civilpek

one thing about them 50 series and trailers in real life is the lock is absolutely crap, hitch is too far underneath the tractor so the drawbar gets caught in the back wheels. we have a valtra 8550 at work and tried her drawing bales with a kane bale trailer a few years ago it was impossible to go in any gaps with her. pretty much the exact same set up as above, the one at work is red and all.

being honest i wouldnt buy one cos ive never seen one in real life and i dont think there is really much need for one. ps has anyone ever seen a contractor in ireland running one?

il be running two silage outfits this year, some of the new trailers have just landed and there will be a 6495 and 6480 mf landing around the end of next week as well as two fendts in about a months time. other then that we are spreading a bit of slurry when the weather allows and trying to do some digger work but its very much start/stop cos of the weather.

that cool much better as a 4wd

now that is nice

well ive just had a quick look at it before putting it on the shelf but im very impressed with the fine detail, its well built and good packaging what more can i say really if your model farm is into big square baling youll have to get this, i just need to get a big tractor to pull it now

just got this moel today tis a cracking model detail wise

thanks Sacha thats very interesting reading how its done

just back, twas good enough especially when it was pouring rain anyway out side, not much machinery really but there was a good few tractors. some models were also relucantly purchased

so Sascha how does this work in real life? theres no root crops near me so i havent a clue?

ya myself and a friend said wed go down for the crack to see what all the hipe is about

im heading off up there now soon, models you say i better bring some money in that case

theres ment to be one here too on sunday but im going looking at models and tis so wet outside now theres nothing for it but to take off to that machinery show in millstreet

if it doesnt stop raining soon im emmigrating

brilliant

i love that sean

its alot to do with "every horse for courses" when it comes to wjhat is the best option some will adamantly swear by bales other will swear by pit. its also alot to do with farm sizes. smaller farms generally find bales easier and more efficient to handle as they generally have less machinery but bigger farms will often have feeder wagons etc and could work across half or even a whole face of the pit very quickly the silage is always fairly fresh etc. if you are thinking about doing bales you have to remember they are alot more time consuming then pit and the area of ground ud cover in a day would only be a fraction of what ud do with a self propelled harvester. on the other hand with bales it is usually easier to find customers as farmers from my experience anyway tend to spread out the work more where as with pit, it is normal that the same contractor could have been foraging on the same farm for years, also with pit there is alot more capital investment and it may be hard to find work for all the machines in the off season, where as with bales it would be possible to start out with just one tractor (although it would be time consuming) and over time build it up to 2-3 which should be able to easily handle most average typical style baling scenario's in a satisfactory enough time frame. my boss has a pit and baling outfit, the pit has 8 machines/8 drivers where as the bales has 4machines/drivers i.e a guy mowing, guy baling/wrapping (combi baler) me who used stack and hook up to a trailer and another tractor and trailer for carting. in a round we were moving 28 bales and would be flat out for weeks just about keeping up with the baler (pressure was on) so if you are starting out with just one tractore you can imagine how much longer they will take, at the same time you have to take so much care not to tear them otherwise word will spread so fast and work will be lost, if your married or whatever your wife wont see you alot. also with pit silage around my area anyway there is serious competition, one guy started up last year and just to win work was offering the deal "if you let him do your silage hell spread your slurry for free " competition is fierce and cut throat. as regards loader wagons i dont think thats a good way to go, back around the 70's they were being described as the bees knees but quickly died away then they were starting to make a come back again a couple years ago but again it was short lived. one guy here hired out 3 about 2-3 years ago and absolutely cleaned up with them, he was so pleased be bought a fourth for the next season and some self propelled contractors were getting worried so actually bought some too. although they make good silage the fact that they chop the grass alot longer then precission chop means it was very hard to get it out of the pit after, alot of farmers said is was tangled and knotted and they just kept breaking shear bolts on their shear grabs. also because the grass is longer its harder to pack and if the loading shovel on the pit is not big enough it wont pack it properly so in alot of case's a fair bit of the top layers rotted. as a result of that in his second season he only did a fraction of the previous year and by that september all the gear was sold and that was the end of him :'(. if your starting up you need to look at the size of the farms in your area and the likleyhood of obtaining work, what are your trends in the area? is it 50/50 pit/bales or is pit dying back thus more in favour of bales or visa versa. to keep a harvester going you typically need 4 trailers 5 if there is any bit of a long draw, if the weather is good everyone will want theirs done straight away - this could prove to be an advantage for you when starting out as you will be looking to pick up work and farmers may be more willing to give it to someone else when they think their regular guy wont make it in time. obviously diesel will be a big expense regardless of which way you go, it will proberbly be your biggest expense even with baling, a tractor on a baler will drink it! at least with the price of plastic the cost is passed on to the farmer or alot of farmers even buy their own plastic. wages are the other big expense, if you want the best operators you have to pay them right this should be seen as a saving in the long run when compared to the cost of repairs due to drivers who dont really give a s$$t. thus paying well means drivers will be wiling to do more for you and youll have less worry and better sleep knowing that you have good guys working for you i think if i was going to start id rather do pit, it easier and faster but if i was to think about it economically id have to go with bales, its easier to pick up work and not as much capital investment is required, get your own digger for the winter and when your not busy baling thus you can get work for your baling tractor on a dump trailer etc. even starting out get someone else to do your mowing while you concentrate on paying the baler off etc. my boss only started making bales about 5 years ago however he was well established as a contractor at that state but in 5 years he has grown his baling side to over 15,000 he is able to afford a bran new fusion every 2 years and his tractors are all top notch, his sun who is 24 is part owner of the baling side of things and hes driving around a 08 reg toyota hilux plus can afford to go out every weekend and get pi$$ed. so with a bit of hard work it can work out. if farming continues to improve like it is at the moment i might consider starting up myself

looking great mike

i know boy doesnt look to good from them pics does it but in reality you couldnt get a firmer base, there is only about 1 inch to 2.5 inches off top soil in that field if you can call it that, it was always a crap field with a thick iron pan just under the surface thus absolutely no soakage. we turned alot of ground a few years ago with track machines and by ploughing it all turned out great after except for this field which pretty much went straight back into rushes shortly after cos the pan was too thick. but just under that slop pictured is a base like concrete. we could draw away from there now but our problem is we cant get to the tipping site! il put pics up later to show what i mean

ive put up about 200 hours on it now at the moment but havent really none anything with it in about a week now cos its so wet. at the entrance to the site it was about 2.5 - 3ft deep and that was on the main road......... kerry county council for you

houses. ive more to put up but internet is crashing so cant at the moment

we were able to clear some stuff and draw it away to an area of ground we were clearing. we had to keep the tractor on the track though all the time as it was too wet to go into the field

well ive had to take some time off work cos of the continuing terential rain day after day. up to last thursday we were working through it as much as we could but weve caught up to ourselves now and cant travel most of the site so its just a case of wating for it to clear up. heres a picture of the site entrance last week, caused by blocked drains further back the main road, i had to leave my car in there for two days cos i couldnt get it out, parked it on a hump so it was ok though other one shows a bit of the site with top layer of soil skimmed off

think il go on holiday out there some day i hear the cafe's are good too

keep them coming were most of them pics taken in holland texas? ye do really have alot of big kit out there