John Deere 7250 VS 7350?

[Brandon C.]

Besides the motor is there a size difference in these two machines? If not whats the point of buying the 7250 with the smaller motor? Im pretty sure one of you guys have a 7350 thats why im asking here.

Thanks

 

[durallymax]

We have a 7350. And if you would like to buy it, it will be for sale at the end of 2011.

The engine is not the only difference. The entire capacity of the machine is smaller. The cutterhead and the overall "throat" is smaller.

Its a fairly small chopper and IMO not worth buying. If you are gonna buy one you might as well step up to a 7350. Because a 7350 is the same as a 7450 but with less power. So adding a chip to it will bring it to the level of a 7450 and you will have a bigger chopper for less money.

personally I dont like the Deeres. Much more of a Claas and Krone fan, but the Deere is much cheaper than those two.

The nice thing about buying a Deere before a Claas is that Claas will give you one heck of a deal if you trade the deere in on a Claas if you get a new one. So if you have a 7350 and want to trade it on a new 940 they will get you the 940 for the same price as another new 7350. This is a one time deal, the next time you go to trade the Claas you will pay a higher price. This is the route we are taking.

 

[Brandon C.]

do you guys milk or beef cows that you feed the silage too, or do you just sell it? I want to shell corn to sell for most of my farming career, but would like to get into chopping too but is it worth spending 200k on a chopper to just feed your cows?

 

[durallymax]

We milk 700 cows, plus all of the dry cows, replacement heifers and steers.

Dairy farming is a little different than beef farming. In dairy you need very high quality feed. For beef, not so much.

We have a seperate LLC that we started that owns the 7350 Chopper, Oxbo 334 Merger, and two H&S wide bodies. The rest of the equipment is owned by one of the three farms invested in the LLC, and gets billed through the LLC. Our farm (700 milking), my uncles farm (450 milking) and my cousins farm (300 milking) are the ones invested in the LLC. That gives us a lot of animals to feed.

with forage you always seem to have a small window to get it done, so the quicker the better.

Our old setup was two FP240 new Holland choppers. We would fix them all year, and by the end of the year they would both be replaced because we would snap cutterheads, and break processor rolls. The FP240 is a great chopper, but we ran both of them with 300hp tractors on them and pushed them to the max.

So with $100,000 a year tied up in pull type choppers, it already made sense to go to a self propelled. Not to mention the self propelled uses 40% less fuel, and gets the crop put in the bunker in half the time. Which overall saves a lot of money in labor, fuel, equipment wear, and feed quality due to the fact that we can have a better chance of getting it in before bad weather.


Our 7350 with a 645B (15') pickup head and 686(6 row small drum) kemper head, was $330,000 new when we got it. It has quite a few options on it, IVLOC, Prodrive, Rear wheel assist, and many other small things. But overall $330,000 really isnt a lot to pay.

The Claas we were lookig at was $440,000 for a 940. Which is 6hp less than our deere, but is more efficient, and puts a lot more feed through it. Plus the parts and service are more readily available.

 

[dms4x4]

Back when we farmed (prior to 1986), we had 75 or 80 stock cows, and kept the calves a few months past weaning. We put up silage for a long time, then gradually gave it up and fed hay. Silage costs a lot to grow, and a lot to harvest and put up, and is not really easy to feed, but it does make excellent feed, especially if the corn or sorghum develops correctly. That tractor you have pictured looks like it should be more than enough to power a two or three row cutter. Look around and get yourself a dump trailer, and a good older used cutter, and you could be putting up all the silage you would want and not break the piggy bank.

 

[durallymax]

Yes. A used New Holland 900 chopper will make really good feed and not take a lot of power. Try to find one with a kernel processor, otherwise the kernels are not as digestable for the livestock. These can be picked up pretty cheap.

The Dump cat route is one way to go if you have a few trucks, but it is a slower process.

If you have another tractor or two, you can buy three wagons cheap, and just do it that way.

When it comes to forage harvesters you want the newest one you can buy, because the older they are the more they will break, and that is a fact. They break a lot.

 

[Brandon C.]

when the time comes i know were a 900 new holland sits. An its in pretty good shape i used it last year on my buddys farm, works good!

vinny do you combine aswell?

 

[durallymax]

yes we shell bout 1500 acres of corn between the farms. and another 200-300 of wheat and beans.

Most of the corn gets ground for feed and stored on the farm, the rest of the grains go to the elevator and get put in the grain bank as a credit toward feed purchases.

 

[Brandon C.]

Sounds like you guys have a good size operation going on out there! Also do you guys do any haylage to feed ur cows or just grain?

What are you guys getting for milk in wisconsin?

 

[durallymax]

we do a lot of haylage corn silage and other forages such as rye grass, oat grassm tritcale and even some peas and oats from time to time.

Were in the fields doing haylage now, just got back from running one of our semis for a buddy who was chopping tonite. Going hard at it again tomorrow with our chopper at my uncles, then to my cousins on thursday, then our stuff on monday, and then up to another farm for some custom work on tuesday.

