MENSCHEN INSIGHT Chop
MENSCHEN INSIGHT Chop lengths with forage maize SHORT, LONG, LONGER What’s the best chop length for maize? And above all: which technique should be used for chopping and conditioning? Whatever you want, short, long or longer: Krone harvesters are prepared to meet all wishes. 40
Corn-conditioner and VariLOC as knife drum transmission are important modules for optimum feed conditioning in the forage flow. It’s really amazing to observe the intensity of discussions over the so-called chop length for maize throughout the branch over the last months. Hereby, there’s no such thing as a “correct” chop length. Whether the maize is to be used for a biogas production, or for everyday cattle feeding, for instance in beef production, or as long chop with intensive conditioning for dairy cows: each application requires a certain chop length. “Every farmer decides for him or herself what’s optimum for an enterprise. In any case, our silage harvesters are technically prepared and adjustable for all requirements between 2.0 mm and 42 mm. For this, no special set-up is required”, emphasizes Henrik Feldmann, manager of product marketing with Krone. The Corn-conditioner represents the next phase in feed conditioning and this, too, offers a range of very different settings with related adjustment possibilities to meet customers’ wishes. With differing teeth numbers, rpm ranges and steplessly adjustable gap widths, this allows intensive feed conditioning to be achieved in short and long chop. In the product range are roller, as well as disc, conditioners. “Especially the disc conditioner is an all-rounder for all chop lengths and with applications for maize, with highest conditioning performance.” A real plus in flexibility in his opinion is, however, the VariLOC transmission in the knife drum belt pulley. With the help of this, it is possible within just a few minutes of spanner work, to alter drum rpm from 1,250 to 800. “Through this action you can increase the chop length range by up to 53 % with the MaxFlow knife drum with 28 and 36 knives. Therefore, it’s possible to change from short to long chop, or vice versa, rapidly In short: biogas in the mornings and long chop afternoons. And all this with a single machine”, concludes Henrik Feldmann. With the BiG X, the three proverbial adjustment screws for setting the wished-for chop length and the conditioning intensity are knife drum, Corn-conditioner and the pulley transmission VariLOC, the last only available from Krone. Even the knife drum on its own offers more than a half-dozen options. These include both basic types of drum (“MaxFlow” with 20, 28 or 36 knives and “Biogas” with 40 and 48 knives), in the variants with 28, 36 and 40 knives, the number of knives can additionally be halved with relatively limited adjustment effort, according to the marketing expert. Model MaxFlow 20 MaxFlow 28 MaxFlow 28 ½ MaxFlow 36 MaxFlow 36 ½ Biogas 40 Biogas 40 ½ Biogas Conventional forage Long-chop silage Biogas 48 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Length of cut (mm) With different equipment options, Krone forage harvesters offer best possibilities for all chop lengths between 2.0 and 42 mm. 41
