# Flail Chopper



## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Okay, I know this is HAY TALK, but it does say right in the byline that this is a Hay, forage and SILAGE forum, so don't BAPTACTMABTLCOO me. (that is forum lingo for: Buy A Plane Ticket And Come To Maine And Beat The Living Crap Out Of Me.)

Anyway, I was thinking about all my options and it seems a flail chopper would work best for me. Honestly haying just is not working. It is tough to get endless days of sun in Maine most years, and there is the multiple-machinery issue, and my attempts at getting people to custom hay it has been horrible. One year the guy hayed it on the last day in July and never took 2nd crop. Another guy took half the hay and left me all the crap on the outside windrows. Another guy promised to always get second crop and never showed up again, and finally the guy that did, stole every bale.

I AM DONE WITH CUSTOM HAYING!

I am not upset, I think I am just asking too much at a 50/50 split. If it was just one guy I would think maybe he was a loser, but with me having trouble with so many, I think a 50/50 split today is just not feasible for them or me. Furthermore if I enter another agreement now it will lock me in with just another haying contractor when what I really need is all my grass ground, and not just 50% of it. I have a growing flock of sheep and need more.

So I was thinking about getting a flail chopper. I talked to the equipment dealership and they said a new one was $18,000. That seems kind of low so, is that correct? Of course I don't need new, I only have 120 acres in fields, so a used one would do, but I am not finding any around here. I suppose I could truck one in from out of state, but what would the transportation charges be? And finally the ones I do see here are stuffed along the rock walls. I suppose I could pay scrap price for one, drag it off the rock wall and rebuild it, but I don't know if that is worth doing?

I got to do something!!

Any thoughts on this?


----------



## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Flail choppers are fine for feeding green chop daily. You need to get the moisture down around 60-40% to ensure properly. Personally I like it around high forties to low fifties. I get enough weight to pack it and I'm not storing excess water in the silo. Waiting for the hay to go to seed will lower your plant moisture but quality suffers. I won't BAPTACTMABTLCOOY. My brother might. He has had it in for Mainers since we worked all winter in Caribou and he saw not a single moose. Lol


----------



## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

If you are going to try to make haylage/silage, a flail chopper, wouldn't be my first choice. I would want a finer chop/cut, but for daily feeding flail is the way to go.

But, Maine winters are similar to Michigan, where daily green chopping has a season and critters need to eat year-around.

If you are looking at ensilaging, I would probably look at round bales wrapped or stuffed in plastic verses piling/packing. IDNK, what equipment is around in your area, but in my area a couple of wrappers do custom work.

Pile pack, might be cheapest equipment wise, but the most wasteful too (depending upon pile size and feeding rate). I think there is even a stuffer that you can direct feed haylage/silage into (without round baling).

Biggest thing I'm thinking of is the exposed face (where spoilage/waste happens), with a stuffer would be less than a pile system.

My couple of pennies.

Larry

PS no BAPTACTMABTLCOO from me either.


----------



## chevytaHOE5674 (Mar 14, 2015)

I have a flail chopper and as said it is great during the growing season to chop feed and bring it too the animals daily. But for trying to make silage to store for winter the moisture content direct chopping is too high in my experience. Only way UP here to make pit or silo silage is to mow it and leave it lay a day then go in with a forage harvester/chopper and chop it into a wagon and haul it away (This requires a mower, sometimes a rake, chopper, chopper box, etc).


----------



## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Do you want to make silage or green chop? If silage, then I think you will be better off on the long run with either a chopper or a silage baler, depending on your circumstances. I have made many many piles of alfalfa and corn silage in my life and it is good feed!

By the way, I would love an excuse (and the time and the $$$) to run up to Maine. I would forget about the beating part by the time I was halfway there.


----------



## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Gee 18, 000 for a new one? And im over here thinking 1000-1200 for a used in good shape ones selling at auctions are expensive. ..... I really would like one for daily green feeding but can't justify it just yet even one under 1,000


----------



## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Yeah I was thinking of silage.

I had the same mind set as many of you that it would be too wet and too long to ensile properly, but as I got talking with area farmers they were like, "yeah we used to do it, it;s just a bear to dig out of the bunker." That is what got me to thinking about using a flail chopper.

The biggest reason is that it is ONE piece of equipment to do the work, and if it breaks down I would not have acres down and rain moving in.


----------



## TessiersFarm (Aug 30, 2009)

So I have to reply, you are about a year behind me on this, check out my post Small Scale Silage in the hay section.

I chopped with the flail chopper and blew into a small dump trailer behind my pickup. Packed with a 5000 lb 30hp tractor backhoe. Did 30 tons in 2 days with 1 helper for 1 day, alone the other day.

I did it with a flail chopper last year, because I had it. I have been using it for green chop for years and will continue to use it for that, not for silage again, if I can help it. It is hard to pack and hard to dig back out. I picked up a new Holland 782 chopper with corn and hay head this fall.

I do like the silage pile, it is so much better than wrapped bales, at least for me. I cant speak to the waste part yet, but its no worse than I had when we were feeding baleage. I can put in in a pile, inoculate and cover cheaper than I can hire just baleing and wrapping.

It worked good for me, maybe not for everyone, but I'm very happy. I just sent a sample out for testing, that will put the icing on the cake if its decent.


----------



## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

hillside hay said:


> I won't BAPTACTMABTLCOOY. My brother might. He has had it in for Mainers since we worked all winter in Caribou and he saw not a single moose. Lol


Caribou is a tough spot, I still have family in nearby Fort Fairfield, but they must be tougher than I am because it is supposed to get down to -15 below zero (f) tonight. The lowest I ever saw it there was -46 below zero (f) which is a might chilly. That is NOT windchill, that is actual straight temperature. That makes your cheek rosy when you go to the backhouse for a good fashioned #2, hoping like the dickens you don't get the "drizzlies" and have an extended stay in there. 

Right now their buildings are collapsing due to the heavy snow load. Just a week into January and they have 70 inches (nearly 6 feet) on the ground.

No place for the faint of heart. A very tough place to farm!


----------

