# Chopping hay and corn....



## MT hayer

I have had some people want me to get a chopper to do some custom work. What do you guys recommend for machinery? What kind of acres do you cover? How do you charge? Should I just stay out of it? Thanks


----------



## endrow

Around hear $300 per hour 6row machine $400 8row machine , We hire our corn chopping out ,,,chopping is the easy part having enough trucks and wagons with good operators to keep the chopper going is the hard part.


----------



## Waterway64

I agree with Endrow. Guys here that do custom work have complete lines and big equipment and that is their primary job. I have a older jd 5440 self propelled just for my own use and bag feed for my own use. Mel


----------



## aawhite

Charges can vary. Some charge a flat hourly, some a hourly plus tonnage surcharge for higher yields, some a flat per acres fee plus tonnage surcharge. I agree with the other guys, labor is a big issue. We did our own chopping, and minimal custom work for a few neighbors in a bind. We hauled silage with four 18 ft wagons, so we were restricted to range.

The guys who do this for a living run all aspects of the harvest, cutting hauling, silage packing, etc. The equipment investment is staggering. We ran a JD forage harvester with a 6 row head and a 10 ft. hay pickup andkernal processor, Meyer wagons. We cut wheat silage, haylage, corn silage every year, also sudan grass, haybeans and milo mix, milo stubble after combining, You need to cut a lot of acres to justify the expense, maintenance, and labor.


----------



## Teslan

Some of these haveresting operations are so big. I was talking to a NH repairman a few weeks ago. He said the worst repair jobs he goes out on are the huge $400,000 harvesters and then there are 13-14 semis waiting as well as the harvester operator.


----------



## endrow

There was a time the guy with the chopper would hope the farmer would have enough help and organization to unload the wagons so the chopper would not be sitting . Many farmers did not care. So the chopper guy started charging buy the hour meter on the cutter head at $400 per hour and let the cutter head run all day .. Now Guys try real hard to keep the chopper moving


----------



## aawhite

Endrow, the custom cutters in your area rely on the farmer to haul the silage? Never see that here. The guys who have enough equipment to haul the silage have the chopper, too, and cut their own. Guys who typically hire custom cutters have zero equipment to put up silage.


----------



## MT hayer

This is all good input. I have an opportunity that the places would have there own trucks. The more I look into this the more money it takes! I would have to start from ground zero. Is it possible to use a pull type if you could unload on the go? Like was mentioned earlier, the goal is to keep the chopper going. The other part of the pull type is I would have a tractor to do other things with.


----------



## aawhite

If you weren't cutting a lot of acres, and your rates reflected a slower harvest window, I think you can pick up some business. The biggest head I've ever seen on a pull type was a 4 row corn head. That's not a lot of capacity for a custom cutter rig. Can a pull type mount a kernal processor? Almost mandatory these days.

You might be able to do well with customers with small acres and fields, the guys that get looked over by the large custom outfits. Just a thought.


----------



## MT hayer

I don't know if you can mount a kp or not? Don't know that much yet. I have seen a couple NH with a Dion head. Similar to a Kemper head. Yes I believe 4 rows. I am going for that void that the big guys don't want. I was thinking I should be able to maintain 2.5 to 3 mph? Most would be dry land hay, corn, sorghum. Probably tops of 10 ton to the acre. The amount of time you spend sitting dumping that wagon, I think might be 2 hours or more a day?


----------



## Bob M

MT you could possibility fill a niche with the pull type chopper , and yes they make a KP for pull type. There is a Amish shop in Pa. that makes them. One of the biggest problems with the large choppers is getting the silage packed. If you have the HP you should be able to chop enough per hour to keep a 200 cow dairy happy.


----------



## Gearclash

> The amount of time you spend sitting dumping that wagon, I think might be 2 hours or more a day?


If at all possible try to pull the wagons/trucks beside the cutter. For many years we pulled a wagon behind pull type choppers, and switched wagons. Then set up our wagons to pull beside. That saved a lot of time.

And yes, the newer pull types can have a crop processer. You only need it for corn silage though.


