Silage
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PAGE 6 | Environmental
12-page feature
Durability wins the day
The Krone rake that Bart van Ruiswyk uses during the silage season.
Undera’s Bart van Ruiswyk has been using Krone silage machinery for nearly 25 years Having owned Krone machinery for nearly a quarter of a century, Undera’s Bart van Ruiswyk says he would not have it any other way. Mr van Ruiswyk, who milks between 450 and 500 Friesian and Friesian/Jersey cross cows, explained why Krone was the machinery for him. ‘‘It’s good, well-built, durable machinery and it doesn’t shatter into bits,’’ he said. ‘‘The rake has an electric height control on the rotors which are controlled by in-cab controls and the mowers have hydraulic oats.
‘‘It does a clean cut and raking — you don’t want to leave too much. ‘‘It’s like if you’re mowing the lawn and it leaves half there — you better get a new mower or sharpen the blades.’’ To keep his machinery up-to-standard, Mr van Ruiswyk said he traded it regularly. ‘‘We get rid of our mowers every four years,’’ he said. ‘‘Not so much the tedder because we don’t use that as much.’’
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Mr van Ruiswyk said he would cut between 242ha and 404ha of hay and silage a year, depending on the season. ‘‘We have a lot of silage on hand at the moment. There’s a fair bit of reserve around, which is handy. ‘‘Our normal start is late September/early October because of the heavy ground we have here, but it depends on the weather. ‘‘In the drought years, we did silage in August. You had to or there was nothing left.’’
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