A silage cutting frenzy enveloped the country earlier this week, as a veritable heatwave swept across the landscape.
Silage harvesters, self-loading wagons and balers were busy making silage in every corner of the country.
AgriLand came across this especially eye-catching silage outfit close to Moneygall – the spiritual home of former President of the US Barack Obama. The equipment pictured is owned by a large-scale livestock farmer.
While the equipment is mostly used to cut his own silage – quite of lot is needed for his herd – it also tackles some contracting work for neighbouring farmers.
Interestingly, the farmer owns seven Schuitemaker self-loading silage wagons; the largest of which is a three-axle Rapide 3000 model. This wagon, which is a rare sight in Ireland, was coupled to a beefy New Holland T8040 tractor (which is closely related to a Case IH MX Magnum of the same age).
From some angles, the tractor and wagon almost dwarfed the New Holland FX58 forage harvester running alongside.
The wagons are normally used in ‘self-load’ mode – picking up grass themselves rather than being side-filled from a harvester. However, the FX58 was a recent addition and it is being used for some jobs.
Notably, there was also a Volvo rigid lorry hauling grass away that day – because the ‘draw’ was quite lengthy.
At one point, there were up to 10 different trailers/wagons drawing away from the harvester. It took the slowest tractor close to an hour to get from the field back to the pit.
Thankfully, most of the farmer’s grass is much closer to the main yard.
There was also an interesting fleet of tractors working that day, including several New Holland models – from a very recent T7 Series unit back to an older, high-horsepower, Canadian-built 8970.
Included in the mix was a French-built Renault Ares 836RZ and, unusally, a Steyr 6190 CVT. The Steyr was owned by another farmer. Also helping out were some classic 2000 Series Massey Ferguson tractors – a 2620 and a 2680 (both 2WD).
The Steyr, underneath its striking red and white livery, is mechanically identical to a similar-age Case IH CVX 190 model – or, for that matter, a New Holland TVT 190. All variants were built in St. Valentin, Austria – the long-time home of Steyr and a now the site of a CNH (Case New Holland) factory.