----------



## MT hayer

So Bob, your saying that with the pull type, a guy is probably going to get a better pack job because it is coming off the field a little slower? The packer has time to spread it and do a better job? Makes sense.

Gearclash, when you talk about pulling beside, you hook the wagon to the tractor some how? I might have to make a wagon that will unload on the go. A dump wagon just won't cut the mustard. The hauls out here will be too far for a tractor and wagon to make any time. So the kp for a pull type, they make them for NH and Deere? Which one is better or worse? We have the JD dealer some what close, so parts would be there. Our NH dealer is a little further, I don't know what parts they keep on hand.


----------



## Gearclash

Some thing like this, only we used a tractor and wagon instead of trucks. Not sure why this guy is pulling a wagon that he is not filling. We never did.






If we were right by the pile, two tractors/two 16' wagons could just keep up with ~ 200 hp on the chopper. If we had the mile long haul we needed an additional tractor/wagon.

The less hp on the chopper, the better the crop processing job will be (corn) and probably the better the pack of the pile. Alfalfa can burn up gobs of power if it is sticky.


----------



## MT hayer

So did you start out with pull type? Which one would you get? I missed a 9690 Agco Allis at an auction last week. It brought 17 grand! It had 5 thousand hours on it. I hope some more buys come around this spring. Ideally a guy should have that 180 to 200 hp tractor? I am also thinking a walking tandem on the chopper would be a must.

I have looked at a few 860 and 880 machines. Probably what I should get, but to much of a chance still to throw that much money out. When you talk about the alfalfa getting sticky, you mean below 45% moisture? I have put up dry hay all my life so this will be a learning curve!


----------



## Gearclash

With the exception of the odd little bit we only chop for ourselves. 2013 was the first year we did NOT chop with a pull type chopper, although for about 15 years we had an ancient Fox Super D sp to open corn fields. Many years ago we used Fox Super 1000 and 3000 pull type choppers. Then got a New Holland 900 (pretty well used when we got it) and added a New Holland processer to it. The 900 was a pretty good unit, but its wear and lack of Metalert caused a few hiccups now and then. Crop processers don't like big chunks of steel run through them.

We also ran a New Holland FP240 for a few years, only in hay. Very solid unit, with walking tandems which as you thought is nice. The only bugger about that 240 was a lack of blowing force in alfalfa especially in the sticky hay conditions. The sticky alfalfa comes in the lower moisture range (for silage) probably around 45%.

The FP240 does have wider feed rolls, cutter head and crop processer than the FP230 and the 900, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to go over 200 hp on a 240. The extra width will maintain the chop and processing quality.

As far as the other brands of pull types, I can't say anything as I haven't been around them. I assume they get the job done also.



> I have looked at a few 860 and 880 machines. Probably what I should get, but to much of a chance still to throw that much money out


I assume you mean Claas? Good machines, and are easily more than double of a pull type, but spendy for one with some life left in it.


----------



## swmnhay

Gearclash said:


> Some thing like this, only we used a tractor and wagon instead of trucks. Not sure why this guy is pulling a wagon that he is not filling. We never did.


Couple yrs ago helped the neighbor chopping pulling wagons alongside.The chopper pulled another wagon like in the video and he would flick the spout over to it after you had wagon full and the next guy was catching up to get to the spout.Chopper didn't have to stop then.


----------



## Waterway64

I go along with Gearclashs' post but would add one thing. Alfalfa can be to wet to. We nearly always bag our feed and one year we bagged one bag of haylage to wet. It formed a butieic acid instead of a lactic acid. The cattle didn't care for it! Ideally chop haylage at 55 to 65 percent moisture. Mel


----------



## MT hayer

So 64, you were in a pinch and chopped at 70% moisture? The more I read about this wet feed, the more critical it seems to get the correct moisture level so that the crop insiles properly. No different then dry hay, just that you can get it off the field sooner. It looks like the better hybrid crops that are coming out, this may be more of a thing to see in this part of the world, dry land that is. Do you chop with a pull type?

So Gearclash, the 240 is a good machine. Do you have to line the chute with Teflon? I would assume the chute will just plug, then you curse? Does this newer one still run the spiral knives or the two bolters like in a Deere? Have you seen the Dion head that goes on one? Are they any good? When you talk about the wider rolls, they are probably wider the the older self propelled machines?


