MENSCHEN TITLE THEME
MENSCHEN TITLE THEME Setting-up machinery PERFECT CHOPPING PAYS The silage harvester is the key machine in forage feed production. Optimal quality thus depends on correct adjustments. Krone product specialist Daniel Büter identifies the most important “fine tuning screws”. The “perfect cut” from a silage harvester has, in the first instance, nothing to do with chop length, although this does form the basis for good chop quality. This is the point of view emphasised by Daniel Büter, product specialist for Krone silage harvesters. “Each customer decides Daniel Büter, Krone product specialist for silage harvesters. for her or himself over chop length. After all, each have their own good reasons why they want their forage chopped shorter or longer. For the quality of the chop and its subsequent processing, other adjustments are responsible.” In the beginning, there is the requirement for uniform crop throughflow by which stalks and cobs have to be presented lengthwise to the chopper drum. Hereby, correct adjustment of header rpm to match intake rpm is important, continues Daniel Büter. A uniform transfer from header to intake can be steplessly adjusted by the operator in the cab because, with the Krone BiG X, the header, as well as the intake, are hydraulically driven as standard and can thus be easily adjusted in turn. “An example: if the header runs too fast in relationship to the intake, the intake channel can jam full pushing stalks criss-cross, so that clean chopping at the cutter drum is impossible.” TIMELY ADJUSTMENTS Apropos cutter drum: central and important adjustments, e.g., correct sharpening cycles and clearance between counter blade and cutter drum knives, can also be dealt with in this in this way. Here is the most sensitive section of the route followed by the forage crop through the harvester, explains the product specialist. “In the past, knives were normally sharpened once daily, in most cases very intensively. From today’s point of view, it’s preferable to distribute several sharpening cycles throughout the working day so that the gaps between sharpenings are shorter thus ensuring continuously good cutting quality.” Not to be forgotten hereby, he adds, is counterblade adjustment. “It is 18 19