I dont know what we get for our milk. I never pay attention, thats not my end of the farm. We get a lot of premiums for our milk due to it being jersey milk, and a high volume of it, but on the flipside they dont produce as much milk.

 

[Brandon C.]

must be nic e to live out there an have growing seasons like you guys do. lol we are just getting the corn in! About the end of the month or so the first cutting will be ready, my buddy is looking at a 3x3 square baler instead of rounds this year which im not to sure about the price of those balers are crazy an they just got a new john deere round baler a year ago!

Im thinking more of haylage then cornlage for my beefers when i get enough of them! have a round bale in the feeder and a couple troths for corn silage!

But also make dry hay to sell an sell shelled corn!

 

[durallymax]

Beef love corn silage. But its an expensive crop to put up, but then again so is alfalfa, but it depends on how you look at it. A small alfalfa/grass mix field with a baler, isnt much work. But any size corn silage field takes enough work. Sorry cant really explain it, a little tired. Been sitting in a tractor since 7 yesterday morning. Chopper hay all day, had more issues with the Junk Deere. Just stupid little things, I ended up fixing the one issue with a keyring and some electrical tape. ROFL.

3x3 balers arent cheap, $30,000 is about the lowest you will pay for a somewhat decent New Holland.

 

[Brandon C.]

Well I knew it was expensive but in the long run I would think a mix of both hay an corn silage would pay off when you go to sell the beefers! I already deal with a mill that I know the workers an owners real well an Id like to establish a grain bank. I was already told by them when I start doing shelled corn they will take all of it!

An this is what I was saying to them you cant get a very nice large square baler for 30k, but you can buy a brand new New Holland 5x6 round baler for that! IMO the cost difference isnt worth it. My plan with hay is to have as much as i can get an what ever i dont use sell it off there always a market for hay!

 

[durallymax]

a corn and alfalfa rotation is very good. Its one of the best you can do, due to the Nitrogen credits from alfalfa, and its ability to somewhat lift compaction.

Then if you haul manure on the fields, alfalfa will soak up the phosphorus.

Another long day doing hay, had a few acres left at the farm we were at, but it was too wet to chop and it started to rain.

Sounds like I get a break tomorrow.

 

[Brandon C.]

ya all i know is that i want beefers,an corn for them an do custom haying! I already have a job lined up for driving school bus when im out of school an im sure i got a spot for my beefers!

Sounds like you have been very busy, and how has that chopper been running?

 

[durallymax]

That chopper is a POS. Look, all choppers break down a lot. But this one is ridiculous, and we can never get parts when we need them.

The other day it was the break pressure sensor, which failed and wouldnt let the chopper go over 3mph and would beep constantly (loudly) making my cousin go deaf. So once I found the damn thing, (took me and him an hour ended up being under the cab) I bypassed it with a keyring and some electrical tape.

And now the sharpener door wont open or close (its automatic) turns out the gearbox for the motor is bad. John Deere wants $1,400 for whats basically the gearbox in a cordless drill.

Our chopper has just about every automatic feature on it, and all they have done is cause us issues. Its mostly the motors on them, they keep failing. We have replaced 3 of the motors that adjust the kernel processor gap.

The computer also keeps forgetting the things we have programmed into it. The one that it always seems to forget is the autospout, but it likes to forget a lot of other things.

Last year we also had to replace the main computer on it.

The radio self destructed the other day as well.

And the rear grille you could call it is cracked everywhere and about to fall off. There was a recall on these and the dealership ordered us the updated one a year and a half ago.

All of them has issues, but this one is just a PITA. And its not easy to work on and we cant get parts. #1 reason it will be gone at the end of the 2011 season. Only issue is my uncle who is one of the three investors in it. He is in bed with the salesman at the JD dealership because we are related to him. Why though I dont know, this chopper and a 1560 drill are the only green things on our farm.

 

[Brandon C.]

Ya im not a real big fan of that green equipment either! To me it sounds like you got a lemon for a chopper! What kind of planter do you guys have?

Just got 35acres of corn in this past weekend with a 4row deere! I guess were doing 100acres again this year.

we got a self propelled discbine an new holland d1000 baler on the way today i belive!

 

[durallymax]

Were having more issues with the Deere. The other day we got so fed up with it, my dad called the local Claas dealer and told them to bring one out and give us a good deal and its never leaving the farm. But they didnt have a new one on hand and the Deere started to work again. I think its safe to say this chopper will be gone at the end of the year.

What seems to be happening is the computers are overheating and then throwing codesm then not allowing us to sharpen knifes and then eventually we cannot start the cutterhead anymore. The Claas computers are in a climate controlled compartment.

Were very sick of this Deere, my uncle keeps defending it and saying its a good chopper, but we think thats because he is all buddy buddy with the salesman who is related to us. Why he is I dont know, we run all red equipment anyways.

He is starting to realize though that he wont be getting another Deere. He does own 1/3 of it, but hes outnumbered as the other two investors say no more Deere ever. And everybody else on our harvest crew hates it too, so its about 25 people to 1.

On the other hand the new 33' discbine is working slick.

We have a Kinze 12 row econofold for now, for planting corn.