----------



## Gearclash

> Do you have to line the chute with Teflon?


Now that's a good idea. Only would benefit for haylage, but . . . How to do it I wouldn't know.



> I would assume the chute will just plug, then you curse?


Some pointers about chopping haylage. Never start or stop a New Holland pull type with crop still going through the machine. Or let the spout get too close to something like the pile in the wagon. Then it won't plug. But it can stuggle just to get the crop in the wagon. In the event it plugs, yes you will swear, because XXX hp can pack silage in the spout beyond belief. Some people pull a water tank behind the chopper and add a stream of water in the head or throat of the chopper to eliminate the problem of sticking haylage.



> Does this newer one still run the spiral knives or the two bolters like in a Deere?


Deere is the only Co. I know of that uses the small knife. New Holland is spiral, Claas is a chevron.

Never saw a Dion head or any other rotary head for a pull type. I have worked on the rotary head for our Claas, and watched it work, and it seems like a good design. The row crop heads for the New Holland pull types are good units, but they will need maintainance.



> When you talk about the wider rolls, they are probably wider the the older self propelled machines?


That I don't know. A tape measure will tell you for sure. The only thing I know for sure is that the FP240 has the widest throat and cutterhead of the New Holland pull types.



> Alfalfa can be too wet too


Oh yes!! Far better to err some on the dry side for haylage than even a little bit wet.



> Couple yrs ago helped the neighbor chopping pulling wagons alongside.The chopper pulled another wagon like in the video and he would flick the spout over to it after you had wagon full and the next guy was catching up to get to the spout.Chopper didn't have to stop then.


I didn't think our New Hollands had enough travel in the spout swivel actuator to do that. You had to get out of the tractor and adjust the band on the spout to switch from pull beside to pull behind. Maybe there is a compromise position for the band.


----------



## MT hayer

Hmmm, Gearclash, what tractor did you run the 240 with? You have been around this stuff a day or two. Nice to chat about something warm season when I have been pushing snow! The spout rotation is electric or hydraulic on the 240?


----------



## swmnhay

Gearclash said:


> I didn't think our New Hollands had enough travel in the spout swivel actuator to do that. You had to get out of the tractor and adjust the band on the spout to switch from pull beside to pull behind. Maybe there is a compromise position for the band.


They were chopping with a JD SP chopper.6 row rotary head.Now that you say that when we chopped with a pulltype MF chopper that one had 2 separate pin holes for the spout cylinder also.


----------



## Gearclash

> Hmmm, Gearclash, what tractor did you run the 240 with? You have been around this stuff a day or two. Nice to chat about something warm season when I have been pushing snow! The spout rotation is electric or hydraulic on the 240?


Chopping 3 out of 4 80 acre alfalfa cuttings a year plus 60 to 80 acres corn in the fall will learn ya a thing or two about choppers. Even though I just play king of the mountain on the pile with an old wheel loader most of the time.

We pulled the FP240 with a CIH 7140 Magnum. Most of the time this was enough power. We always rake two 14' swaths on one for the chopper, and only in heavy crop would the tractor be much slowed down from about the fastest you can safely drive two tractors in formation across the field. With the 900, which had the crop processer, the 7140 was plenty power. If pushed hard, the processing job wasn't as good.

Both the spout swivel and the deflector are electric on New Holland. The feed roll stop/reverse clutching is also electric.


----------



## MT hayer

Well this pretty much tells me that pull type will do the job. It would be easier if I had the tractor already. My 7710 Ford is a good horse, but not that good! I just need to go look at some machines now.


----------



## Jharn57600

I'd be hesitant to start a custom cutting operation with a pull type. It might be different if you used it in your own operation and cut a little for some neighbors on the side as a bonus. What size piles, structures or silos would you be filling. For corn silage at the proper moisture 1 good heavy packing tractor for every 250-300 HP of SP chopper will do a pretty good job. If you are filling small structures say less than 750-1000 tons a pull type might make sense. You want to fill a pile as fast as you can pack it well. Its all about getting the air out of the silage quickly and keeping it out.


