How a Hustler Chainless 2000 bale feeder is working after 5 years on a French farm
Why is a farmer loyal to a brand? Potentially because a brand is able to provide a useful piece of equipment, or even because it’s fancy and easy to use. But most of all, because it’s reliable and it will never let them down. This is the story of Pascal Vallat, a French farmer who bought a Hustler CH2000 bale feeder five years ago. After thousands and thousands of bales unrolled on its clock, the machine is still up and running like the very first day with absolutely no breakdowns to report.
Pascal Vallat owns and runs a farm in Mazerolles, south-western France. He farms about 250 Limousine cows with calves at foot and he processes his own baleage out of 50 hectares of pasture. He has an employee working two days a week and his son Quentin, who is still at school but helps out on Wednesdays and on the weekends.
Pascal’s son Quentin is passionate about farming and he has his own YouTube channel where you can check out an awesome video of the family’s chainless bale feeder in action. The CH2000 is so easy to use that Quentin is able to feed out he cows all by himself, even when his dad is not around.
Pascal feeds out about five bales each day during the winter period. Before investing in the CH2000 (this model has now been replaced by the Chainless X2000 bale feeder), Pascal was using a traditional style bale feeder, but it was not very efficient. He needed to manually assist the machine to lift the loader arm which was too weak for his heavy bales, and the net was always becoming stuck in the spikes of the machine. In addition, his previous machine needed constant maintenance and would often break down.
“Before the Hustler, I had a traditional style bale feeder. The driving system was always derailing, especially at inconvenient times like Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve!”
When the director of Agrivert, Philippe Debard, his local Hustler accredited dealer, gave him a call saying he had a chainless bale feeder which could solve his issues, Pascal was definitely interested but wanted to see the machine first. Philippe Debard arrived one morning with the CH2000 for a demo and it hasn’t left Pascal’s farm since.
“I’m very happy with my Hustler.”
After five years of intensive use, Pascal still loves his bale feeder and would not change his machine, except maybe one day for an upgraded Hustler bale feeder.
“I’ve never had any problems with it, I would highly recommend this Hustler bale feeder to anyone.”
With no breakdowns to report and very low maintenance, the CH2000 bale feeder saves him at least half an hour a day. He would recommend Hustler’s Chainless bale feeder range to anyone who needs a reliable, easy-to-operate, low maintenance and efficient piece of equipment which lasts for a long time.
Watch Pascal’s full story here:
DOWNLOAD OUR CATTLE FEEDING GUIDE
