RS Agri has developed a new high-capacity bale processor for breaking up straw, silage, hay and haylage in both round and square formats.

The trailed Sabre 900+ can be used to chop material for inclusion in a mixed ration, feed clamp or baled silage, or to bed down cattle in both cubicles and open barns.

Its 9cu m capacity will swallow up to four round or two big square bales – loaded using either the opening tailgate or a telehandler.

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These sit on a bed of two 1.5m-wide slatted conveyors – one at the front and one at the back – that move the material towards a single beating and shredding drum.

The perk of the twin-conveyors, says RS, is that they run on separate circuits and can be operated individually, giving operators more scope to alter the feed-in rate.

There is also a stationary comb at the front that encourage the bales to tumble on the conveyor beds, which apparently helps increase throughput.

The speed of the conveyors is set by the operator, but an automatic loading system, linked to a blockage sensor on the drum, slows down, stops or reverses them should it detect any restriction in flow. Once the drum is back up to the target speed, the conveyors will engage again.

For bedding straw, the material is simply shredded, but for ration fodder a hydraulically controlled chopping gate can be powered into position.

This carries 15 stationary blades that work with the 84 angled knives and 16 swinging flails on the main drum to slice it into 20-60mm lengths.

Discharge is via a six-paddle flywheel that is able to propel material up to 20m through a swivelling chute.

Power to the drum is provided by a heavy-duty pto driveline with shear-bolt and shock pad protection – unlike the belt-based setup of the firm’s smaller 600+ model.

Settings can be tweaked on an in-cab box, but there are also controls at the back to operate the rear door, which might be handy for removing net, wrap or string when loading.

The 900+ weighs 2.7t and needs a tractor putting out at least 100hp at the pto.