Mayo farmer saving 60% on time and 20% on material with straw blower

Keith O’Boyle runs an autumn and spring calving herd of Holstein cows just outside Hollymount in Co Mayo. Just over a year ago, the farm’s full-time labour unit decided that he wanted to leave behind his career in dairy farming.

Keith immediately decided to streamline some of the daily tasks on the farm by investing in a mounted straw blower to fit onto his JCB TM320S.

Why VDMJ?

After weighing up his options, Keith came to the conclusion that a telehandler-mounted straw blower would suit his farm best. He felt that a trailed straw blower would be too cumbersome, while a three-point linkage mounted unit would take too long to put on and off the tractor.

Telehandler-mounted machine

With some awkward sheds with restricted access, he felt that the telehandler mounted machine offered more visibility, was much easier to manoeuvre in these situations and that it could be attached and detached much quicker than a tractor mounted model.

After going through the various brands available on the Irish market, Keith quickly came to the conclusion that the VDMJ was the machine for him for several reasons.

Firstly, he said it was lightweight, easy to use, and compact and secondly, local machinery dealer Kirrane Farm Machinery who is also the Irish importer for VDMJ is located only 10 minutes up the road.

After bedding one bale with the machine on a demonstration last year, Keith decided to buy the machine there and then.

First season

With one full season completed with the machine, Keith is very happy with how it has performed. He outlined that it has brought about huge time savings, some straw savings and helped to improve safety on the farm.

He explained: “I was always a fan of topping up the beds in the straw sheds little and often, but it was a very time-consuming task. Whenever we were bedding, we were probably over bedding and not getting full utilisation out of the straw."

“I find that we are topping up the straw beds more often, which means the cattle are healthier, and in doing so we are in fact using less straw. Take for example on a Sunday evening when your just finished milking and are doing a final check over the stock before finishing for the evening.

“Before, if there was a bed a little on the dirty side, it would probably have been left until the cows were milked the next day. “But with the straw blower, it’s an effortless task which you would have completed in a couple of minutes,” he said.

“With the straw blower, you don’t get any lumps, it’s an even distribution. I’d say I’ve noticed a 20% saving in straw. On a normal year with normal straw prices, this might not make much odds. But where straw prices have gone to now, getting more out of less straw all adds up.

“If we were to bed all the calf pens and the calving pens by hand, it would definitely take an hour and a half. The machine has definitely reduced the time we spend bedding cattle by 60-70%. It’s turned a slow task into something you would enjoy doing from the comfort of the cab. You don’t get covered in dust or chaff and there’s also a great safety aspect, we don’t ever have to leave the cab when bedding cattle”, explained Keith.

VDMJ is a Belgian-based manufacturer of attachments. The company offers four models of straw blowers (three linkage-mounted and one trailed).

Keith purchased a WSB-140Z, which is a mid-range mini straw blower that has been developed for small loaders, articulated loaders and skid steer loaders with a deadweight of above 2,300kg and a minimum oil flow rate of 50l/min.

Self-loaded

The machine can be self-loaded by pushing a bale up against a wall or other bales, or using a loader. Once loaded and the net/twine is removed, the hydraulically driven chain and slat conveyor floor is used to feed the bale towards the rotor. The floor speed can be adjusted accordingly via the loader’s hydraulics, while the conveyor can also be reversed if necessary.

The feed rotor is equipped with 13 double sided blades which are mounted on four discs. These blades are mounted at an angle on the discs and cut and feed the straw into the flywheel. The rotor feeds the straw to the flywheel which is fitted with six blowing paddles.

The WSB-140Z is equipped with a 300° rotating chute which VDMJ claims is capable of blowing straw up to 12m, depending on the oil flow. The deepest shed Keith uses the machine in is around 40ft, which he noted the machine is well capable of covering.

Independent flywheel

The flywheel is driven independently of the rotor, via a hydraulic motor. This allows for the feed rotor and floor to be hydraulically engaged or disengaged independently. As a result, the flywheel can be at full rpm before the rotor starts to feed in any material. This reduces the possibility of blocking the machine on startup.

Both square and round bales can be processed with the straw blower, but Keith’s preference are the 8x4x3 or 8x4x4 squares for a more consistent feed in of material in comparison to the round bales.

The WSB-140Z has a loading length of 1.4m, which can optionally be increased to 2.2m by means of a hydraulic front door at the front of the machine which is on Keith’s machine.

This door is opened and closed hydraulically from the cab, which makes the straw blower compact but still retains a large loading capacity. This was a factor that influenced Keith’s buying decision.

Controls

The WSB-140Z is controlled through an electronic control console that’s positioned in the loader cab.

The control box has three multifunctional control switches. The first engages the flywheel and the chain floor, the second controls the rear hydraulic door and the rotational direction of the chute and the third controls the height at which the chute blows.

“The control console is very easy to use. All the machine functions can be operated from the console without having to leave the tractor seat,” said Keith.

Verdict: ‘The machine will pay for itself within a few years’

“Reducing the daily workload, the straw savings and the safety element were the reasons we decided to make the investment in the straw blower,” said Keith O’Boyle (pictured). His verdict is that the machine has proved itself twice over.

“The only time we ever get any issues with the machine is occasionally in matted straw which is stuck together.

“If it blocks, it’s generally because it’s being fed into the flywheel too fast, meaning we need to turn down the oil flow. It can be a nuisance trying to clear it once it gets blocked, as you have to hand ball the straw out of the flywheel, over the rotor,” he said.

“But the more you get used to the machine you will learn to cut this out and we very rarely get blocked anymore.

“The time-saving element and the straw saving aspect mean the machine will pay for itself within a few years. Like our Bobman cubicle bedder, the straw blower has become an essential tool on the farm that we rely on. We are very happy with the investment”, concluded Keith.