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Northeast Iowa | I've got a 3130 right now with a Hay Max kit and had a 3300 before that. The Hay Max kit works great, but it works best with big squares, small squares or tub ground hay. It's tough to get a round bale torn apart well enough with a skid loader to get it to feed through as well, especially if it's going to be long-stemmed hay. Really long stemmy hay tends to wrap around the augers and not mix in completely. Even grassy alfalfa-brome will wrap more than straight alfalfa. But since you're going to be keeping the hay portion of the ration to 1/4 or less, it may not be a big deal. It works best to put the hay in after other ingredients, but not at the very end of the list. The best mixing occurs when the hay goes in after the grain and before the silage, or vice verse. Putting the hay in last, especially if your load is close to full, tends to make it boil and float around the top rear of the mixer and not blend in nearly as well as putting it in earlier.
I did a demo of a 5142 vertical a few years ago and found the unload time to take forever when putting a round bale in. There again, unless you can tear apart a round bale first, or use a tub grinder, or make a batch with one entire bale included, you're stuck putting the bale in by itself to get it chopped up and then unloaded in order to use whatever portion of the hay you need for your batch. Some dairies have also talked about the large amount of residual feed that's left in their vertical TMR after feeding a batch to their high-producing group and then making feed for their dry cows next. A TMR like the 3450 does a very good job of clean-out by comparison.
Both of my Knight TMRs had the three-auger discharge, too. The hydraulic slide pan was okay, but I prefer to have a little more distance between me and the bunks when I feed in fenceline bunks or into turned tractor tire bunks.
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Knight 3450 reel auggie
