Kevin Meade is a Contractor—mainly handling grass, based in Lobinstown, Co Meath. Grass, as we all know, is an important crop in Co Meath. So how does he see his own set up and how has 2011 been so far for him?

“Fuel costs have continued to rise year on year”, say’s Kevin, “so I had to look at the best and cheapest way of getting the job done”.

“We looked at the possibilities and decided to buy the Strautman CFS 3601”. This machine with the Strautman CFS System has replaced a Pottinger Euro-Profi 4000 wagon & has picked up around 600 acres already, with the first cut almost finished. Weather has been against us this last while, with customers reluctant to cut down a lot of grass in advance”.

“We aim to cut approx 3000 acres of Silage this season, broken down to say 1200 Wagon acres, 500/600 Forager acres and the balance round bales. We see the demand for wagon silage growing year by year, and would expect to pickup 1500 acres next year with the wagon.”

Our average haul is approx 3.5 miles, giving us a seven mile roundtrip. At this distance we can get 40 acres per day with the 3601. “I really like the chopper system” said Kevin “as some of our land is stony”. “The knife break-back system is great—we have not had one knife break in 2011. On normal short hauls we have no problem getting in 50 acres, per day.”

The cost of diesel is a major problem for today’s contractor. We now have the costs of diesel worked out at “one acre of silage in the pit, for two and a half gallons of fuel”. This includes all the equipment in the wagon setup. “This represents a major saving over our previous set up”.

“The new wagon is actually easier to drive than the old one” says Kevin. “The CFS system really does what it says. The whole pickup is always full so there are no sudden peak loads. It seems to make the whole operation feel smoother”.

Kevin trades as K. M. A. C. Ltd and can be contacted at 086 – 8594980 Colm, can be contacted at 086- 8207153.