The document provides an overview of forage choppers and forage handling, detailing what fodder and forage are, including examples of crops and silage. It describes the different types of forage choppers based on size, cutting mechanisms, and discharging methods, as well as materials used in their construction. The document also covers forage handling systems, highlighting conventional baling systems and various types of silos for effective storage and management of foraged materials.

1. ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC :- FORAGE CHOPPER AND FORAGE
HANDLING
BY:- Er. Gurpreet singh, PAU, LUDHIANA, PUNJAB
Department of Agricultural Engineering
CSK HPAU, PALAMPUR, H.P.
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2. What is fodder crops?
 Fodder is food used to raise livestock. More than
half of all agricultural land is used to produce
fodder. Fodder is an agricultural term for animal
feed, and fooder crops are those plants that are
raised to feed livestock.
 Grains
Common grain crops that are grown for fodder
include corn, oats, millet, barley, sorghum, wheat
and soybeans. Some of these crops, such as corn
and wheat, are obviously also grown for human
comsumption.
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3.  Forage
Forage is fodder crop that is grown (or encouraged, such as
grass) for grazing animals. Immature grain crops, grasses and
legumes, including alfalfa, are common forage.
 Silage
Silage is fermented grass and other crops that are fed to
ruminants, such as cattle and sheep. Silage grasses (hay and
straw, for example) are cut and stored for future consumption,
such as winter feed.
 Pasture
Even if the grass is not cultivated, the grasslands, or pasture is
known as a fodder crop. Pasture is land set aside for free-range
grazing animals, such as cattle and sheep.
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4. What is forage chopper?
 The chopper is mainly used for stalk forage, such as rice straw,
wheat straw, maize Stover and maize for ensiling. Straw choppers
can be classified by size into small, medium and large. The small-
size chopper is mainly adapted for chopping dry straw or silage on
small-scale farms. The large chopper - also called a silage chopper -
is mainly used for silage on cattle farms. The medium chopper is
normally suited to cutting dry straw and silage, so it is called a
straw-silage chopper.
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5.  Choppers can be divided into cylinder or flywheel types,
according to the mode of cutting. Large- and medium-size
choppers are generally flywheel types, to facilitate throwing
silage, but the majority of small choppers are cylinder type.
Large and medium choppers are usually equipped with road
wheels for easy movement, while small-size choppers are
normally stationary.
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6. CHOPPER 6

7. FORAGE CHOPPER machine used to cut the
crop into short parallel lengths.
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8. DEFINATIONS
For the purpose of this standard the following
definitions shall apply:
 Blow-up type of forage chopper where the chopped
materials are blown up through the blow-up pipe.
 Cutterhead cutting rotor devices intended to cut the
crop into short lengths with reasonable consistency
within a range of optional settings.
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9. Cylinder cutterhead knives on cylindrical mountings
such that the cutting edges of the knives are essential
parallel to the axis of rotation.
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10. Feedrop Cylindrical Roll generally with
protrusions or flutes, used to gather, compress and
advance the crop into the cutterhead.
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11. FLYWHEEL CUTTERHEAD knives mounted
essentially radially with the cutting edges describing a
plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation.
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12.  PRECISION-CUT forage chopper forage chopper
which uses a feeding mechanism consisting of
four or more feed rolls to partially orient and
advance the crop at a consistent rate into the
cutting mechanism.
 RANDOM-CUT forage chopper forage chopper
without a distinct feeding mechanism, usually
employing flails to impact-cut and chop crop directly
into shorter pieces .
 LET FALL TYPE type of forage chopper where
the chopped materials are dropped down to the
bottom of machine.
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13.  SEMI-PRECISION-CUT forage chopper forage
chopper which uses a feeding mechanism consisting
of two feed rolls, or other means such as an auger, to
advance the crop to the cutting mechanism.
 STATIONARY KNIFE shear bar fixed plate
providing a stationary edge against which the
cutterhead knives shear the crop
 THROW-AWAY type type of forage chopper where
the chopped materials are thrown away to the front
area of the machine
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14. Classification
The classification of forage chopper shall be based
according to the following:
 Feeding mechanism
 precision-cut
 semi-precision-cut
 random-cut
 Chopping mechanism
 Cylinder cutterhead
 Fly-wheel cutterhead
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15. Discharging mechanism
 Let-fall type
 Throw-away
 Blow-up type
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16. Materials of Construction
 Steel bars and heavy-duty mild steel shall be
generally used for the manufacture of the
different components of the forage chopper.
 Knives shall be made of AISI 1080 to AISI
1085 or its ISO equivalent.
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17. FORAGE HANDLING
 The objective in forage production is to provide a quality
livestock feed that will ultimately result in an economical
livestock product (e.g. meat, calves, milk). The large
number of forage handling systems available and, the
lack of information on these, make the choice of the best
one “mind boggling”.
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18. TYPES OF FORAGE
HANDLING
 CONVENTIONAL BALING SYSTEMS:-
Conventional square baling systems are still
the most common among hay harvesting
methods. Numerous bale handling machines
are available today to reduce the back-
breaking labour requirements of earlier
systems. A bale thrower requires only one
man to bale and load. Stookers and bale
accumulators “build loads” and as a result
reduce field travel distances when hauling.
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20. MECHANICAL STACKING
WAGONS
Two basic types of loose hay stackers are currently available:
 Compaction stackers use some form of mechanical
force such as a packing roller (e.g. Hay buster) or a
hydraulically lowered roof (e.g. Hesston Stack Hand) to
physically compact the collected hay into a round or
rectangular stack.
 Non-compaction stackers pickup, chop and blow the
hay into a loaf-shaped stack chamber (e.g. McKee
Stack-n-Mover). Experience indicates that it is almost
impossible to avoid moldy or rotten pockets in these
stacks, as unevenness in the stack tops tends to funnel
water into the stacks.
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21. NON
COMPACTION COMPACTION
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22. SILOS:- The type of silo determines the amount of
management required to keep the air out, not the quality of the
silage. Under good management conditions, little if any practical
differences in nutritive feed value can be attributed directly to the
silo used. Generally speaking, the degree of management required
to make good silage and the amount of dry matter lost in storage
decrease with an increase in the cost of a storage system.
 Plastic Covered Stacks:- Practically speaking, covered
stack silos should be used only as emergency storage. They
require basically no investment apart from the cost of the
polyethylene cover. Dry matter losses are highly dependent
upon management and can vary from less than 20% to over
40%.
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23.  Horizontal Bunker Silos:- A horizontal silo is the
predominant method of storing silage in BC. Dry matter losses are
again highly management dependent and may vary from 9% to
20% (average 15%).
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24. PLASTIC
COVERED
STACKS
HORIZONTAL
BUNKER
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