One Corn Eating Monster !

Interesting to see it in action. Chomp Chomp!!

Thanks for the compliments.

Researching and digging up all the information I can about each photo and then including it in the metadata is two thirds of the fun for me.

Of course, a lot of my subjects I already have a wealth of intimate knowledge about; I just have to find that information in print and provide links to it.

If someone absorbs a little of it here and a little of it there, then the effort has been worth it for me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWJ9vjkKyc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRD5wVnwA5M

Forty years ago, being a Mercedes Benz Diesel might have really impressed me; however, this particular engine is a V- block; a V-8 to be exact; I will take an inline six over a V-anything any day.

The downfall of all V blocks is that each pair of opposing cylinders share a main bearing; and, sooner or later, they will fly to pieces.

That thing is powerful; there is no doubt about that; but, all that power being shared on half as many bearings will be it's death.

That is a good question and one in which I have just now found is hard to nail down.

Acres-wise, the most reasonable answer I found is that a single machine of that size/power can be reasonably expected to harvest 1,000 acres (level ground) in a thirty day harvest window; if my math is correct, that would be about 34 acres/day.

It did not say whether this was long days or non-stop day and night operation.

I would say that in the mostly steep rough ground in our area, cut that figure in half or less.

As for how many tons of wet silage per day, and silage is very wet meaning very heavy, I will have to ask some of the guys what their thoughts are on this.

We seldom actually weigh a load as mostly the silage belongs to the man that owns the cows that are going to eat it and there is no real reason other than curiosity to know the weight.

Occasionally, though, we do have reason to weigh as maybe a cow owner has bought a field of silage from someone else "by the ton"; in these situations, we weigh the empty trucks and then weigh one (or maybe two) loads for each truck and then just count the loads after establishing a good guesstimate as to what a load should weigh; reason being, scales are seldom handy and often involve a ten or more mile one-way out of the way trip that really complicates and slows things down.

It is far better when the buyer just buys the silage crop at a per/acre price.

Most of our trucks have 14' beds, 8' wide, and about eight feet high (I know they are over my head when I stand inside one) ; the red Kodiak is longer at 20', but not quite so tall; I will try and find out how many tons a load is.

On EDIT:  I read that wet corn silage as blown in the truck will average between 22 and 25 lbs/cubic foot; I would have figured it would be closer to 40-45.

14 x 8 = 112 x 8 = 896 x 25 = 20,000 + 2000 + 400 = 22,400 lbs/load plus probably another 2,800 lbs for the load being peaked up as high as possible = 25,200 lbs/load

That's only a bit less than 13 ton; I would have figured it to be a lot heavier; it sure feels a lot heavier when coming down those hilly twisting narrow roads.

I will make some calls and get an answer to your question.