----------



## MT hayer

Well Jharn, I am not disagreeing. A self propelled would be better. I just can't justify one for the acres I might have. I am safer to have the pull type, maybe run two of them? I realize in the pile faster is better, but maybe not the best packing job. We would be just piling on flat ground. The other thing is the hay is mostly dry land and might be 3 ton? If they do corn or sorghum, maybe 10 ton? I don't think I have the volume that the rest of you do, I could be wrong. One year of education and I will be able to tell you a lot more.


----------



## Jharn57600

How large are are the piles you will be making? Or the total tons of corn silage and haylage to chop. A pull type chopper can chop a good bit of feed, but if I was hiring someone to chop my feed I'd much rather have a 3-400 HP self propelled get it done in a timely manner. It all gets down to availability. If your area doesn't have custom cutters that will do the smaller jobs when they need done that could be a good niche to fill.


----------



## aawhite

Another thing your customers will look at is can you harvest fast enough to keep the forage from getting too dry? We started out years ago with an old Fox self propelled and a 3 row corn heard/7 ft. hay pick up. Added a JD 3960 with a 2 or 3 row head (can't remember) and pulled with a JD 6030 set at about 225 hp.

We ultimately bought and rebuilt a JD 5820, 300 hp with a kemper 6 row head and 9 ft. hay pick-up. When chopping heavy alfalfa, we mowed in the morning and started chopping after lunch. It pretty much had to be up that day, as it would be too dry by noon the following day. Speed is critical to keep optimal crop conditions. This is why custom guys go big equipment. The first time a customer finds out you don't have the cutting capacity is the last time you will work for him. If you don't have your own crop to cut, a chopper is a big expense to have sitting around.

Another option, would custom baling and wrapping silage bales be an option? The equipment is less cost and a little more flexability.


----------



## deadmoose

MT hayer said:


> Well Jharn, I am not disagreeing. A self propelled would be better. I just can't justify one for the acres I might have. I am safer to have the pull type, maybe run two of them? I realize in the pile faster is better, but maybe not the best packing job. We would be just piling on flat ground. The other thing is the hay is mostly dry land and might be 3 ton? If they do corn or sorghum, maybe 10 ton? I don't think I have the volume that the rest of you do, I could be wrong. One year of education and I will be able to tell you a lot more.


My hindsight is pretty good too. Dontcha wish our foresight was that good?


----------



## MT hayer

Well J there are a couple of custom guys around, but they like the big jobs, which I understand. I have the swather in my picture which is a 25' cut for the hay. I can lay down 12 to 20 acres an hour. Should be able to keep hay down. I am looking at 300 acres total, corn/sorghum and hay. I just think I will have to burn some night oil to get this going.

I hear you White. I know if you don't do it right the first time, there may not be a second. I don't have any crop of my own to do, so yes, it is just for hire. Tough to pencil a 100,000 chopper and use it for 100 hours a year you know. This is why we may just run two pull type machines. The key to it working is a wagon that holds 8 ton and can unload on the go. It is absolutely critical that the pull type stays moving at all times. Do you know how choppers are rated? Like cubic feet a minute, or drum size? You guys keep after me, I may decide the best thing to do is go to the local watering hole and tell stories!


----------



## mlappin

aawhite said:


> Endrow, the custom cutters in your area rely on the farmer to haul the silage? Never see that here. The guys who have enough equipment to haul the silage have the chopper, too, and cut their own. Guys who typically hire custom cutters have zero equipment to put up silage.


Ditto here, the guys in the area doing custom chopping supply trucks and drivers, even figured in the price. A few even have live beds that are placed on the ground to feed a blower if you are filling silo.

Most are using bunkers anymore for corn silage and the custom guy even supplies the spreading/packing tractor.

First time I seen a custom operator they did in a day what it would take my buddy with me helping him two weeks to do.


