Chaff cutter

[BHW]

Anybody know where I might be able to purchase a Chaff Cutter something like the attached.

Chaff ctter.tif

[colinneil]

BHW show a photo of what you want, download wont open.

[Crossy]

Here we are.

 

[BHW]

I'll try, me old bugger not with today's way of life.

Chaff ctter.tif

[kickstart]

They are a few threads running on TV about chipper shredders look at past posts, patipong.com, they sell them, they are in Patomthaine, North of Bangkok, they also have a youtube video so you can see one working.

If you are chopping some bigger stuff ie nappier grass get one with a petrol motor or best a PTO driven one if you have a tractor.

Have seen electric motors being used to drive them they make hard work of chopping big stuff and are slow, and when the blades are not so sharp not a good chop.   

[colinneil]

BHW you can get 1 from NPT, they sell them for 11.999 baht, they deliver all over Thailand.

064 548 8889

[khwaibah]

My wife bought a unit from Udon very much as in the photo. They delivered by truck some 200 km to Kap Choeng. This was about 10 months back has used it 2 times as it sets collecting rust. Cost was only 6000 baht and still a waste of money. Believe kickstart eval in post 5. They use a gasoline operated unit that is far superior and up to the task. That unit will set you back 30K.

[khwaibah]

Photos of the two kinds of chaff cutters. The blue one was 6K delivered and is electric. IMO useless.

 

 

This other one is gasoline it is used on an average of 4 hours per day 7 days a week. Cost new is about 30k.

This unit was given to the operation by the DLD and as TIMEX in their commercial..takes a licking but keeps on ticking.????

 

Both of the above units can found in local feed and farming equipment stores.

[kickstart]

The first chopper is our one, powered by the tractor PTO, we have had it 12 years ,over the past 5 it has had a lot of use, chopping Nappier grass for silage ,never a problem had to replace the belts ,and last year I replaced the two bearings that drive the knifes, it will block up if the grass is to wet, cost us 20 000 baht  

Made by a local family engineering firm.

I got a PTO driven one I could  not see the point of buying a petrol engine when we had the tractor 

The second one at our local shop a fair tool underpowered with the electric motor, it is 34 000baht with the electric motor and 27 000 baht without, a 7hp Honda engine is about 7500-8000 baht a  better option.

Or, for a few thousand baht conversion to PTO would work well, they normally have another one in about 25 000 baht, popular in this area again with a petrol engine on would work well.

I would say colinneil's 11,999 baht job alright for very light jobs but anything heavy the blades would suffer and it would be slow. 

[BHW]

Thanks for all the replies, we have a Napier cutter powered by 2 HP electric motor works very good, what we are looking for is a small machine that will cut rice straw into small pieces, it will only be about 1/3 of a bale each day then want to mix supplements, brewers waste yeast. rice bran & molasses / water mix, we have sufficient rusi & para grass but need to give the cows some dry food. Found it very hard to find the machine we want in Thailand, appears I'll have to go to either China or India to get it, price of the machine is about 12000 THB then have to add transport & import duties etc, the machine at Patitong is good but bigger than what we require.  

[kickstart]

I can see what you mean now, I have seen some very old chaff cutters on a few farms in this area, use to be used for chopping straw for buffaloes, most are passed they sell by date, the main problem is the unreplaceable knives have rusted out.

But do you need one, cost of buying then import taxes etc, not cheap?

And then they is your diet, a problem with DM dry matter, and DMI dry matter intake, DM is the water content of food ingredients. rice straw is 90% DM, or 90% feed 10% water. 

Molasses 75% DM

Brewers grains 28% DM

Rice bran 91%DM 

Young Rusi/Para grass 20-40% DM

Older Rusi/Para grass about  60% DM, and then it becomes very unpalatable. 

You can see they are a lot of water in the feed, which inhibits DMI, DMI is the amount  dry food  animal eats, feeds like brewers grains, and young grass has a low DM ,so cattle eat a lot of those foods, they are full up with water, not food, which will inhibit growth weight .also animals will eat less feed with a low  DM, again  it will inhibit growth weight .feed with a high DM cattle will eat more and should put on more weight.

But with fodder, rice straw  or old grass, cattle eat a lot and are full up but they can not get anything out of the feed being poor quality, it will inhibit DMI and  it will take a lot of digesting, in the form of cudding .cudding takes a lot of energy, and produces heat which takes a lot of displacing, energy, that should be used for weight gain. 

Also, you are mixing water with the molasses and rice bran? which again will inhibit DMI and slow growth rates down.

Rice straw is only 3-4 % protein, low energy and very little if any minerals and vitamins, but feeding a 1kg/head /day does help with rumen digestion.

So, you could mix all your feed ingredients, no water and fed it to the cattle, and then just put a quarter of a bale of straw in the corner of a feed trough, if cattle want to chew on some they will.

And cattle are buggers you mix a feed up and they will pick out the best bits, and leave the unpalatable bits, as you have found out, any  old rough grass in the feed mix cattle will not eat it,  you mix well-chopped rice straw cattle will eat it, as they have no choice ,and then you will have the DMI problem and slow growth rates.  

[BHW]

Hi kickstart

It is a problem feeding cattle ours are very fussy ( our doing ) to get them to eat rice straw have to add plenty of goodies a few times I've cut the straw up fine by hand too big a job mix all the stuff with it then most is gone in the morning, we have lots of rusi & para grass but need to give them some hay. Now we give them a mixture of 1 part bagged feed 2 parts brewers waste & 2 parts rice bran each morning, also about 3 times a week give then some hay with 1 part molasses & 3 part water. We have a 10 month young cow been off her mother for 5 months last month put on 23 KG so think we are doing something right. Today got a lead from China they have an agent in Ubon Ratchathani we are 110 k from there so will go & have a look next week.