Mid-Canterbury farmers Ross and Trent Hibell milk 940 cows on 200ha near Ashburton. A mixer wagon they hired for six months last year proved unequal to the task – improving production, but running only slowly and struggling to mix bales.
When the pair saw a BvL mixer at Lincoln Field Days they ordered a 27m3 model. While awaiting its delivery the farm is using a 20m3 BvL mixer, and it’s impressive, says Trent Hibell.
“We are feeding about two loads a day with the BvL: a mix of maize, grass silage, palm kernel and ryegrass straw.
“We are doing a complete mix in no more than 10 minutes versus our old paddle mixer’s 35-40 minutes, and it produces a mix inferior to that from the BvL.”
Hibells are powering the BvL with a 120hp John Deere 6530.
Webbline says that, comparing the BvL to several mixer wagons used in recent months, Hibell has noticed a difference.
Says Trent Hibell, “The smaller 15m3 mixer Webbline loaned us before this BvL was available, took more power and didn’t mix anywhere near as well. Especially when mixing straw, it wanted to throw it out the top… which proves not all vertical mixers are created equal. A fuel consumption meter on the tractor showed that with the 15m3 machine we were burning 16-17L of diesel an hour versus the BvL with 5m3 cubic metres more capacity using 14L per hour.”
Straw bale processing was said to have been fast.
“We load in two big squares of straw and after about two minutes it’s broken down enough to start loading the silage. The auger design of the BvL means the mix is constantly being drawn down instead of trying to boil over the top.”
The BvL capacity is said to be a big time saver. “With the paddle mixer, even though it was the same volume as the BvL at 5.8 tonnes of feed, we struggled to get a consistent mix, whereas with the BvL we are comfortably mixing 8.4 tonne, mixed more consistently and in quarter the time,” Hibell says.
BvL was among the first companies making mixers in the 1970s and the brand is now a leader in Germany, says Webbline Agriculture sales manager Glen Malcolm.
Tel. 0800 932 254
www.webbline.co.nz