----------



## 8350HiTech

MT hayer said:


> Well J there are a couple of custom guys around, but they like the big jobs, which I understand. I have the swather in my picture which is a 25' cut for the hay. I can lay down 12 to 20 acres an hour. Should be able to keep hay down. I am looking at 300 acres total, corn/sorghum and hay. I just think I will have to burn some night oil to get this going.
> I hear you White. I know if you don't do it right the first time, there may not be a second. I don't have any crop of my own to do, so yes, it is just for hire. Tough to pencil a 100,000 chopper and use it for 100 hours a year you know. This is why we may just run two pull type machines. The key to it working is a wagon that holds 8 ton and can unload on the go. It is absolutely critical that the pull type stays moving at all times. Do you know how choppers are rated? Like cubic feet a minute, or drum size? You guys keep after me, I may decide the best thing to do is go to the local watering hole and tell stories!


But how much are two pull types plus extra labor (and probably at least one extra wagon because your haulers will be chasing two choppers) going to cost? I know I see used SPFHs around for less than 70k but have no idea what condition they're in.


----------



## MT hayer

The extra labor is a drop in the bucket. I have looked at several self propelled at the eighty range, and they all need work. The older John Deere and such have the same or really close to same drum size as the 240. The cabs on the older ones leave some to be desired too. Now I don't think we are on the same page on the wagon. I am not talking about a side dump or front unload. I am talking have to make one, that has a big hopper and chain that unloads onto a truck on the go. There is a Saskatchewan dairy that has a YouTube video of one working. This way you can chop two thirds of a truck load, start filling the truck and finish the truck by the time the hopper gets empty. This way the truck isn't driving with you the whole time.

White, about the wrapping, there are some doing it up here, there is such a pain with birds and varmints making holes in it that people aren't to excited. Another thing is most guys just have a chain wagon, where with silage bales you would want a tmr? I would agree, we already have the swather and baler.


----------



## Gearclash

The width of the cutter head is only part of the capacity of a forage harvester. How fast everything is moving is a big factor also. The cutterhead in our Claas 880 (about 500 hp) is not dramaticly larger than the cutterhead in an FP240 (rated for 300 hp I think). It just spins faster.


----------



## Jharn57600

For 100 acres a good reliable pull type and a well matched tractor should be adequate. I'd keep it simple to start, dragging a self unloading wagon along doesn't seem practical to me. Pulling the wagon takes HP that could be used for chopping. Two decent sized trucks that can dump fast can keep you chopping if the haul is short and a third will get you a fair distance from the pile. With a mower that has that much capacity you will need to be careful not to knock down more than the chopper can handle in a timely manner. If haylage gets too dry to pack properly, you will end up with junk. 
Old forage harvesters can be real headache. Especially choppers like the 10 serries Deere. Electrical gremlins Will drive you nuts. The older choppers may have been state of the art in their day but don't have the Capacity or the ability to process corn to the level that we expect today. In 66 (before my time) we went from pull type to a used Fox sp chopper. It was followed by a Fox super D, JD 5400, JD 5830, JD 6710, Class 850, Class 870, and a new Class 880 is coming this spring. Each time the price to upgrade is a bit shocking but the increase in productivity is amazing as well. We do a mix of large and small jobs from 15000 tons of corn silage to a 150 ton ag bag. Here the corn silage chopping season can be a short as 3 weeks and we chop less and less alfalfa every year so getting enough hours on a machine can be a challenge.


----------



## aawhite

Are your potential customers going to be okay with your potential system? Seems a complicated dance of wagons, trucks, multiple choppers, etc. all to cut small fields for a few customers.Again, this is a new business model for me, as a cutter with chopper only and not all the other equipment, in this area, would find himself awfully lonely during harvest. You would find absolutely no work. Don't want to be too negative, but it a big dollar investment in tractors, choppers, maintenance, etc. for custom cutting a few acres a year.

Sometimes, the old saying go big or go home is pretty good advice.


----------



## MT hayer

Yes White you are a good pessimist! That is good though. We need to be able to see the bad in every aspect. You should see beet harvest! A topper per digger, a pull tractor per truck! Plus the service out fits, fuel tanks and such. The whole point is no one can justify that much money for that little of use. The tractor I can use for baling, chopping, planting, loader work, moving snow, and numerous other things during the year. The chopper might look funny with a rake behind it! Yes we have discussed this extensively using the pull type, that is why it has to be the big one. 
Please bring up some more points here. I have had all winter to stew on this so I have put every part on paper that I can think of. If you win the lottery down there, you can just buy a Claus for me and all would be well!


