Description
Description of the innovation
Hendrik Lübben is a grassland farmer (100 ha) in Lower Saxony, near the North Sea coast. He milks 160 dairy cows that graze during the summer sea-son. The solitary type is mainly clay. While the cows are in the barn for milk-ing, he offers them silage as a supplement and through his silo slider he addi-tionally distributes some concentrated feed on the silage.
The Wesermarsch region, where Hendrik Lübben’s farm is located, is predes-tined for grazing. From spring to autumn his dairy cows are outside during the day for milking and at night the cows are in the barn.
Five years ago he had the idea for this concentrate machine and found a lock-smith who could build this tool for him. It is a box in which the concentrate is filled and a large tire to push the silage. The box can be docked to the loader and as the tyre moves, the auger inside the box moves the concentrate. The cover keeps the concentrate dry even in the rain.
Results obtained with the adoption of the innovation
The silage on the feed trough has to be pushed to the cows from time to time anyway. With his special silo pusher he can do two jobs at once, 1. push the silo 2. feed concentrate. In the past he fed the cows with the wagon and the shovel. Now he has a machine for it and thus saves time and work intensity.
The coupling to the front loader is simple and can be carried out in a few simple steps. Filling the box with new concentrated feed is also very easy. It drives the box under the grain auger on the silo and fills the box. Also the box does not need much maintenance.
This technology enables the farmer to lure his cows to the feeder and consume more concentrated feed. This means that the ration is more balanced and the cows have better conditions to increase milk yield. However, care should be taken not to make the herd too restless as the feed is pushed too often.
Advantages
- Easy to use
- Not much effort
- Higher intake of concentrate
- More balanced ration
- Higher milk yield to expect
Disadvantages
- Probably more restlessness in the herd
- Higher costs due more intake
