Best Grinder Mixer?

[GMCSierra1500]

When the price of cattle comes back down to earth I plan to start feeding them again. I had feeder cattle 25+ years ago and used a Farmhand grinder mixer. There are lots of them on FB Marketplace and can't decide which way to jump. Initially plan to feed about 25 head and take it from there. Plan to grind ear corn with some supplement. There seems to be more New Holland mixers on the market than any other make. There are aftermarket parts available for most makes. What make is everybody else using?

 

[rrlund]

I think your best bet would be a New Holland. Parts are insanely high priced, but at least you stand a good chance of getting them. I had to buy a pair of bevel gears for the unloading auger on my 354 a month ago, $577 for the pair of them. Gehl was a good mill, but on a lot of those parts, you'd have to find NOS at an old dealer.

I liked the flat bottom mixer in a Deere 700, but the Rube Goldberg set up of shafts and gears reversing directions was nothing but trouble. I bought a Farmhand at an auction a couple of years ago, but didn't know until it was too late that the gear box was bad. If somebody can actually SHOW me how to get that thing off, I'd pay them to do it. It has to come off to put bearings in the input shaft. I tipped it right over on it's side and can't figure out how to get it off. I've had them off Gehls and New Hollands, but that thing has me baffled.

Arts Way, or any other brand made by them are probably an OK machine. Somebody was telling a few years back where you can get most parts for those.

 

[joeysmith]

somebody can actually SHOW me how to get that thing off, I'

Id accept that challenge if you were closer
I live for challenges like that .
Lol

 

[rrlund]

Id accept that challenge if you were closer
I live for challenges like that .
Lol

I'd tip it up on it's side for you again if you wanted to try.

 

[Timmycornpicker]

I've been studying the Farmhand mixer parts diagrams on the AGCO site. I'm going to do some conjecturing. Are the mounting holes in the gearbox threaded and the bolts come down from inside the tank? Can you go in the tank and remove them or do you have to pull the bottom auger and then unbolt the tank base and remove it and the gearbox as a unit?

 

[casecollectorsc]

Don't know if they are still made, but my Lorenz mixer never gave much trouble. The in-feed and out-feed augers were run by orbit motor. Eliminated a lot of chains and gearing.

 

[rrlund]

I've been studying the Farmhand mixer parts diagrams on the AGCO site. I'm going to do some conjecturing. Are the mounting holes in the gearbox threaded and the bolts come down from inside the tank? Can you go in the tank and remove them or do you have to pull the bottom auger and then unbolt the tank base and remove it and the gearbox as a unit?

I sure wish I knew. You can't get to anything from the inside, the vertical auger covers everything. I can see the threads of half inch bolts sticking out of the bottom of the gear box, but where the heads are will forever be a mystery to me. I don't know for the life of me why anybody thought the cross auger should run through the gear box casting. The person trying to design that thing on the drawing board should have said, never mind, let's try something else.

On a New Holland, you have to take a little cover off the side of the mixer at the bottom and reach in to take out a couple of 5/16 bolts in addition to taking the half inch bolts out of the bottom, but the Farmhand is a different animal.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

The one to get is the one that's in the best shape. Regardless of brand. Feed grinders have really fallen out of fashion in this day and age. Most operations are much too large for such machines, and most small operators can't afford/justify new machines every few years. I think ArtsWay and maybe H&S are the only companies still making new ones. Everybody is just buying someone else's used up junk and putting a few more layers of duct tape over the worn out spots until they can't stand it no more, then they pass it on to the next guy who slaps on more duct tape.

Get one that's in good shape, don't beat on it, and maintain it, and it'll last a long long time.

 

[Timmycornpicker]

The one to get is the one that's in the best shape. Regardless of brand. Feed grinders have really fallen out of fashion in this day and age. Most operations are much too large for such machines, and most small operators can't afford/justify new machines every few years. I think ArtsWay and maybe H&S are the only companies still making new ones. Everybody is just buying someone else's used up junk and putting a few more layers of duct tape over the worn out spots until they can't stand it no more, then they pass it on to the next guy who slaps on more duct tape.

Get one that's in good shape, don't beat on it, and maintain it, and it'll last a long long time.

Lorenz started production again too. Looks like they have a machine that's a little bit less fancy than current H&S and Art's-Way offerings. http://lorenzmfg.com/Grinders/Grinders.htm

 

[Timmycornpicker]

I sure wish I knew. You can't get to anything from the inside, the vertical auger covers everything. I can see the threads of half inch bolts sticking out of the bottom of the gear box, but where the heads are will forever be a mystery to me. I don't know for the life of me why anybody thought the cross auger should run through the gear box casting. The person trying to design that thing on the drawing board should have said, never mind, let's try something else.