----------



## Gearclash

One thing I would mention about sp forage harvesters is that they are usually quite overpowered for hay crops. My brother used to mow alfalfa in front of a Claas 900 for silage. They were to a point of putting 5 18' swaths on one pile with a merger to get enough tons per hour through the chopper. Go look what one of those big mergers costs!


----------



## MT hayer

Yes I agree Gear. They are an outstanding amount of money. It is like these folks that put fluid in all of your tractor tires plus weights for 20 hours a year? So the rest of the time your lugging around extra unnecessary weight. This chopper deal, our dry land corn and such just never is going to make what your guys does. I don't plan on charging by the ton either, no scale close, just by the hour.


----------



## panhandle9400

There must money to made in that business , I have a friend who runs 7 big claus choppers, he did run 7 of the biggest JD's traded a year ago. He must have 25 semis pulling 35' silage dump trailers. I remember as a kid back in the days when we were using old 2 and 3 row farmhand cutters, screaming detroits in them , you could hear them start up chopping miles away each morning. Silage and wheatlage is very popular around here with all the huge feedyards , when it is silage season it gets dangerous on backroads. Yard that neighbors me puts up around 80000 tons of silage each year, here it is packed in huge earthen pits and then tarped . Those big choppers run 8 row 30 kemmper heads and they will fill those semis pretty fast in 30 ton corn ....................


----------



## MT hayer

Yes Panhandle I think there is. The key though is living in those things for a good six months of the year. Tell me if I am wrong, but I think there is two ways here. You put all your money in one machine and get on the road to chase the work, or you find what jobs are around home so you can be home most nights with multiple machines? I have a good selection of iron so I can do many jobs close, so I can't put too much money in one machine. I try to have machines that don't over lap seasons. I can do dirt work year around, but that scraper gets old! Tell me what you think?


----------



## Bgriffin856

I think its a good idea. A large dairy here 400 milking used a 240 and jd 4650 from 04 till 2012 used it for both corn and hay then hired corn chopping out till they bought a self propelled. That old 4650 would have a big cloud of black smoke following it all day. They really pushed it but could put up the feed. Used to have a dump wagon behind and chopped in the trucks and would chop in the wagon when trucks were on the road. When the ground got wet in corn they would drop the wagon and run two dump wagons with other tractors and park the trucks on dry ground.Nice thing with a pull type is if it gets wet you can hook a tractor or two on the chopper tractor and two on a wagon....seen it done..

Might be surprised how much ground can be covered with a pull type


----------



## MT hayer

That is good to hear! I think it is possible too. Griffin, you seem to be a bottom feeder like me. We can make it work if we put our nose to it. I think the biggest key here is getting a 200 plus horse tractor. That 4650 is about 165 hp? I am in shopping mode now. I am a Ford guy, but they never made a big tractor. The 401 just isn't quite enough snoose!


----------



## aawhite

MT, you will definitely want 200+ hp. We pulled with lighter tractors when our heavy iron was being worked on

(never less than 175 hp) but they get worked over very hard. Might not be as big an issue if you were just cutting haylage, but corn silage is a different animal all together. Really pulls down the cutterhead. A kernal processor adds to the need for hp.

I wouldn't be afraid to go with a heavy 2wd to save some cash, either. We pulled ours with a 6030, thing was a 2wd tank. If the conditions are that bad that you needed 4wd, probably shouldn't be in the field anyway.


----------



## Bgriffin856

MT hayer said:


> That is good to hear! I think it is possible too. Griffin, you seem to be a bottom feeder like me. We can make it work if we put our nose to it. I think the biggest key here is getting a 200 plus horse tractor. That 4650 is about 165 hp? I am in shopping mode now. I am a Ford guy, but they never made a big tractor. The 401 just isn't quite enough snoose!


