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hay cutters?

S

sotxbill

Well-known Member
Looking to upgrade from a sickle bar. cutting mainly coastal and some grazer..


would like to hear from the hay cutters out there about which cutter and why?

Disc cutter? or cutter conditioner, or just another sickle bar??


Had a 1964 ford 535 cutter conditioner that worked well but finally wore it out 5 years ago.. The NH 451 sickle is very picky and difficult in leaning crop. Got to be something better.
 
Kuhn is what I have always used. I have worn 3 of them
completely out. They cut a bunch of acres. Have very few
problems. Still have one and if I needed a cutter today it would
be a Kuhn!!
 
I've been running a discbine for about fifteen
years, now. It will cut anything, and fast, with no
plugging, even on headrows and finishing windrows.
A bit pricey, but well worth it.
 
I think the size of your tractor, terrain the condition and size of the fields and location would come into play here. Some areas need a conditioner more then others.
 
I have been helping several neighbors and they all have something different, This neighbor has had about everything and traded for this this year, and now other neighbors are using them. Disc cutter. I cut several different fields of different hay with it. Even sanding water on the ground. A selfpropelled disc swather I think would be the greatest.
a130691.jpg
 
Go over to the implements section where implements are discussed
and recently there were a couple of threads that discussed the what
and whys of using a drum.

However, if you had a large pristeen field like is in the picture then
a MOCO would surely be under consideration, especially the boom
type as shown.

Mark
 
(quoted from post at 19:47:14 10/02/13) Looking to upgrade from a sickle bar. cutting mainly coastal and some grazer..


would like to hear from the hay cutters out there about which cutter and why?

Disc cutter? or cutter conditioner, or just another sickle bar??


Had a 1964 ford 535 cutter conditioner that worked well but finally wore it out 5 years ago.. The NH 451 sickle is very picky and difficult in leaning crop. Got to be something better.
Click to expand...

I stated in '86 with a sickle bar, and spent a fifth of my time going backwards to clear it. I took on more ground and needed to go faster so I got a Fahr 3 point drum mower. It worked super good, much faster cut cleaner, but I took on more ground and needed to get the hay dried down faster so I got an International 990 mower conditioner. It worked great, made better hay faster, but I took on more ground, you can see that this is a hobby out of control, so I got a nine foot New Holland Discbine. It is fast, crimps very well and when properly adjusted it doesn't mind the occasional hitting of a rock. I have downsized considerably from the 95 acres that I used to do. The big question is the availability of your time.
 
I got a DRUM mower this season. Has certainly revolutionized my hay cutting. I got the 7 footer, can mow twice as fast as with a sickle. No clogging, can run as fast as I can ride. Blades cost $10 a set, can be replaced in under 15 minutes.
Drum mower
 
If your Ford worked good for you then get anouther machine like it and the closest you will come to that is the New Holland. And like the others say the disk-drum you can cut twice as fast, well I when making hay never had a field smooth enough to travel that fast, speed would have been the same and with a narrower machine like they talk about capacity would be less. With the machines you have had I dought you would have a tractor that you could actually ride at the speeds they talk about with the disk-drum mowers.
 
Find yourself a discbine of some type based on a Kuhn bar... unless you're pounding over a lot of rough land or rocks. Then you're probably better off with a 3 point mounted straight disc mower bar. For that I would only go with a Kuhn GMD design.
Skip the drum mower.... They fall apart quicker than many realise or want to admit.

Rod
 
In the SFI video on the www the guy is demonstrating the speed factor. Yes he is having a rough ride of it but his point is to illustrate that if you can hang on, it'll cut.

My time saver is as mentioned; the constant clogging of the sickle. I have an air seat in my Branson (pump up compressor and all) and it rides really well including the fact that being 4wd the front tires are of a large diameter.

Cutting my hay patch, which I harrowed flat before planting, is fast. On pasture, where dry weather has cracked open Houston Black Clay, it is slower.

Really guys, I'm talking them up on here as I never hear about them and they are a great cutter for the smaller operator.

Mark
 
I bought a SFI drum mower to replace my JD 39N sickle bar. The drum mower sure has made my life a little easer. I cut a bahia mix in North East Texas, it's tough stuff but the drum mower rips right through it as fast as I can drive.
The cons are:
1. It leaves the hay in a windrow as it exits the drum cutter.
2. you will most likely need front end weight as in transport mode the mower is a lot of weight pointed backwards. ( makes the front end light)

Lots of good advice in this thread.
Would help to know the location and size of your operation.

Andrew
 
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