Changing over to a self-propelled diet feeder system benefits both cows and farmers

These were the messages at a demonstration day for Strautmann self-propelled diet feeders, held at Harper Adams University. Independent nutritionist Hefin Richards outlined the importance of delivering consistent rations to the herd. OPICO’s James Woolway presented the economic benefits of adopting a self-propelled feeding system through OPICO’s unique contract hire package.

Mr Richards said that between the nutritionist’s formulation and what the cow actually eats, there are three key areas for error: the mixer, the operator, and the cow, e.g. sorting.

“Feeding cattle is a high value task. The person doing the feeding needs to be trained and to appreciate the importance of accurately following the TMR formulation,” said Mr Richards.

He cited time pressure, especially when collecting forages for the mixer, as one of the key factors behind inconsistent TMR mixes.

Mr Woolway explained that one of the benefits of using a self-propelled diet feeder was that it enabled the operator to easily collect exactly the right amount of feed ingredients and forages. There was no need to shuttle several times between clamp face and feed mixer. Instead, the self-propelled machine is driven to the clamp face where the correct amount of forage can be collected by the milling head and fed onto the loading elevator to enter the mixing tub, already well-broken up and soon mixed in.

Silage quality varied across a clamp face due to weather conditions at harvest. Dry matter contents can vary by as much as 10 per cent, with consequent big differences in energy and fibre contents, and nutritional quality.

Later, attendees saw how the milling head of the self-propelled feeder reduces this variability as silage is collected evenly from the top down to the bottom of the clamp. This mode of action also reduces wastage at the clamp face.

The most obvious saving of a self-propelled diet feeder is that only one machine is needed instead of three: a telehandler, tractor and trailed feeder.

However, Mr Woolway explained there are also savings in mixing time, which impact on labour and fuel costs. And with no shuttling back and forth for loads, there is less distance covered and less wear and tear on machinery and tyres too.

The actual cost of mixing and feeding rations is rarely calculated on farms, and every farm situation will be different.

He showed how one single site 720-cow dairy herd stands to make a saving of around £19,000/year by replacing its current system for a self-propelled diet feeder on OPICO’s contract hire package – this effectively gives farmers a fixed cost for feeding over a three four or five-year term.

This calculation took into account the capital costs of tractor, trailed feeder and telescopic handler, and annual costs of servicing and depreciation. These costs were already covered by the monthly hire and service charge for the self-propelled feeder.

By switching to a Strautmann self-propelled diet feeder, the time spent mixing/feeding time would fall from seven to five hours/day. Fuel usage would be almost halved, and through the reduction in time spent mixing and feeding out, around £10,000 could be saved in labour cost.

Overall, the annual cost of the farm’s current trailed system was around £97,000. Moving over to a self-propelled system would cost around £78,000/year plus would bring the nutritional benefits of more accurate and consistent rations leading to better cow health, and improved milk yield.