Both procedures were subjected to extensive research at BAL as part of a project in 2000. This revealed a high level of organizational effort combined with high harvest performance and very good silage properties on the part of the self-propelled chopper chain. High harvest performance and satisfactory silage properties were also found in the loader wagon harvesting process. Since in the absolute grassland regions a self-propelled forage harvester often overwhelms the existing capacities (collection trucks, rolling technology, silo lengths,...) and, above all, cannot be used everywhere (slope inclination, ground load,...), the mounted forage harvester (disc wheel harvester) offers a possible alternative.

Powerful disc wheel shredders are sometimes used for the corn harvest in the grassland regions of the Alpine countries. With a pick-up attachment, these shredders can also be used for grassland harvesting and thus achieve higher utilization. At the same time, tractor performance has also increased in the grassland regions, meaning that this method can also be expected to yield an average harvest of two to three ha/h.

This procedure is to be examined in a simple operational and practical use survey on a practical company as part of a diploma thesis for the Matura at the HBLA Raumberg. For this purpose, the entire process chain from mowing, tedding, swathing, loading and compacting is examined for its process-typical parameters (time logs are written) and compared with the bale silage process in terms of feed quality. Parameters typical of the process are collected during and after the harvest (loading times, removal times, swath weights, loading volumes, loading weights, dry matter, cutting length fractionation, fuel consumption).

The results obtained are compared with the process parameters from the 2000 harvest test (short-cut loader wagon - self-propelled forage harvester).