Macerator vs circle C vs tedder and rotary rake

[Ron]

I am planning on seeding some land down to hay this year and am wondering if anybody has used this equipment and which works the best? Thanks for any input

[TJM]

It would all depend on what you want to do and the material you are handling. Personally, we use a discbine, lay the swath as wide as the tractor axles will allow, ( can be layed up to 10 feet but tramping occurs ) and depending on conditions and crop, either bale as is or v-rake 2-3 swaths together. The v-rake works so well. It fluffs up the swath, makes a perfect windrow of 2 or 3 lighter ones and is very forgiving to inexperienced operators. Can usually travel as fast as the ground conditions will allow as well. One disadvantage of combining swaths is if they get rained on they tend not to dry as well, but since the discbine arrived, we have put them back through it and solved this problem as well. Good luck.

[farmboy1]

Ron,
Good question. I am also curious as to significant differences between the macerator and the super-conditioner. I once spotted a paper on Univ. of Wisc. website discussing a research project on this topic, but when I went back to the site, I could no longer find the report.. I will be seeing Dan Unsersander (from UofWisc.) next week and will ask him about this topic and will let you know what I find out.

[farmboy1]

Oops. The name is Dan Undersander. Good case for proofreading before clicking "submit".

[farmboy1]

All right,
I talked to Dan Undersander this week and this is what I found out. First of all, there was no project on the macerator vs. the super- conditioner. There was a report on a study done on the difference in forage dry-down time between the super-conditioner from Circle-C and conventional methods. Their work found a roughly 4-5 hr. difference in favor of the super-conditioner. The main problem they had with the super-conditioner was that they found a bit of a problem with the rolls (which are air pressurized) pulling the material into them. I saw on another discussion list where someone else mentioned this problem and they got around it by putting crop lifters on all rotors of a disc mower instead of just the two outer ones. According to Undersander, Circle-C is addressing this problem by re-doing the rolls to put some aggressive grooves in them. I did ask him about maceration and he said that U. of Wisconsin had done some of the first work on a prototype machine. The results were impressive, but the throughput was limited because of the aggessive maceration. He belives that the commercial models are slightly less effective than the prototype in order to achieve more forage throughput per hour. I have no personal experience with either system but have heard and read some impressive results. These should be taken with a grain of salt unless you can actually observe the machines or talk to owners. Hope this helps.

[Ron]

Thanks Farmboy1 for the info, if these machines work they are well worth the money but I sure cant afford to buy one and not have it work. I was quoted 25,000 canadian for the macerator but untill I see one work in my area I think I will keep my wallet in my pocket. If anybody has seen these work in central alberta, Innisfail to Ponoka please share your experience. Thanks