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3970 deere silage chopper, HP?

S

sixtyninegmc

Member
Looking at a package deal that includes some equipment, and the biggest implement is a deere 3970 silage chopper, wondering how well it would work on a 4020. The deal may also include a 130 and a 135 horse tractors, but if ol` reliable will run everything, I see no reason to keep the bigger machines.
 
With half a set of knives it will run it OK. With a full set of knives it will mabey run it very carefully depending on how hot the engine is turned up...
You need to be very carefull that you do not slug it with a full set of knives or it WILL stall the tractor.
I've been running one with a Ford 7710 turned to about 105 hp for 12 years now and I get by with it but it's not for everyone. The harvester lists a minimum requirement of 130 hp and a maximum of 200 hp.
I think if you had access to that kind of power at the right price you'd hang onto it....

Rod
 
It is a toss-up, there is also a smaller (NH 717) chopper on the place, and if I fixed up the two bigger tractors and sold them they may well pay the mortgage for close to a year, and to me it is hard to justify keeping a power unit around when everything else is sized for my 4020, and I have plenty of tractors. If the two big tractors, a Case 2290 and a Ford 9600, were higher on my list of favorite tractors I might think diffferently.
 
Keep the 9600.... you won't get buggerall for it if you sell it. Mabey 4500-5500? Cheap extra power and it will run that chopper a lot easier than the 4020.
I wouldn't want ANYTHING to do with a NH 717 chopper. A 790 or 900 would be a different story.

Rod
 
If you are just chopping corn silage then make sure the blower is on low speed and you should be able to get by. IF you are doing hay ledge then you will need to make sure the feed rolls are set for a long cut and go slow on the ground speed.

I have used a JD 3960( same cutter head as a 3970) on a JD 4020. It worked OK. The trouble started and stopped at the operator's seat. Use your head and it will work.
 
I agree with Rod on the NH 717. When I first started chopping for myself I bought a NH 717. The wife threatened to leave if I did not replace it. LOL She said she did not want to live with me using that machine. It would be chop a day and work on it a day and wait a week on parts through NH. I was real happy when I traded that junky thing in on a NH 276 square baler. I still have the baler.
 
No corn up here, would be mainly pea and oat, and grass. Sounds like I would have to try it, if the nut behind the wheel does not cause problems, it might work. Rod, the 9600 would be worth quite a bit more than that up here (Alaska), because we are so isolated and have relatively little farming, just getting something here inflates the value enough that even lemons up here go for high prices. Might keep it around for a while, almost everything on the place that I am looking at requires some attention to make it "field ready". What don`t you like about the NH 717 chopper? I`m new to the silage end of things, any education is appreciated.
 
The long knives where hard to get set just right and keep sharp. The whole chopper had too many shafts and bearing. It seemed like there where always bearing going out for no apparent reason. Then the rotary cutter corn head was a real mess in grass. It would plug and take hours to get freed up again.

If the one you are looking at is in good shape then you may get by in grass and oats/peas. If you not chopping much that is.

The JD 3970 chopper cutter head is much easier to work on and the parts are fast to get too. NH never has been very fast at getting parts you have to order. At least in the lower 48 JD parts are easier/faster to get.
 
All good to know, thanks for sharing. Would only be looking at feeding 8 milkers at this point, so not much chopping to be done. Talking with a guy that has a 100 head dairy on 240 acres, but he is down to 8 cows and the rest is in hay, and he got a divorce and wants to quit farming NOW. So he has it for sale, stock, equipment and all for a good price, he walks away and I buy one heck of a steep learning curve :shock:
 
I never ran a 717...
They're just a pukie little cut and throw harvester made for a 60 hp tractor. Your 4020 will probably make ratshit out of it. They also have an offset wagon hitch that pulls directly behind the cutterhead which can be rather dangerous on a steep hill. The 3970 should have an extended length, power tounge and the wagon hitch is inline with the tounge... so if you have to work on a grade you can steer the harvester to avoid a jacknife coming down hill...


If you're not bothing with corn just take every other row of knives out of the Deere and you'll run ti fine. It will work the Deere hard but she should sustain a full feedroll opening (slug) for a short time.
The longer chop is better for the cows anyway. You only need the short chop for corn.

Rod
 
For that number of cows you might be better off making hay at this point... or get more cows. How is the silage stored? You need a pretty small silo to keep the face fresh on a daily basis or you're going to get a lot of waste.

Rod
 
The silage will be in a in-ground bunk, so I figure I can narrow the bunk up to 8ft, and that might keep a narrow enough face. I would like to increase the herd size, even if just some beef cattle, 8 is just what the current owner has right now. There is a couple reasons I would like to do some silage at this point, though I guess I really don`t know how sound my logic is. 1. I think there is currently some pea/oat mix planted, so take what I can. 2. the owner has used the peas in a rotation because peas are one of the few legumes that will grow here. 3. I would like to have the option of chopping any hay that gets rained on or stays damp too long to make good hay. Baling it and throwing it away gets old, and we usually have some loss from weather.

Thanks again for good advice.
 
If you get rained on hay... check and see if there's a local market for construction hay. We've got several site remediation projects on the go here, strip mines, etc..... they can at time absorb a LARGE amount of hay for ground cover. I never throw away even poor hay. Just set it aside somewhere and eventually it will go...

Rod
 
Rod, I`ve tried selling bad hay for erosion control and construction, and I guess we just don`t have a market for it, especially small squares. Ended up hanging onto a pretty bit stack of ugly stuff.

B & D, I know there are a few wrappers floating around this country, but there is very little demand for wrapped bales, and if I end up with this place I am going to try to keep the stock fed from on the farm, and keep the rest of the ground producing small squares, which is what we have the most demand and the highest price for. Any hay is spendy around here, about 2/3rds is trucked from the Canada and the states.
 
A lot of the construction hay here goes in rounds as most of the contractors don't want to handle squares.... but I've been selling to one who does.
It helps that they're remediating probably close to 1000 acres of old mine sites, coal wash plants, strip mines and the steel mill and it's related mess. All of it is being done in stages... hydro seeded and mulched. Sad part is... our entire industrial history is being covered over in the process.

Rod
 
Growing up, we had a Super 717. All I can say is they must have been cheap, because everyone seemed to have one and they were always broken. After 10 years sitting in the barnyard, I traded mine for some ear corn (figured the value on scrap price) because my neighbor wanted it for parts. 2 years later and he scrapped mine AND his. I still feel like I robbed him because he was the one who had to cut it up.
 
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