On a New Holland, you have to take a little cover off the side of the mixer at the bottom and reach in to take out a couple of 5/16 bolts in addition to taking the half inch bolts out of the bottom, but the Farmhand is a different animal.

Upon further study, it looks like bottom auger goes through the tank floor but not the gearbox, which is bolted to the floor next to the auger housing. I think you've got to remove the vertical auger from the tank (looks like fun) and then you can unbolt the gearbox from the inside of the tank. Of course my experience with stuff like this says that the bolt heads would probably break off and the gearbox would come out but now you've got a fight to get the remains of the bolts out of the casting.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

NH, H&S or maybe Artsway. Gehl only if you can find parts or it's still minty or has been well cared for & is not wore out.

Mike

 

[Bryan G.]

We have always ran Deere grinder mixers and they have been good to us. We started out with the 400 had a few of them and now the 700. Parts are still available from Deere on them. We grind once or twice a week depending on time of year and 3 big cribs of cob corn a year along with shell corn, barely, oats, soybeans for ore cattle. I like our deere's they have been good to us but I do like nh has that extended side auger that swings around that would be handy, they are a good mill also have think the gehl mixers are good the later ones but not sure on parts for them!

 

[GMCSierra1500]

Thanks for the input, there are lots of New Holland Grinder/Mixers on Facebook Marketplace almost all of the time. Parts (new or used) should be available.

 

[RustyOldTractor]

On the farmhand you need to disconnect the mixing auger you can take out or lift up foot or so . . . . . I prefer to just take it out . . . . .Then to get at bolts for gearbox the unloading auger what is attached to tank there are two small bolts at bottom remove those either 5/16 or 3/8 . . . . . . That auger is on kind track flange deal any ways that will slide up so and you can take that off make sure you lube that track few days before hand . . . . . . After you get that off you can get at bolts . . . . . . . . But their going to be wore rounded off some because of the feed mixing . . . . . . . . . Sometimes you can get metric socked pounded on or you have to cut heads off . . . . . . . . .One last thing to get the auger to start to move I set jack under corner of tube then come along on top as well to help it along . . . . . . . .
One more thing fill that gear box with grease gun grease full that keeps feed from getting into gear box . . . . . . . . .

Good Luck . . . . . . . .

 

[paul]

Lorenz started production again too. Looks like they have a machine that's a little bit less fancy than current H&S and Art's-Way offerings. http://lorenzmfg.com/Grinders/Grinders.htm

That’s cool! There were so many grinder/ mixer/ hammer/ feed makers around me back in the day. As others mentioned things change, the new mills are what, $50-80k out of sight for a small farm and not really practical for a big operation.

Would be nice if they made enough sales to keep production up for the smaller producers. I’m assuming this is a bit more ecconomy type, not that it old be cheap?

Salt just eats up mills, they are so hard to work on with a little age.

Gehl was really popular around here back in the day, but all the brands mentioned were around.

Paul

 

[NY 986]

The Mennonites are supporting JD and NH products with parts reproductions. I used to get catalogs for aftermarket parts for small square balers and pull type forage harvesters made by JD and NH. More recent and popular models get more support. Something to consider if you plan to own one for a while. Getting to be very few quality used grinder mixers making their way through the auction circuit and I would imagine a new grinder is many tens of thousands of dollars currently.

 

[rustred]

When the price of cattle comes back down to earth I plan to start feeding them again. I had feeder cattle 25+ years ago and used a Farmhand grinder mixer. There are lots of them on FB Marketplace and can't decide which way to jump. Initially plan to feed about 25 head and take it from there. Plan to grind ear corn with some supplement. There seems to be more New Holland mixers on the market than any other make. There are aftermarket parts available for most makes. What make is everybody else using?

When the price of cattle comes back down to earth , … that ain’t happening so you can save yourself all that work. Nothing will come back down .

 

[rrlund]

When the price of cattle comes back down to earth , … that ain’t happening so you can save yourself all that work. Nothing will come back down .

I sure hope you're right. I took four steers Monday and got $13,272. If that came back down to $10,000 it'd be pretty discouraging even though that would still be high.

 

[rustred]

Ya isn’t that something. Bought time we got paid for all this work. But I hate looking at them store prices. They said due to beef shortages.

 

[rrlund]

Ya isn’t that something. Bought time we got paid for all this work. But I hate looking at them store prices. They said due to beef shortages.

Demand is still high despite high prices and low supply. I just hope they stay up there until I have to quit because I just can't do it anymore. There's bred cow sale coming up Friday at the sale barn. It'll be interesting to see how they go.