Top of the crop

Add a shortage of skilled drivers to difficult weather conditions and there can be a lot of pressure on contractors to get through all of their clients in the short harvest windows available.

While there are multiple machines available to get the job done, one of the fastest and most efficient machines out there is the self propelled forage harvester.

Self-propelled forage harvesters not only get the job done fast with a lot of throughput but silage quality out of the chute is also up there with most, having a variable length of cut and inoculant applicators.

With most new self-propelled forage harvesters costing up around the million-dollar mark, contractors definitely need this investment to work for them to help keep clients happy with minimal downtime, while putting high-quality silage in the pit to make it count when it comes to feeding out.

With this in mind, contractor Reymer Ag opted for a new John Deere 8600i forage harvester when looking for a new machine, with chop quality and throughput key priorities.

Specs

With increasing regulations and costs affecting the industry, getting the most out of the crops is of vital importance. From cultivation and planting to harvesting and stacking, quality of the job is a must.

The 8600i is the highest horsepower forage harvester produced by John Deere, with the narrow drum configuration measuring a 660mm-wide harvest channel. In turn, this gives a high through-put while ensuring a high level of chop quality. The cutting drum has 48 knives for maize being fed by two