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nw oh | I think this has been mentioned before but I could not find it in a search. Can you use a John Deere 3975 pull type chopper and put a 4 row 30" snapping head on it and make Earlage?
Or does a lot of modifications need to be made to the hitch to make it fit? We do not chop much silage (20 acres) and currently higher our earlage done from a neighbor. I would love to stick with this set up but, I think the neighbor would like to just concentrate on his own things, and I cant blame him.
We keep wanting to make more and more each year but, I do not want to over stay my welcome so to speak.
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Northern NE Panhandle | I doubt you could put a 4 row on that and ever swing the tongue away enough from the head. I have a 3 row JD picker and I'm sure I could mount that head on my 3960 chopper but I think a 4 row wouldn't work very well. |
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western iowa,by Denison | you need to go to a 4720 pull type-used to run one with a 4-30 corn silage head |
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Saronville NE | Im looking for a 3r30 cornhead to put on our 3960 to try earlage, I bought a adaptor plate for it off a Nat member on here this winter. Im keeping my 3r chopper head though, never know we may burn up this year and chop ALL our dryland, just never know, but I am wanting to try earlage if the corn is good. |
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NE Iowa | We are a 3975 with a 3 row snapping head with no problems. You need to add a screen behind your knifes to help process the grain. You will need an adapter plate to attach the head to the chopper. We had to modify the chain and sprocket to get the right speed so we could run alittle faster. We have made earlage the last two years this way.
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nw oh | How hard is it to find a 3 row narrow snapping head? Are they out there? |
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thorp wi. | say does your adaptor plate have an extra jackshaft on the rite side or does the shaft coming over from the head drive run the snapper head directly ? reason for asking tryed putting a snapper head on my 3970 but had bad problom with chains jumping an tearing . was a major fiasco ! now after looking at some other jd chopers an saw that setup i wonder if the head was running to fast ? anyway my greenspout 3970 with horning kp an snapper set up is forsale |
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sw minnesota | If you have done it for 2 years how do you like it and how much you can you figure on getting done in a day? Always curious about this |
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NE Iowa | How much we get done depends on the tons per acre and if the bagger keeps up. We had to add a longer shaft and an extra bearing to keep the chain from jumping off. |
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NE Iowa | There is a place near newton, IA that sells a lot of forage harvesters. I think their name is van det lots. I have seen their ad in tractorhouse. |
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Faunsdale, AL | I worked out how to put a 4 row narrow head on a Fox 6650 self propelled chopper. It was a White/AGCO I think with a Lindquist built adapter fastened to it. Anyway, I discovered that a snapping head takes more power than a regular silage chopper row head. So your drive has to be stronger. Every silage chopper has some kind of reversing drive, usually electric these days and ours just really weren't up to it. Ended up direct driving the thing off the end of the cutting cylinder with a #80 roller chain. That took care of the power problem!
Once you get it to feed in, then chopping the ears and tops you get isn't much strain on the chopper, but it can be hard to get it chopped fine enough and all the kernels broken well enough to get good packing and good feed efficiency. We had one chopper with a set of rolls in it and it did a good job with earlage. We sold that one and used a similar machine with a recutter screen in it and didn't like the feed as much. It worked, but the shuck was in longer stringy pieces and the kernels weren't broken up as well or as uniformly. Still a lot cheaper than a set of processer rolls if you don't have them already.
Making earlage is fast enough and you have some leeway on moisture content that you probably would be better off to have your neighbor continue to make it for you if they're really set up to do it. I know in our case, with an 8 row head on a Claas chopper, and the decreased volume of crop to haul away, making earlage is a snap compared to whole crop silage. Lots of acres in a day!
edited to say 4 row, not 3.
Edited by ccjersey 3/4/2012 10:12
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Faunsdale, AL | They're out there, but many are 3 row wides from back in the day when there were 3 row combines running and everything was on wide rows.
By the time most everyone went to 30 inch rows here, combine heads were at least 4 rows if not bigger which puts you into a self propelled machine usually because it's hard to get a pull type machine that will carry a 4 row head and not get into the tractor wheel or axle stub on any tractor with enough horsepower to handle the combination of a 4 row head and the chopper. |
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Faunsdale, AL | Making earlage is a good option for anyone with cattle to feed
The drymatter and energy yield is greater per acre than for dry grain.
The feed you get is suited for most kinds of cattle diets, is very palatable and is already processed when it comes out of storage.
Harvest can be done a few weeks ahead of grain harvest which spreads out work load, reduces risk of loss from lodging, ear drop, weather etc.
In our area with a very long growing season, we can get ahead of late season weeds like morning glory and johnsongrass, get the crop off and shred the stalks down, so we can spray the weeds with ground spray equipment and keep them from making seed.
Downsides are you have to have the equipment and storage, and you are limited as to what you can do with the earlage, can't sell it to the elevator |
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Buffalo IL | Do you have pictures of rebuilt silos and buildings after tornado |
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nw oh | I completely agree that I would much rather continue with our current setup. He does a really nice job and he runs the chopper so it gives us an extra man which helps. I am just afraid that if I say I want to do 80-100 acres instead of our normal 50, he might start to balk at it. We try to do everything to accomadate him. Have silo ready, blower ready, wagons ready. We have even had end rows of a couple of times. The three years we have done it we have been done in a day and a half. If we went to 80 acres it will take two really big days or three easy days.
I just hate to buy even a pull type machine for three days worth of work. But, the increased feed efficiency will pay for it in a hurry. It is great feed for our holsteins. We actually replace most of our silage with it. It gives us enough fiber and scratch. It really stretches our storage compared to silage. |
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Faunsdale, AL | I added a picture on the unloader thread here
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=291322&mid=226... |
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| about 20 years ago but it worked,,2 row mounted picker JD.(4020) Picks into jd chuck wagons. Takes to upright silo where they run through a Gehl 800 recutter blower. When that silo is full pile on ground, silo gets low, start loading pile into recutter.. |
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Earlage and pull type choppers
