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FARMER BRUCE McLennan says he uses his BvL Topstar silage block cutter on his grass silage and maize silage stacks to reduce wastage.
“By cutting so cleanly it reduces the admission of air which causes the silage to start deteriorating and losing quality.”
He farms near the Fonterra factory at Lichfield between Putaruru and Tokoroa and has three large concrete bunkers servicing his farms.
He also uses a Webbline Silapress to increase compaction by up to 40% more than traditional tractor rolling.
The machine, weighing 3600kg, is rear linkage mounted and has nine rings with a diameter of 90cm and a working width of 3.0m.
“Traditionally tractors used to compact and roll the stack have used tyres that are built to spread the load and can flex and only press the widths of the tyres. But the Silapress spreads the weight to give consistent compaction over the whole stack,” said North Island salesman for Webbline, Cameron Smith.
Webbline sees no need for a dual wheel tractor on the stack because the same compaction job can be done with a 170hp tractor as opposed to the usual 300hp machine. If the tractor has a front loader it can be used to spread as well as to compact with the Silapress.
“They have a higher point loading than tractor tyres and when rolling bunkers the Silapress keeps the wheels away from the concrete walls.”
As an example rolling a 12m wide bunker would take 20 trips with a tractor and only four with a Silapress.
Also available is a 3.0m, 11 ring model weighing 4100kg.
Tel. 0800 932 254
www.webbline.co.nz
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