Praises for bale feeder

As Giltrap already manufactured its own range of feeders and feed-out wagons, not all the Duncan machines were carried over to the Giltrap brand. But one Duncan product did make the cut and was quickly incorporated into the Giltrap range -- the SLR bale feeder. 

Giltrap Engineering managing director Craig Mulgrew says with the ability to feed out hay, straw or baleage and loose pit silage, the SLR bale feeder filled a gap in the Giltrap product offering.

“The SLR is a robust, versatile trailed machine that can handle round bales, medium squares or big squares, with a clean loading system and quick feed-out, giving it a great reputation among users.”

Its speed of feeding out and ability to handle a variety of bale formats are two key reasons farmers in New Zealand and Australia prefer the Giltrap SLR bale feeder, the company says.

South Canterbury farmer/contractor Cam Scott bought his SLR bale feeder in 2012 to use on a dairy run-off block he owned, mainly for wintering cows. To date it has fed out about 100,000 bales.

“We use it for feeding out round bales of straw, hay and baleage,” he says.

“When we bought it, we were feeding upwards of 60-70 bales of baleage a day, so needed something fast to get the work done. There were other good products on the market at the time, but the speed of the SLR was the key selling point for us.”

Scott says his Giltrap SLR has had a hard life due to the demanding conditions of feeding out.

“It’s been a good machine, needing very little maintenance except for a few chains, which is to be expected considering the number of bales we’ve put through it. We’re more than happy with the run we have had from it.” 

He says he is impressed with the bale loading system. 

“This is an impressive feature, allowing us to load the feeder without spreading grass or straw all over the place and never struggling to lift any bale. All in all it’s a fantastic machine.”

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.