Feeding maize silage in winter: Setting the herd up for success
As I write this article, we have just had our first frost in the Waikato, a change in weather signalling that winter is upon us.
The Austrian company's Silo Fox silage distributor features a rotating drum driven by the tractor's PTO that can be mounted at the front or rear of the prime mover, and is designed to spread silage in an even, uniform layer, to primarily increase consolidation.
This has benefits in terms of improved fermentation to achieve silages of higher feed values, but is also said to help with creating more stable silage stacks which are safer to drive over for operators.
For the 2016 season Origin will introduce the Mammut Gigant 280 unit, which offers a 2.8 metre working width, a drum diameter of 1.28m and a unit weight of 970kg. This weight can be adjusted higher with the addition of water to the drum, to suit the carrying tractor and optimise consolidation.
At the heart of the machine, an over-dimensioned gearbox uses either 540 or 1000 PTO input speeds to achieve optimal rotational and circumferential speed to result in perfect spreading of the ensiled material.
The quality of spread is further enhanced by twin hydraulic rams between the headstock and the drum, which allows angling to the left or right, and allows grass to be shifted tightly against walls, or indeed away from the edges of un-walled clamps.
