2018 - Volume #42, Issue #3, Page #23
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Flail Chopper Processes Beets For Cow Feed
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“I found an old flail chopper sitting in the weeds at the neighbors, so a friend and I spent a couple hours welding patches on a few holes and adding a silo-filling hood on the back. It works fine, probably better than a slinger manure spreader that would’ve cost $2,000 or more.”
To use the machine, Greshner makes a 3-ft. wide windrow of beets about 12 in. deep on a cement pad. He drives over them with the flail running and says the chopped beets come flying out the spout in a nice even windrow.
“The flail doesn’t produce the same consistency as the processed beets I bought from North Dakota, but the cows still chew them up real well,” Greshner says. He scoops them up with his skid steer, mixes in other ingredients recommended by his nutritionist, and feeds his cows twice a day. Each cow gets about 20 lbs. of beets a day.
“When I feed beets, I get 8 to 10 lbs. more milk per day per cow, and the butterfat test jumps from 4.6 to about 5.3. I ordered more this year from a fellow who grows them on his potato farm and has the equipment to dig them. I pay about the same as I would to buy shelled corn and get better production, so I think it’s worthwhile.”
Greshner says he knows the cows really like the feed because as soon as he starts the tractor and the flail, they start running to the pad like kids getting free candy.
“I’ve got $200 and a few hours of work invested in the chopper, so I think it’s definitely paid for itself,” says Greshner. “I think a person could also mount a flail on the front of a skid steer.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom Greshner, 4286 W. Brock Road, Owen, Wis. 54460 (ph 715-229-4490; cherigmumzie@hotmail.com).
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