“We gave a lot of thought to the size of our wagon before making the decision to buy this model” said George Bolster, who runs the Bolster family firm, along with his Dad - Tom, in Tramore, Co Waterford.

At first sight the GV4001 seems big, for their operation, but in real terms it’s easier to drive that their previous Super Vitesse 3 machine, which they ran for the past four years. We aim to pickup 700 to 800 acres in the season, says George. Some of the hauls are long, but on average it’s about a three mile round trip.

“It’s nice to get a full load and with this 4001 machine (which is currently the largest Strautmann model operating in Ireland), we have had 17 tons up this year measured on the weighbridge. This represents approx 1.5 to 2 acres of grass, depending on the crop. We use the Deutz 165-7 as the main tractor and find this has ample power to do the job easily. The new CFS system makes for an even feed into the chopper, and to date in 2011 we have not had one stoppage due to knife breakage”. “I really like the spring-back system on the knives” says George, “it works well and we get a nice even cut –around 25 to 30 mm”. “This seems to suit the cows as well and we also get a lot less waste in the passages. Our customers tell us that the slurry problem is considerably lessened with this chop length as well.”

Our best performance this year so far is sixty acres in the pit in a twelve hour day with a mid day break of ninety mins. On an average run, it’s easy to get four acres per hour and especially in a dry year, this can easily be upped.