THE FORAGE HARVESTER:

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 81, Issue 1, 15 July 1950, Page 16

THE FORAGE HARVESTER:

By

C. J. CROSBIE,

Farm Machinery Instructor,

VZET another machine that reduces markedly the man hours required for harvesting hay and silage, the forage harvester was introduced to New Zealand when Mr. D. J. Stewart set his machine to work at Woodend, North Canterbury, at the end of November, 1948, in a field of lucerne, from which silage was made. Following the mower, his machine picked up the material from the windrow, chopped it, and blew it into a trailer which was drawn parallel to it. At the stack site the cut material was forked into a blower and blown to the top of the stack,' where the flow was directed to fill the framework that formed the stack. On completion the stack was earthed over in the usual way to form a silage that could be fed out easily from the stack and was relished by stock. Machine with Cutter Bar During the most recent harvest another forage harvester of a different make was introduced and tried extensively in most districts of the South Island. The harvesting of silage material with this equipment on the farm of Messrs. Johns brothers, Belfast, Canterbury, is illustrated in the photographs reproduced on these pages. This machine differs from the first in that it is equipped with a cutter bar and therefore can be drawn directly into a standing crop to cut and chop the material and blow it into the trailer. Messrs. Johns milk 260 to 270 cows in four herds for town supply, so their requirements for winter supplementary feed are high. It has been their practice to save irrigated pasture for silage, and this year three large pits were filled. Speed of Operation The forage harvester, which is driven from the tractor power take-off, requires a full 3-furrow tractor to pull it in , the heavy mixed pastures common in New Zealand. In lucerne the going is much easier and the tractor can be operated in a higher gear. Working in the heavy pasture silage crop shown on this page the

A Labour- saving Machine for Silage Making

Department of Agriculture, Christchurch.

machine handled the material at the rate of 12 tons per hour, but, allowing time for stoppages to replace the filled trailers, 7 tons was the rate under working conditions. The trailers, which were hitched directly to the rear of the harvester, were standard models with canopies of plywood and canvas attached. Though each trailer was capable of carrying 5 tons, it was found convenient to blow a load of only lg to 2 tons into them, the load being distributed by deflecting the hood of the blower so that the trailer was not loaded too heavily in front. Two trailers were used and a separate tractor hauled them between the field and the pit, the journey taking an average of 6 minutes. Method of Unloading When a trailer arrived at the pit a further 4J minutes was spent in unloading it for its return to the field. After the back doors had been opened a rope attached to a third tractor or to two horses was passed over the load and fastened to the free front end of a strip of wire mesh on which the load was resting, and by this means the load was rolled out of the trailer. One man could spread the load in 4 minutes, leaving him time to spray the material at intervals and when necessary to drive the third tractor over the material in the pit to compact it. Thus a team of three (sometimes an extra man was employed at the pit) was able to harvest green material from 75 acres at the rate of 7 tons per hour to fill three ; large pits—in all nearly 800 tons of silage. Other Attachments The machine also has a pick-up attachment for lifting and chopping material such as hay from the windrow, and a blower is available for blowing either hay or silage up into hay lofts or silos. Another attachment will cut a crop such as maize from a row. This machine would appear to have a great future in New Zealand, for it can do much to reduce the labour of stock-food conservation and feeding out. The chopped silage can be forked from the stack with ease, and no knife is needed to make vertical cuts. Middle photograph on this page by Coates.