I wouldn't get it over my head and finding out its not what you want or expected. There are good deals out there on used stuff. Imo find a deere chopper way more user friendly with sharpening knives, setting shearbar and serviceing.

165 is about right for a 4650 they did buy a 4960 that's what 200 hp? but got a new blade for it and used that as the packing tractor. Last year they got a newer deere that's over 200 not sure on model


----------



## aawhite

We pulled our JD 3960 with a 4450 turned up to 175 HP when our 6030 was down for repairs. I'm guessing that 4650 was turned up a bit, too. It was hard on the tractor, and we would not have considered doing it again. I think if we had to do it agains, we would have rented a high hp tractor temporarily instead.

A 4960 is 225 hp, we had two of them in later years.A 4850 or 4955 would work well, sticking with John Deere.


----------



## MT hayer

Boy I bet that was tough on a 4450! Those would be big tracks to fill. The 4960 and older are all the 466 engine. Still really not big enough I feel to hold together for a lot of high hp hours. The newer 8k series would be better because of the 8.1? We will see. I have a few auctions coming up with the bigger Deere tractors.


----------



## aawhite

Yeh, the 4450 was not a happy tractor! I wouldn't be afraid of the 466 in as 4955 or 4960. We ran ours plenty hard, pulling big tillage equipment and heavy Knight manure spreaders. Never had any issues, just keep up on maintenance schedule. One left the farm at just under 8,000 hrs, and both were running strong. Beware of a 4955/4960 that had the injector pump turned up. Some of those were set to turn around 250 hp, and those will be the ones that come apart with fewer hours.

The 466 is a solid engine. Our 4440 left the farm with over 10,000 hrs, never touched, turned up to 170 hp. The 4450 left with over 7,000 hrs, never touched, turned up to 175 hp. The 4960's were both left at factory hp rating..


----------



## MT hayer

Yes I can imagine issues would happen. it is the same thing with trucks. A person still has to look them over well to see if they have been tinkered with. Did you guys go to the 8k series then White? They are a long tractor and a bigger cab. Not really loader tractors like the older ones though.


----------



## aawhite

No, we continued to pull with our JD 6030 turning about 230 hp (that was the heaviest 2wd tractor Deere made until the 8400, but was also pretty short wheel base, so it maneuvered well, the 6030 barely noticed it) then traded the chopper for 5820 sp and 6 row Kemper head. We completely rebuilt and repainted the chopper, added a kernal processor, looked brand new. We had looked at a 6000 series chopper, but we were doing more silage bales, so decided against it.


----------



## Gearclash

> We had looked at a 6000 series chopper, but we were doing more silage bales, so decided against it


That spared you from learning a whole new vocabulary of cuss words. The 6000 series Deeres like to plug, after the cutter head. Have to crawl under the machine to clean it out, so I'm told. In alfalfa they plug because alfalfa is tough to blow, in corn they would plug if the processor roll points were getting blunt.


----------



## Bgriffin856

Use a 3950 with the 7405 here used to have two worn out NH 770's behind the IH 856. Did use the 770 on the 7405 when we bought it. Then bought our 3950 from a guy we knew that used to do custom work till everyone went big and to self propelled. We thought we died and went to heaven compared to the 770. He wore out one unit kept the heads and got another 3950 put less than 50 acres of corn through it and parked it as no one hired him. So he sold it to us. So we have a new chopper with a corn head that has worn out gathering chains. Pick up head is in good shape. I love the 3950 for the serviceability and it makes a consistent length of cut. Not to mention ease of changing heads new Holland will have you reinventing the dictionary. If you can get a fixer upper there isn't much to them that a mechnically inclined individual couldn't fix


----------



## MT hayer

Hah! I see Griffin! That 770 was a lot smaller machine then the 3950? I have been out stirring hay ground so I haven't had a chance to study the papers to see what is close. I did miss an older NH last week, but I had other things going. Do you chop into a dump wagon?


----------



## Bgriffin856

Use three self unloading wagons. Have some chopping pictures from last year on my photobucket you can check out. Not sure if the 770 was smaller or not. I have heard several guys say new Holland choppers are faster than deere. We never pushed either to the limits so i have no clue on that claim


----------

