Chaff saver

[Bruce14]

Has anyone has used a Redekopp chaff saver? What kind of combine and their experiences with them. We have a NH TX36 and are considering adding one to it.

[leland]

We have had a Redekop chaff saver for several years. It drops the chaff on top of the straw swath to be picked up in the bale. We have feed tested straw with protein levels as high as 8.2%. As far as we are concerned if you own cows and a combine it is a must have. It has also been trouble free. The bigger the straw swath the better and you may want to choke down the back of the combine to give as large a swath as possible for the chaff to lay on especially in dry years.

[kens]

We have used a Redekop chopper on our CIH 1680 for 5 years and find it very good at saving both straw and chaff. we had saved chaff for 20 years before that by just attaching a Rem chaff blower to the combine. We have a chute (available from Redekop) that bolts on in place of the chopper fins which will blow the straw and chaff into to a chaff wagon that is pulled behind the combine. A shaft monitor on the chopper rotor lets us know if something goes wrong. We use an electric winch to dump the wagon. The so-called free feed is well worth the extra work that this system requires. The chaff bunches are then picked up out of the field with a front-end loader and hauled to a feedyard. Leaving them in the field does not work for us as the cows waste too much, spreading the leftovers next spring is time consuming and does not work very well in a no-till system. We usually collect chaff on about 500 acres and this supplies us with enough supplimental feed for 150 cows. We also straight-cut alot of our crops so we can vary the amount of straw we save to a certain degree. Chaff from canola, peas, wheat, barley and oats are saved and all mixed together when hauled. Some cows when fed silage and/or hay during the winter will leave that feed and go directly to the chaff bunk to eat and then go back to the other later in the day. This is a system that has saved us many dollars over the years, especially when feed supplies are short and very expensive in a year such as this.