter of hours; I do two cuts of alfalfa per year in this northern geography. I custom contract my small grains, 150 acres (60 hectares) barley and 50 acres (20 hectares) of low heat unit grain corn for feed energy; these small grain crops do not have the emergency of harvesting that is needed with alfalfa so I can get these crops custom done and use my loader wagon to do the hauling thus minimizing the custom operation’s charges. I also use my 7200 for hauling straw. It is a very easy machine to maneuver around the silos and barns. My JUMBO 7200 L is the most productive piece of equipment I own.

Owner of a JUMBO 7200 L self loading wagon!

Nico ROBILLARD (France)

Nico ROBILLARD

"As a contractor we had a deployment problem to solve. The grass silage area kept on getting smaller until it reached about 100 hectares for silage bales, compared to 1,400 hectares of maize silage. The main reason for this was that the logistics are difficult to organise and there was always a shortage of personnel. When we stopped using a self-propelled forage harvester for harvesting grass we increased the area for grass silage to 170 hectares. The JUMBO 7200 silage trailer is the most interesting solution in our eyes due its high productivity, lower costs for the operator and customer, and the capability it provides of allowing us to offer our customers a finished job by delivering right to their clamp."

Philippe LAIR (France)
"With 1100 ha of grass silage personnel are always pressed to the limit. In addition, more and more jobs involve delivering the silage to the farmyard. Straightforward organisation and savings in manpower are two factors that helped me decide in favour of the JUMBO 7200 silage trailer, which offers excellent productivity due to its high volume."	Philippe Lair with his JUMBO 7200

Didier PRAUD (France)
Didier Praud with his JUMBO 7200	"My harvester could no longer cope with 450 ha of grass silage. The JUMBO 7200 silage trailer enabled me to handle 700 ha and helped me organise my work better. Now my customers can mow when the crop is just right, field for field, and together we can harvest high-quality forage. The large volume of 72 m³ means I can process up to 2.5 ha/h when the field is near the silo."

Veikko Paavilainen (Nuutaxiärvi, Finland)

I am contracting 700 ha with my JUMBO 6600 D together with Fendt 818 and ISOBUS control, which is a convincing and convenient way of using the loader wagon in high performance fields. In former times we used round balers and trailed choppers, the performance to the loader wagon is not comparable. The longer cutting length of the loader wagon was after small adjustments of our feeding system no problem at all.
I have choosen the 8-wheel-chassis of Pöttinger on my wagon, which saves power due to lower loading height, in the clamp the wagon is a lot more stable. The high quality and clean working of the machine are typical for Pöttinger. In my opinion Pöttinger is putting a lot efforts in research and developments, tries always to improve things and is always good for new innovations.

