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ranch pictures 7-18-2013

J

jodywy

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
6,113
Location
Cabin Creek, Carlile,Wyoming

Sue bent a couple knifes cutting purple dry farm alfalfa

Sue lifting the curtains

We use a torque wrench to loosen then a 1/4 cordless 18 volt impact tool too spin bolt off then back on the use torque wrench again only takes a couple minutes to flip or change a set of knifes


one hill about done
 
It's good to see some hay on the ground. You need to buy Sue a pair of leather gloves. Those darn blades are sharp and a good way to slice up your hands and fingers.... and I'm speaking from experience.
 
I could have my whole hay field cut in 10 minutes with one of those... :D . I hope you are back to 100% real soon!
 
That Sue is a good woman!

That is a rotary swather, right? So how do you like it on dryland hay?
We hear John Deere is only going to make rotary swathers from now on,
but the other heads will be available. No one that we know of has a
rotary around here right now, but they are being talked about. Some
friends had peas that were really high and the wind knocked them down
so they couldn't cut them with their regular swather. JD brought down a
rotary and the boys said that was just the the thing for those lodged peas.
Worked really, really well.
 
Faster horses said:
That Sue is a good woman!

That is a rotary swather, right? So how do you like it on dryland hay?
We hear John Deere is only going to make rotary swathers from now on,
but the other heads will be available. No one that we know of has a
rotary around here right now, but they are being talked about. Some
friends had peas that were really high and the wind knocked them down
so they couldn't cut them with their regular swather. JD brought down a
rotary and the boys said that was just the the thing for those lodged peas.
Worked really, really well.
Click to expand...
mine is a old beater but when you can swath 9ft high reeds canary grass at 10 mph they are a big wow, bets thing for irrigated meadows, Dry farm hills and rocks slow it down some but still way faster then a sickle bar.
Went to high school with the salesmen that sold it to me , told me in the last 2 years he sold 4 out Cokeville way big hay ranches , all 4 had GPS and auto steer and will cut faster them mine's road speed . There 3-4 other self-propelled around the valley here, NH,JD they cut a lot of hay in a day a few pull ones around the tractors have expanded metal around the back and side windows.
 
Our neighbours bought one last year, a Challenger with a 16' header. That thing goes through hay like a hot knife through butter, until you hit a rocky field. Any rock sitting on the surface, and if you cut too low, you change more knives than the hay is worth in short order.

But on good going, it's amazing how many acres they can do in a day. Of course, if we could grow big hay crops in our country a 16' would be too much header, so it's not like it's anything to brag about.
 
A double nine will knock down a lot of hay and the rocks are more forgiving.I have both the discbine excels in heavy hay and the dbl. 9 in rocks and thinner hay.
 
Denny said:
A double nine will knock down a lot of hay and the rocks are more forgiving.I have both the discbine excels in heavy hay and the dbl. 9 in rocks and thinner hay.
Click to expand...

Denny are you talking about a 9' sickle bar or 9' swather? What do you mean by 'double 9'? (Hope you know what I am asking, not sure that
question makes a lot of sense.) :oops:

M. FH saw a dryland field cut with a rotary swather. It was JD and the harvested field looked pretty ragged, like the rotary swather had trouble cutting it.
 
I'm not Denny, but I am pretty sure he was talking about double nine sickle bars. I think he has double 9 Rowse mowers. As to the rotary cutting dryland, I don't likem just cause what you guys are seeing. Rough ground, you can't go fast enough to keepem full. Granted I have never run one either. :wink:
 
well my rotary cuts the dry farm pretty good, light hay it push over just as much as our 1499 would. as far rocks , there would always be2 to 5 broken guards at $15.15/each(last time I replace all of them I used anti seize on the bolts so they change quick with out breaking bolts) and say around a 5-6 over serrated section or more at $1.40 each..... rotary , knifes I use are $1.98, 10 discs =20 knifes that's less then 2 guards.
My dry farm hills we cut as fast or usually faster then a sickle swather.
one reason is the air ride seat and bigger tires.
 
We got a torque wrench set at 75 ft/lbs to torque the knife bolts, Will use it to loosen them then spin them out with a Makita 18 volt cordless 1/4 impact wrench. Spinning them back in some times the torque wrench will click the first pull. Have really been impressed with tool ,it has broke two 1/4 drivers, but sure is handy if you are taking a large shield off some thing , don't have to be at the shop and don't have to pull a air hose around .
 
Rocks, mud and rough ground are all we have. Our hay cutting repair bill got cut in half when we went to discbines.

I use a big crescent wrench to straighten knives if they aren't bent to badly. Generator and the angle grinder stay in the same field I'm cutting in for occasional sharpening. Fine grass will cut clean if the knives stay sharp. Ground speed is a touch faster too.
 
Had a neighbor trade for a pull type rotary. It was one of the drier years and in our thin dryland hay all it did was thin what was there a little. That and it broke several windows in the tractor cab. He couldn't trade back to sickle type soon enough. The extra speed wouldn't help me any, my fields are to rough to go over about 4 1/2 miles an hour.
 
Cedarcreek said:
Had a neighbor trade for a pull type rotary. It was one of the drier years and in our thin dryland hay all it did was thin what was there a little. That and it broke several windows in the tractor cab. He couldn't trade back to sickle type soon enough. The extra speed wouldn't help me any, my fields are to rough to go over about 4 1/2 miles an hour.
Click to expand...

Same here!

How is your area for rain, Cedarcreek? We haven't been that way. It's drier looking on the hills as you get more toward Glendive from Wibaux.
 
They tend to cut thin and fine hay better if you slow the engine rpm way down. That way the wind from the knives doesn't blow the grass down too low to cut.
We have rocks here too, and I would never go back to a sickle type haybine if I had a choice.
 
We use a NH 340 with a disc head and love it. When we bought it we had a NH 2550 swather with a 18' sickle head. But in tall orchard grass/alfalfa it was slow, but with the disc head you could motor right thru it. But the faster you run the worst it's going to cut. When I cut our oats I ran 9 mph and cut really good but that was oat hay also. I use a cordless impact gun to change all the knives and takes about 15 min.
 
tenbach79 said:
We use a NH 340 with a disc head and love it. When we bought it we had a NH 2550 swather with a 18' sickle head. But in tall orchard grass/alfalfa it was slow, but with the disc head you could motor right thru it. But the faster you run the worst it's going to cut. When I cut our oats I ran 9 mph and cut really good but that was oat hay also. I use a cordless impact gun to change all the knives and takes about 15 min.
Click to expand...

Do you only use a knife until it's dull the first time? I sharpen them so far on one side and then turn them over and do the same. Some knives will get arrow shaped before I change them.

Cedarcreek, my ground speed went from 3 to 4 MPH. :lol:
 
Its interesting how people have figured them out, and how now they will never get rid of them. Like I said before, all I have ever been around them was across the fence. Most guys would never dream of decreasing the engine speed. Thanks for the tip.
 
I change them a little before they get to that arrow shape. I think they arent to expensive so i would always try and keep new knives on most of the time. When we first got the machine we sharpened them but I felt that they wore out faster when we did that. I would cut our first cutting with brand new blades then after that I would flip them over. Then would get another cutting or two out of them. We are sandy and our hay fields would get mole mounds every where and if you have alot of monds out in a field they will chew up blades. We would run a gopher machine around and control them but the always come back.
 
thin hay My sickle knocks over as much as the rotary.
like when somebody here buys their first round baler.... they keep the small square because they need a few to go hunting etc..... most after a few years of non use end up selling the small baler.... gee I make a few smaller rounds for in the barns, or back of the pickup for horses on a elk hunt... :D
 

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