TECHNICAL: When we were field testing the Pöttinger forage wagon in first cut, we also had the opportunity to compare the throughputs and chop quality of other harvesting systems.
Every farmer has a preference, but we thought that it might be worth further fuelling the online debate with some pros and cons of the different ways to make silage. So, here we go.
Throughput
We don’t actually have that much to say about throughput. For the first time ever in one of our comparisons, a forage wagon delivered more crop (215t/hr fresh material, 70t/hr dry matter) than a self propelled (180t/hr FM, 59t/hr DM); both measurements purely focus on lifting grass and do not consider or include
headland turns.
The reasons for the results are simple. Firstly, Pöttinger now has a forage wagon capable of handling even more power, and, secondly, the 539hp self-propelled had to cut the grass to 23mm which is slightly less than the wagon.
The combi-baler achieved a throughput of exactly 60t/hr (fresh matter) and 19.8t/hr (dry matter) with 1.30m diameter bales. Here the limiting factor was the wrapper. If it could get the film on quicker, then the baler would definitely have been able to process more tonnes per hour
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