Veikko Paavilainen with his JUMBO 6600 D

Stephen Radford (North Devon, Great Britain)
Mr. Stephen Radford	Stephen Radford farms 330 acres of mainly grassland and 40 acres of corn with his father Colin at Buttermore Farm in North Devon. They milk 160 cows and rear 65 followers plus 80 head of beef cattle. The stock are fed a mixed ration under cover from a TMR wagon loading into a central feed manger. 225 acres of silage are made on the farm - taken mainly in three cuts from a mixture of short and long term leys and some permanent pasture. The Radford's control their own silage making to ensure that their fields are cut at the right time for producing optimum quality silage.
"We depend on making high quality silage. If there's a rainy period in first cut, everyone wants their crop ensiled as soon as it dries up. Contractors get behind and cannot get to all their customers at the right time - most have to wait, and that's when you lose silage quality" says Stephen Radford "take first cut in 2003 for example. We lost a week due to the rain coming when the grass was just at the correct stage for cutting. The silage quality suffered as a result but it would have been far worse if we couldn't get on harvesting on the first good day after it stopped raining." " We used a trailed precision chop up to the end of the 2002 season, but found getting-in the extra man with tractor and trailer to be increasingly difficult. We saw the Pottinger Europrofi at the South West Grassland Demonstration and thought we would go over and have a bit of a laugh at the people working old fashioned foragers. But we were surprised how fast it travelled down the swath on a 135 hp tractor and even more surprised how short it chopped the grass. We expected it to just about half the length of the grass, but it cuts a lot of it down to 2 inches - just the right length for the cows and short enough to consolidate well. Too short and the grass goes straight through the cows - that is no good for producing maximum yield from grass. So we ordered a Europrofi 1L shortly afterwards. It has proved to be a good decision; in fact the best decision we've ever made - everything went like a dream - its the most stress free silage I've ever done." We asked Stephen Radford how the field harvesting and ensiling operation went in his first season; "We used our 120 hp JD 6610 tractor and managed 7 mph down the swath - which we rowed-up with a wide single rotor rake. We could have done with another 10-15 hp as the speed dropped off a little when we were around 90% full. It was taking 4-5 minutes to get a load. The pick-up on the wagon is good - six rows of close spaced tines - they left very little leaf on the field. We cleared 30 acres per 10 hour day in first cut; 40 acres in second cut. On the road, you can go as fast as you like - 40 kmh; the wagon runs very smooth and brakes well. We have only one field well away from the clamp. About 1.5 miles is as much as you would want to travel between clamp and field to keep the job going. At the clamp, we use a 100hp tractor with buckrake. The longer material definitely needs more rolling; the floor chains on the Europrofi unload quick and evenly enabling the driver to drop the load in an even swath to make buckraking easier - not in one big lump like you get on a tipping trailer." " We used a trailed precision chop up to the end of the 2002 season, but found getting-in the extra man with tractor and trailer to be increasingly difficult. We saw the Pottinger Europrofi at the South West Grassland Demonstration and thought we would go over and have a bit of a laugh at the people working old fashioned foragers. But we were surprised how fast it travelled down the swath on a 135 hp tractor and even more surprised how short it chopped the grass. We expected it to just about half the length of the grass, but it cuts a lot of it down to 2 inches - just the right length for the cows and short enough to consolidate well. Too short and the grass goes straight through the cows - that is no good for producing maximum yield from grass. So we ordered a Europrofi 1L shortly afterwards. It has proved to be a good decision; in fact the best decision we've ever made - everything went like a dream - its the most stress free silage I've ever done." We asked Stephen Radford how the field harvesting and ensiling operation went in his first season; "We used our 120 hp JD 6610 tractor and managed 7 mph down the swath - which we rowed-up with a wide single rotor rake. We could have done with another 10-15 hp as the speed dropped off a little when we were around 90% full. It was taking 4-5 minutes to get a load. The pick-up on the wagon is good - six rows of close spaced tines - they left very little leaf on the field. We cleared 30 acres per 10 hour day in first cut; 40 acres in second cut. On the road, you can go as fast as you like - 40 kmh; the wagon runs very smooth and brakes well. We have only one field well away from the clamp. About 1.5 miles is as much as you would want to travel between clamp and field to keep the job going. At the clamp, we use a 100hp tractor with buckrake. The longer material definitely needs more rolling; the floor chains on the Europrofi unload quick and evenly enabling the driver to drop the load in an even swath to make buckraking easier - not in one big lump like you get on a tipping trailer." "The cows like the silage, are contented, fit and holding their services well" Asked to sum-up his first season experience with his Europrofi, Mr Radford says "There is very little to criticise really - just the longer time taken to consolidate the grass in the clamp - particularly if the grass gets very dry. But the proof is in the analysis and how the cows take to the silage. The protein in the second cut clamp was 17.1% with a good, stable fermentation of the 31.7% dry matter crop at 4.3 pH and 2.9% N. The cows really like the silage; they are very contented, in good condition and are holding their services well. The actual harvest went like a dream; everything was under control - stress free. I had the odd blockage which was soon freed from the cab seat. Maintenance was quick and straight forward. It is so much easier than the old trailed precision chop system - I wouldn't go back to it. Buying the Pottinger was the best decision we've ever made."

Terryland Farms Inc. (Ontario, canada)

I am very impressed by my Pöttinger Europrofi III selfloading forage wagon. With my 130 hp tractor it takes just under 5 minutes to make a load and it´s abload because the feed is really packed in the wagon. I can put 50 acres (20 ha) of haylage in the bunksilo in one afternoon and I never unhitch any wagons, I never have to get off the tractor. I would never want to make haylage any other way anymore. We currently farm 430 acres and milk 125 cows. And if we were to expand our farm our Europrofi III is capable of handling the extra feed. On Saturday we had our open house. We had close to 500 people and lots of them wanted to look at my Europrofi. I had it parked in front of my shed so people could see it and walk around it.

Owner of 1 x EUROPROFI 3 L self loading wagon!

Urs Höchli, Pöttinger Area sales Manager Alex Taubinger, George and Linda Heinzle

Sam Harper (Ireland)
Sam HARPER with his EUROPROFI 3	„We are very happy with the chop length and last year our second cut results from Hillsborough were 77 DMD, ME of 11,4 and had an intake factor 30% above average. Forgetting about the results for a second, I noticed that the silage fed really well – this is the most important result of all.“

Donald Fitzpatrick (Ireland)

„On our farm cutting silage using the forage wagon definitelyis the cheapest way. There is a big saving on diesel and the labour requirement is very low, we can take 3 – 4 cuts for the price of 2 previously.“

„We have great flexibility since we changed to the silage wagon system. Not only can we decide when we want to cut silage but with just 2 men my father and I, we can carry out the harvesting.“

„The wagon will have paid for itself within 5 years“

Donald FITZPATRICK