Vertical mixers

[strawking]

Does anyone have a vertical mixer? What kind do you have and how do you use it? Bales or ground hay and how fast does it process and mix bales?

 

[rancherfred]

We have a Knight 5055. I have been able to mix up to about 9000lbs in it depending on what the feed material you are using is. We typically grind a couple of big round or big square bales and then put in some silage and corn. The mixing time really depends on how hard the bales are, a general rule of thumb would probably be 20 to 30 minutes to get it loaded and another five or 10 to get it thoroughly mixed. This wagon has a gear box on the bottom that drives two enormous bull gears that spin the two augers. It has required very little maintenance over the last ten years that we have had it. Occasionally we have to replace knives and weld on new material lifters on the leading edge of the augers. I have also replaced the chain on the conveyor once.

 

[cure]

We have a schular feed wagon that has been very dependable we use it everyday to feed the dairy cows and some young stock. Like rancherfred said it depends on the feed we have a mix of straw and grass hay that takes about an half hour to grid up so the cows dont sort to much but when it comes to alfalfa you can grid it up in a hurry. I think knight and schular are very good wagons the only reason we went with schular because it was cheaper at the time we bought about ten years ago.