Chopping Wheat Straw with Zimmerman Family Harvesting | Wheat Harvest 2024

Chopping Wheat Straw with Zimmerman Family Harvesting | Wheat Harvest 2024

In this video I am out at an Indiana Dairy Farm that is having their wheat straw chopped and bagged after it has been harvested for the grain. The straw is used in the farms feed rations as a filler for certain groups of cattle.

In the video you will see Zimmermans custom chopping with their Claas Jaguar 990 self propelled forage harvester and hauling the straw with several of their JCB Fastrac Tractors and custom built triple & quad axle dump carts. I also head over the the farm as they unload and bag the straw. Later in the video I catch up to a John Deere S680 combine with a 40 foot wide draper head harvesting the wheat and windrowing the straw for the chopper.

Also in the video is a Case IH (Steiger) 470 tractor with LSW tires pulling a Demco 850 Grain Cart running beside the combine. I also got a little bit of footage of a Case IH 8920 tractor pulling a GEA 6000 manure tanker.

This is the first time I have ever done a video of someone chopping wheat straw with a self propelled forage harvester. I have done some corn silage and triticale chopping videos with Zimmermans in the past.

Thanks for watching and feel free to Like, Comment and Subscribe.

[joostvangiersbergen]

I’ve filtered through the comments and pondered this. By the time you pay a baler and haul the straw I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re close to the same cost. This is a one and done. Baling then hauling straw and tub grinding is a lot more work. Very interesting.

[WesternFarms]

im from the uk very glad to see JCB tractor one of the fastest in the world go BRITAIN!

[rtcfrtcdana]

You are still doing it! I was just watching an oldie, 8 years ago near Redstone, MT. Hope you make it up here to see how GREEN we are in September. It's amazing. Have fun & keep up the good work. Thanks a lot.

[markreetz]

Seeing that new equipment running up narrow gravel roads reminds me of growing up and seeing tractors and equipment going by our house. We had a farm but nothing like some of the neighbors! The more things change, the more they stay the same! Thanks Mike!

[renato]

Greetings from Slovenia!

My brother also cuts straw with a forage harvester, but he throws it directly from the harvester into a baler for large square bales, which is driven by a tractor and drives next to the harvester just like in this video tractor with trailer. This chopped straw is used by local farmers when raising chickens for bedding. The Claas "quadrant fine cut" baler cuts the straw quite well, but never as finely and evenly as the silage harvester does. He cuts it with a harvester to a maximum of 20 mm (less than one inch). Although the price of the service is slightly higher, more and more poultry farmers choose such cut and baled straw for the reason that raising chickens is much easier and they no longer have problems with paw prints. Also, they use a smaller amount of this straw for bedding than before when they did not use this chopped straw.

It is interesting, however, that the finely chopped straw in the bale is held together by only six strings. When they first saw this bale, no one believed it was possible. Otherwise, it is necessary to set the baler much differently than usual, but the brother is a real genius when it comes to such things. But the most interesting thing is where the straw gets into the baler. He made a funnel in front of the headstock and the straw falls past the cardan shaft to the collecting device on the baler. The only shame is that he doesn't have any footage to show you. As far as I know, there are videos on YouTube of farmers from the Netherlands and Austria, who also make such bales.

My brother also wants to be able to drive and tow the baler directly with the combine itself. Otherwise, there are solutions with the help of hydraulics, but none of them guarantee that the thing will work for a long time, mainly due to the oscillation of the baler during the operation of the compression piston, since this oscillation constantly causes oscillation of the engine revolutions, which is not good for the combine in any way.

Maybe the brother manages to solve these problems as well. But I will definitely post a video of his grounding next season.

[sandrodalazem]

Thanks Excellent videos long HARVEST MIKE

[MachineryMastery-bo]

This is pure entertainment, loved it!

[windmillfarms]

First time seeing a big chopper do wheat straw like this
Thanks for sharing Mike

[Lythingaharvest]

You have an incredible knack for creating entertaining content. This video was superb!

[chadshafer]

This is a Great Video. Like to see the European Equipment. Dont get to see these everyday.

[SimonKL]

It's pretty cool to see someone chopping straw😉👍 thanks for the long video👍👍

[jeffreyhoover]

Thanks mike for another great video.i have to say I never saw wheat straw chopped and put into and ag bag before . Mike did this farm say if that straw fermented to a certain degree or does it stay dry inside the bag I am very curious how it smells coming out when they use it in the cows ration for a filler if smells on the order of haylage when and if it ferments inside the 🎒

[precisionenginepower]

When I watch these videos, I remember my late colleague. He passed away in a work accident.

[Bowhuntersgoxzx]

Pretty wild field with a lot of character to it (humps, valleys, drainages, etc) ! As others said first time seeing wheat straw run through a chopper like this ! Thanks Mike !

[joelg]

Those JCBs are the ones that can reach highway speeds or close to it? Looks of cool machines here! Great video!

[markrskinner]

Here in the UK, barley straw is sometimes used as feed. But I've never heard of anyone using wheat straw.

[kennethbiggs]

Is this the same Claas unit with different head the same as a corn silage chopper??

[rightsideofthegrass]

If I understood you correctly, did these people build these haul trailers? I'm not sure that I have seen a trailer used in this way that has a false end gate. This seems to be unique to their design and how they chose to build it. This eliminates needing the steep dump angle. Can they be used as a full fledged dump trailer with high and steep dumping? Or is the dump height limited?

[sylvanpeachey]

You should come video shaum family farms. They’re from Indiana as well. They know Zimmerman’s

[Twidile]

Good crop of wheat. it will all be down to the slurry .