Silage and the family Stone: meet the family harvesting team from Laois

John Stone agri and plant have been at the silage game since 1980, when John started out with a Taarup double chop and a Zetor 6718. At the time, the whole outfit cost an eye-watering IR£6,200.

John carried on with the double-chop system until 1995 when he started his connection with JF harvesters which continues to this day.

His first machine was an 850 warrior driven by a four-cylinder Massey 390. This was followed by a 900 with a 399 Massey with six cylinders. During the life of this harvester, John moved tractor brand from Massey to Deutz in 2000. He has carried on with the green machines ever since.

Step up

In 2004, John moved to a 1000 series harvester with a 1050, which was a major step up from the 900 which preceded it. He carried on with the 1050 until 2015 when a JF Stoll 1060 Pro Tec was bought. This was another major step forward.

Of the acreage that John cut during the season, over 200ac is for his own herd of 140 cattle and for sale to other farmers in the locality and as far afield as Johnstown in Kilkenny.

With the current fodder crisis, John has noticed a certain amount of added stress levels among his regular customers over the last few weeks. He has run out of his own silage but is attempting to source silage elsewhere for his customers.

Family operation

The Stone operation is nearly a completely family-run operation, with four family members and one member of staff involved when things get busy. John himself mans the harvester, which is driven by a 2016 Deutz 6210. He says it delivers enough power to the JF to handle 20ft of first cut and occasionally 30ft of second cut.

The Stones at work with their JF harvester and Deutz tractors.

They have tried to put 30ft of first cut through the outfit, but progress is too slow and you run the risk of major blockages.

The grass is all mowed with a set of front and rear Krone mowers, a F320 CV on the front and an easy cut 3201 CV on the back. John finds that this gives him plenty of output to stay ahead of the harvester.

The grass is mowed with a set of front and back Krone mowers.

The grass is mowed with a set of front and back Krone mowers.

The mower is driven by John’s son Ben, who is full-time in the business. Ben also doubles up as the rake man. Raking is done with a Krone Swadro 800, which gives them the ability to vary the width of the rank for the harvester depending on the condition of the grass.

Once the grass is rowed up and ready to go, the rest of the clan get going with the tractors and trailers being driven by John’s wife Annabel and daughter Jessica.

Smyth trailers

The family’s 18ft Smyth trailers were originally bought in 2000 but have both been upgraded to flotation tyres and given a serious overhaul over the past few seasons.

Once the silage is in the trailers and off to the yard there is a 2009 JCB 412 s on pit duty. The only non-family member of the operation is on the pit – Blaine O’Connor. Blaine has been working with the Stones on and off for the last six years.

John believes that the quality of silage that he delivers to his customers is very good and the fact that it is cut with the JF means it is well chopped and is pitted at a sensible speed, allowing it to be rolled and consolidated correctly.

Jf Harvester and Smyth trailer

Jf Harvester and Smyth trailer.

John’s current harvester cost him around €25,000, which at the time was about 10% of the price of a self-propelled machine. For the sort of acreage and the market that John is selling into and doing work for, it make more sense than the bigger machines.

On the contracting side, John has customers ranging from 80 acres per cut to one which is 12 acres in total. He prides himself on doing it correctly and as timely as possible.

On the tractor front, along with the 6210 there is a 2016 6160 and a recently purchased 2014 6180 TTV with CVT gearbox. The CVT machine replaced a long-serving Lamborghini.

John also spreads slurry with an impressive New Hipsec 3000 gallon tanker with dribble bar.

Plant hire

Outside the silage season, John is involved in plant hire. Most of his work in recent times has been installing cow roads on the ever-increasing number of dairy units popping up over the countryside.

For the past few years, John has been doing a lot of hedge-cutting with his Volvo 140 digger. He has a saw and a flail head for the machine and finds that it does very good work on stronger hedges and does very little damage on the ground when conditions are borderline.

John on occasion has used his Volvo 140 excavator on the pit.

Over the years, the 140 has been put to work on the silage pit during the busy time.

John’s business is based on giving the customer what they want and when they want it and he finds on the silage end the JF trailed machine allows him to make enough quality silage for himself and his customers without the expense of a self-propelled machine.

He says they can easily pick up 60 acres in a day with the trailed machine.

Having most of the staff required for the silage season under one roof allows them to be very flexible for their customers.

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