Modem Silage Making Demonstration at Waimate West Farm, South Taranaki

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 87, Issue 2, 15 August 1953, Page 98

Modem Silage Making Demonstration at Waimate West Farm, South Taranaki

By

E. M. BATES,

Instructor in Agriculture, Department of Agri-

culture, Hawera, and J. O. BRASELL, Farm Machinery Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Palmerston North SILAGE making in the past has always involved heavy manual labour and a high labour requirement. This limited the popularity of this method of surplus pasture conservation, but modern machinery is rapidly reducing the work involved. About 1500 south Taranaki farmers had an opportunity to observe modern mechanical methods of silage making at Waimate

West Demonstration Farm early in November, when a field day was organised on behalf of the farm committee by officers of the Department of Agriculture in close co-operation with the farm staff and local farm machinery firms. The object of the field day was to try out the latest equipment available in the district under similar conditions in making stack or silo silage, consideration being given to the speed and efficiency in gathering and stacking the material and the labour required for each method, with final judgment deferred until the stacks are opened up.

METHOD I—s men, I stacker, engine, w ch, hydraulic pitch-control sweep

In the conventional method of stacking, the special winch in place ,of the horse or tractor for lifting the crop saved 1 man, but 2 men were 'on the stack to cope with the speed of gathering resulting from the use of the improved pitch-control sweep. With 5 men the crop was harvested as fast as it was by the best of the other stacking methods used. However, ' labour requirements were still high.

Four methods of silage making were demonstrated: — ' 1. Stacking by use of a stacker with engine and winch and gathering with a hydraulic pitch-control sweep. This required 5 men. 2. Buckrake stacking by use of the clamp method of stacking, 2 men being required. 3. Stacking with fore-end loader with 2 men. 4. Forage harvester with 2 trucks and blower apparatus for filling silo, with 3 men gathering and carting and 3 men at the silo. •

; METHOD 2—2 men, buckrake for clamp stacking

The buckrake requires a tractor wit! three-point linkage; otherwise it is low in initial costs and a real labour saver Where overground stacking is done 1 men are essential to good silage making 1 man doing the necessary spreading Spreading is much less difficult when th buckrake width fits' the swath and the crop is picked from the swath. This equipment is limited to silage making

METHOD 3—2 men, fore-end loader

The high initial outlay of the fore-end loader is warranted if the machine is required for any of the many other jobs it can do beside silage making. It is equally efficient in the making of hay and silage and can place, material where it is required on the stack regardless of wind direction, but models available in New Zealand have definite limits in the height material can be lifted. The speed of gathering, with the direct lift to the silage stack, makes work for 2 men on the stack.

METHOD 4—6 men (3 gathering and carting and 3 at silo), forage harvester, 2 trucks, blower to fill silo