I grow Napier/elephant grass for my cows.

 

The problem is that the stems grow very thick and hard, and we have to soften them manually before feeding them to the cows.

 

I know that there are machines to do that work, as one of our neighbor has one, but I have not been impressed with his 6,000 baht machine that takes only a few stems at once, and needs to be constantly cleaned because pieces of chopped leaves tend to stick everywhere.

 

Can anyone recommend a good and affordable grass chopping machine?

 

Your input is welcome.

Reported troll remark removed.

We use 1 bought from NPT, works fine, chops about 12 or more at once, never needs cleaning/ unblocking.

We have used it for nearly 3 years, i think it cost around 11.000 baht.

 

A decent petrol driven strimmer with rotary disk will make short work of it. I know, I have one. just sweep side to side , easy work but time consuming and of course very hot right now.

 

I would hire someone to come do it. Moo baan will have both man and machine.

7 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

A decent petrol driven strimmer with rotary disk will make short work f it. I know, I have one. just sweep side to side , easy work but time consuming and o course very hot right now.

 

I would hire someone to come do it. Moo banh will have both man and machine.

No use for Napier grass Charlie, what the OP means is finely chopping the Napier stems for the cows to eat.

I chop Napier daily with ours, after my wife has cut the stems and brought them in the shed.

Phone number is 064 548 8889

6 minutes ago, colinneil said:

No use for Napier grass Charlie, what the OP means is finely chopping the Napier stems for the cows to eat.

I chop Napier daily with ours, after my wife has cut the stems and brought them in the shed.

Always happy to live n learn Colin, thanks, just looked up some images ????

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

We use 1 bought from NPT, works fine, chops about 12 or more at once, never needs cleaning/ unblocking.

We have used it for nearly 3 years, i think it cost around 11.000 baht.

 

Thanks for that info.

 

Is NPT a brand?

 

Where can I buy this machine?

44 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

Thanks for that info.

 

Is NPT a brand?

 

Where can I buy this machine?

Look at my post 5, it gives you the phone number for NPT, better ask a Thai to phone their English not good

.They will deliver to most places.

Very viable info on this thread. We have at least 6 gasoline units operating on my wife project. Imho stay away from the electric as they are s-h-y-t.  You need a Thai partner for contact.  

 

 

16 hours ago, colinneil said:

Look at my post 5, it gives you the phone number for NPT, better ask a Thai to phone their English not good

.They will deliver to most places.

Many thanks.

Try patipon.com, they make choppers ,they have some videos on YouTube ,but they are in Pattomtaine ,just north of Bangkok, they could well provide shipping .

The photo I took at they stand at the Thai dairy show ,I think this one was 34000? it has a Chines  petrol engine.

But if your Nappier grass has hard thick stems it is well past its best ,in feed value terms ,cattle will have work hard to digest it, using a lot of energy in the process , Nappier at its best should be cut at 45-55 days old  ,then it is still relatively soft stems and should not require chopping ,and the protein value will be higher.

An off topic 'smart alec' troll post using a copyright picture has been removed

3 hours ago, kickstart said:

Try patipon.com, they make choppers ,they have some videos on YouTube ,but they are in Pattomtaine ,just north of Bangkok, they could well provide shipping .

The photo I took at they stand at the Thai dairy show ,I think this one was 34000? it has a Chines  petrol engine.

But if your Nappier grass has hard thick stems it is well past its best ,in feed value terms ,cattle will have work hard to digest it, using a lot of energy in the process , Nappier at its best should be cut at 45-55 days old  ,then it is still relatively soft stems and should not require chopping ,and the protein value will be higher.

You are right...the problem is that the grass grows faster than I can cut it.

 

If I want a constant supply, I need to grow a relatively large acreage, but then by the time I arrive to cut a new area, some have already grown big stems...not all because it is not regular, but maybe 30%...

5 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

You are right...the problem is that the grass grows faster than I can cut it.

 

If I want a constant supply, I need to grow a relatively large acreage, but then by the time I arrive to cut a new area, some have already grown big stems...not all because it is not regular, but maybe 30%...

We have the same problem, at the moment the Napier is growing very fast.

This morning my wife cut some, i fed it straight to the cows, they ate approx 90%, left several stems.

I have just shredded them, mixed with a bit of ram, cows are getting stuck into that now.

50 minutes ago, colinneil said:

We have the same problem, at the moment the Napier is growing very fast.

This morning my wife cut some, i fed it straight to the cows, they ate approx 90%, left several stems.

I have just shredded them, mixed with a bit of ram, cows are getting stuck into that now.

I think it is because we had no rain for months, and now we get some and nature somehow wakes up.

 

The grass density has more than doubled in a couple of weeks, to the point that I don't know where to cut now...and not long ago I had to carefully select where I could cut.

 

We have doubled the quantity we feed daily to the cows, who enjoy it a lot...you should see them galloping back, literally, to their barn in the late afternoon...

Slightly off topic does anyone know where  I can get a corn mill, I want to mill corn/soy beans/ground nuts to make pellets for fowl fish food. Whe asked previous all replies said "dont need to feed as is" cheers

3 minutes ago, gwynt said:

Slightly off topic does anyone know where  I can get a corn mill, I want to mill corn/soy beans/ground nuts to make pellets for fowl fish food. Whe asked previous all replies said "dont need to feed as is" cheers

Read my post number 5 , N.P.T. have what you want.

Any grass that needs to be chopped it either the wrong kind of grass or too old and stemmy.

 

Grow a softer grass that does not need to be chopped. Plenty of seeds of various species on the market. 

36 minutes ago, Michael Hare said:

Any grass that needs to be chopped it either the wrong kind of grass or too old and stemmy.

 

Grow a softer grass that does not need to be chopped. Plenty of seeds of various species on the market. 

Makes you wonder why grass chopping machines are manufactured...

 

Never mind the quality of the stem, my cows eat better when the grass is chopped than if I simply feed them the long (up to 2 meter high) pieces of Napier grass.

 

In the latter case, they tend to eat only some parts, while furiously shaking their heads left and right to separate one piece from another, and it all ends up with significant losses.

 

On the other hand, when the grass is chopped, they eat every last bit of it.

48 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

Makes you wonder why grass chopping machines are manufactured...

 

Never mind the quality of the stem, my cows eat better when the grass is chopped than if I simply feed them the long (up to 2 meter high) pieces of Napier grass.

 

In the latter case, they tend to eat only some parts, while furiously shaking their heads left and right to separate one piece from another, and it all ends up with significant losses.

 

On the other hand, when the grass is chopped, they eat every last bit of it.

Of course, Napier grass must be chopped before the cows will eat it. That is because it is not a good quality grass. Good quality grasses do not need to be chopped.

On 4/24/2020 at 8:32 AM, colinneil said:

Read my post number 5 , N.P.T. have what you want.

Thanks I  will check them out

 

Gwynt

2 hours ago, gwynt said:

Thanks I  will check them out

 

Gwynt

I actually bought this machine last week... works fine and saves us more than an hour of chopping by hand...