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lavacarancher

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Just finished reading the post on "Rotary Mowers" and it's kinda interesting the equipment brand differences between what you folks use where you are and us folks down South. For example, you folks talk about using 16' mowers (or bigger) and cutting a 100 acres a day. Don't know how you do that. I have a 9' 6" Kuhn that runs all day without breaking but it will choke a 140HP tractor (IH 1486). Usually have to drop down to 2nd or 3rd gear when cutting. Also I have heard of Heston, and Vermeer equipment but rarely see any of it in the field. The other brands you mention I've never heard of. Swathers are something else that is foreign to us (me). For my operation a swather would just mean one more piece of equipment to maintain. And I haven't seen a sickle type mower being used to cut hay in 20 years, maybe more. Seems to me hitting a rock with a sickle mower would be catastrophic with hair, teeth and eyeballs being spit all over the place.

I'm not saying any of this is bad, just different. By the way, our (my) hay grasses are Coastal Bermuda, Bluestem, Gordo Bluestem, Bohia, Tifton 85, Jiggs.
 
I hit lots of rock with my sickle mower, change lots of section and guards but I have been told with the rocks we have a discbine would be worse.I had a 18ft New Holland pivot tongue haybine and switched to 2 -18ft double 9 sickle mowers. Put it together with a 18 wheel V rake and roll it up with a Vermeer 506N round baler.
I'm sure parts of the country/continent have different methods for there particular area. I'm the only one around here that I know of that uses mowers but lots of guys use sickle bar haybines.
 
I hit my share of rocks with my discbine, blades are quicker, easier and cheaper than guard and sections. Gcreek cuts hay in a rock quarry with a disbine, and can tell us what his maintenance difference is over the sickle bar haybines.
Every area seems to have it's ways of doing things.
 
Silver said:
I hit my share of rocks with my discbine, blades are quicker, easier and cheaper than guard and sections. Gcreek cuts hay in a rock quarry with a disbine, and can tell us what his maintenance difference is over the sickle bar haybines.
Every area seems to have it's ways of doing things.


I guess I won't know for sure until I try one but have also been told it would be a ragged cut in this thin dry stuff we grow/ :???:
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Silver said:
I hit my share of rocks with my discbine, blades are quicker, easier and cheaper than guard and sections. Gcreek cuts hay in a rock quarry with a disbine, and can tell us what his maintenance difference is over the sickle bar haybines.
Every area seems to have it's ways of doing things.


I guess I won't know for sure until I try one but have also been told it would be a ragged cut in this thin dry stuff we grow/ :???:

Thinking your rocks are smaller, loose ones. They and discbines don't like each other. You can get lift kits but then you would be over top of your crop.........
 
been told rotary won't cut thin hay, well I found out it cut about the same as a sickle bar. they both push lite stuff over. now on a hydro swing rotary , Rolan Gardner (Rulon Brother) custom cuts with one , he hate rock just smaller then your head on the end of a turn , when the tractors at a 90degrees with the header. He says side doors are a lot more expensive then back windows...
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
I hit lots of rock with my sickle mower, change lots of section and guards but I have been told with the rocks we have a discbine would be worse.I had a 18ft New Holland pivot tongue haybine and switched to 2 -18ft double 9 sickle mowers. Put it together with a 18 wheel V rake and roll it up with a Vermeer 506N round baler.
I'm sure parts of the country/continent have different methods for there particular area. I'm the only one around here that I know of that uses mowers but lots of guys use sickle bar haybines.

I look at new swathers and wonder "did they think they were building a combine, or what?!" them things are huge, hi powered and priced accordingly. And to replace the mower I started out with?!

What you're doing makes total sense to me---and i'll bet sundrying full width for a bit beats buying,maintaining and powering conditioners all to heck.
 
I use a rowse double 9 for my haying dries quicker use 16 wheel rake, I do find in the fine grasses that it streaks I have seen windrowers do the same.
 
I've heard a Claas triple mower will cut 30 acres an hour. We scrape it off and flip 50 blades in 20 minutes. Grease in about the same. Last year I swathed a big half circle of alfalfa and hauled the MacDon home in ten hours on a good day. The Claas will road there and back after swathing in about 3 hours. It will cut 40 acres of smooth hay per hour. Scrapes over the short stuff and bounces across rocks like all of them. Three decks cut 35 feet, nearly full width conditioners. I'd like to say it saves drying time but this year you can't tell for the humidity. It will stay ahead of 2 balers running 4 hours a day. Yes it cuts for more than 2 balers, but that's all we have. Had to get another rake outfit and trade some baling. I don't think we know how many acres it will cut in a full day, but I saw a circle cut after 5 pm a couple weeks ago and he stopped for a quick supper. Done by 9. I'm not bragging but this machine is amazing. Yes, a bunch is custom work.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Silver said:
I hit my share of rocks with my discbine, blades are quicker, easier and cheaper than guard and sections. Gcreek cuts hay in a rock quarry with a disbine, and can tell us what his maintenance difference is over the sickle bar haybines.
Every area seems to have it's ways of doing things.


I guess I won't know for sure until I try one but have also been told it would be a ragged cut in this thin dry stuff we grow/ :???:

They do prefer a heavier crop.
 
I traded a 18ft New Holland 1475 haybine off my first Kosch double 9 hydraulic drive mowers and picked up a set a year newer then mine. If I can get 2 operators we can knock a bunch of hay down in a hurry.
I sold my 14 wheel piece of junk rake and bought a Bridgeview 18 wheel to stuff the Vermeer 605N. We can get the hay up in a hurry "If" I can keep operators in the seats and everything running.
 
Been pretty happy with the 605n until this year broke the main drive roll. It has a 1.75" hex shaft running through it, shaft broke off flush with outside end of roll, just an inch or so from the bearing. Took almost a week to get the $1500 part. I was pretty sad about that. Been an incredible baler otherwise.
 
Used to hear grow back on alfalfa was faster with sickle mower over a disc mower. So far as I can tell, there isn't a grow back difference.

Now I hear you have to remove and sharpen blades on a disc mower every day. Can that be so?
 
Brad we just flip them over then change them as needed. That varies with conditions but I would guess a set lasts 500 acres.
 
I run the grinder over the blades when they look poor while they are on the machine. Takes 5 minutes to touch them up. I only flip them over when the end gets rounded off, and only change them when overly bent or broken or both ends to rounded.
 
What do newer mowers have for guards?

Still got a farmall A with mounted mower here--'36 or so---mow driveway and ditches very occasionally with it. Single heavy guard with ledger plate.
 
Silver said:
I run the grinder over the blades when they look poor while they are on the machine. Takes 5 minutes to touch them up. I only flip them over when the end gets rounded off, and only change them when overly bent or broken or both ends to rounded.

Same here Silver, we should pay the freight on the knives those rich Americans are throwing away. Might be cheaper than new............
 

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