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Hay mower

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Taylor Lambert

11-23-2001 15:23:45




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Is a sickle bar mower andy good for cutting hay? Ive been given the permission to mow and hay 60 acres of land around an airport runway and a freind of mine wants the hay if i can cut it. I have a large sickle bar off a combine header and id hate to see it go to waste I thought of making it drive off the tractor pto or hydraulic motor to save mowing time and save the bar. The tractor ill be using is a 135 horse power. and has 3 remote circuits.

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Taylor Lambert

11-29-2001 06:30:47




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
Well yall have convinced me not to use my mower for hay cutting, but it works good for my second purpose i had in mind. Last night we went out to the landing strip which we let grow up and reseed itself, ahd i put the mower on the tractor it cuts perfcly and lays the grass down.
the 14 foot swath really cuts down mowing time alon the 3800 feet. we only made one swath with it because of the rain. The only thing that went wrong was my freind forgot hook up the return line on the hydraulic remotes and blew a hose. Ill try to post som pics soon as i get the digi cam figured out.

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john2510-3020

11-27-2001 16:56:32




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
guys i think you where getting teh wrong idea. what i ment was for some one trying to build his own mower nad never mowed hay before 60 acers will be alot to start off with especially if your mower plugs. WP we have been useing haybine almost since they came out and tehonly problem i have had is a bad bearing and that in 25 years of work. right now we have a total of 3 haybines and one diskmower. we use them consitintly and never have a prob. its just like any other machine if you keep maintnece up you wont have a problem. also you might be getting thing confused. is what you call a swather what i call a haybine? i dont guess i understand what you mean by you can get more hay per acers with a sickle mower....how do you figure that? its the same except the haybine can either windrow it or lay it out like a sickle mower..you dont loose anything by haveing a haybine...if anything you GAIN....you gain by productivity....speed and cutting efficiancy. a sickle mower can only mower top end 5mph. and thats pushing it my haybine you can run up to 7mph and the diskmower up to 12mph. that makes a big diff. weather you can tell or not. let me state also im not trying to get things started im just tryign to save the feller some grief.i think i have said about enough here so i will go.
john

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Whispering Pines

11-27-2001 23:44:30




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 Re: Re: Hay mower in reply to john2510-3020, 11-27-2001 16:56:32  
I'll agree that using a swather/haybine is the way to go IF you are putting up a lot of hay (ie. custom operation)and/or mowing alfalfa or other heavy crops. Of course you can cover more ground in a day's time and of course if any machine is well maintained break downs will be minimumal. My point is that if 60 acres is all the hay your going to put up and if you don't have much experience in haying, the expense of such a piece of machinery just isn't worth it. As far as trying to cobble up some homemade contraption, build it and try it on ditch weeds. Not on something that someone expects to have mown and for someone who is expecting the hay. Having a touch of experience in haying I still believe that for grass hay in smaller acreages a sicle mower is the way to go. Just my opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

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john2510-3020

11-28-2001 16:53:01




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 Re: Re: Re: Hay mower in reply to Whispering Pines, 11-27-2001 23:44:30  
yes wp i understand what your getting at. i dont think he ever mentioned if it was a temporary deal or plans on doing it for a while. if he wants to keep doing it it would be his intentions to get a small haybine(7') or so. if he only plans on doing it once i have a ford 501 or 515 sickle mower i would gladly sell him. so this way he can get the feel of haying and decid if its in his blood or not to do this.
john

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Whispering Pines

11-26-2001 22:20:59




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
I've mown a kazillion acres of hay using both sickle mowers and swathers. I'll disagree with some of the previous posts. 60 acres is not a lot of hay but, it will seem like a million if you try to do it with a homemade mower made from combine parts. You could mow this in no time with a sickle mower and much less expensivly than with a swather. To start with 60 acres isn't enough to justify the initial exopense of a swather. Secondly swathers have more parts therefore more things to break down and need to be replaced. Sickle mowers will mow grass that can't be mown with a swather and you generally get more hay per acre with a sickle than swather. Generally sickle mowers are idiot proof, easy to repair and fun to run (plug up a swather sometime, you'll invent words that will shock a sailer). Get something similar to and IH H and a trail mower get out there in the sun and enjoy the smell of new mown hay. Save the inventing for soemthing that hasn't already been invented. Remember your putting up somebody elses hay, they aren't going to be too happy when you have to revamp your invention or, (as I see it happening) scrapping the whole idea CUZ IT AIN"T GONNA WORK.

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Johnny in E.Tx

11-27-2001 14:11:28




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 Re: Re: Hay mower in reply to Whispering Pines, 11-26-2001 22:20:59  
I'm with W.P., 60 acres ain't that much. I have a total of almost 60 acres I do by myself but only 20 acres at a time, I round bale every bit of it and I work a full time job. My neighbor works almost a full time job and he told me this year he put up 900, 4'x6' round bales by himself. I usually mow a 20 acre meadow in about 3 hours, if all goes well and get 3 cuttings per year using a New Idea 522 sickle and Hesston 5545 round baler.

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john2510-3020

11-26-2001 18:03:18




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
hey man no offens but i think your a little on the nutty side..... cutting 60 acers of hay with a sickel mower is gonna be a chore...id doesent matter the size or hp but how fast you can run. i would think the sickle ofa combine would be between 10 and 15'? if its around 12' by the end of the day you'll be sorry. we run a custome haying operation and use a diskmowers and haybines that are just 9' and soemtime it makes a person wounder why he ever got in to it. you may be able ot mount it on your dozer frame but you'll have to mount it to the side where you can watch the bar and for obsticals. being out front like that is sorta a long way out ther i would think. do you plan on doing this every year? if so just break down and spend some money i boughtr my 990 9' haybine for a little under $500 and it works better then new. dont try to save money on something like this cause all it will do is lead to trouble. have you thought about finding a smaller tractor to use? we get along just fine and we put up around 300 to 1000 acers a year with a 50hp tractor 60 hp tractor a 100hp and a 140hp v-8 massy tractor. we'll use the 60hp and 100hp to mow with and the 50 hp to rake with and teh 140 hp to bale with. if you do attempt this be careful its not a race to see who can get done the fastest. personally i dont think the set-up will work but then a gain i have never attempted this either....try it and see but you'll be sorry im telling ya.
i have rattled on enough here so ill let you go.
john

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Bandit

11-27-2001 10:03:29




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 Re: Re: Hay mower in reply to john2510-3020, 11-26-2001 18:03:18  
Doing any amount of hay is a chore. 60 acres isn't that much. My compadre and I put up 600 bales in one day one time, using nothing more than a sickle bar. We worked from dawn to dusk, but it can be done. With that much land, you could start one guy to mowing, wait him out about an 45 minutes and take to raking after him. That how we did it anyway. It's really good on a hot day! :)



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Kermit in SW MO.

11-26-2001 06:50:32




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
I've used a New Holland sickle bar mower for years to cut my hay with. It's easy to mount, easy to work on, easy to use, and it cuts hay with the best of 'em. I use mine every spring at hay time.



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Canadian Cowboy

11-25-2001 17:17:09




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
your idea should work, keep your cutting bar 4-6 inches off the ground so you don't drive straight into any rocks. You night have problems watching your cutting bar, thast generaly why the yare mounted behind or off to the side of the tractor, Sit high in the seaT, lol

The other thing to consider when your welding awayon this project is you wann be able to adjust the picth of the cutting bar. if the grass is thick Ive found by angling the cutter bar putting the teeth pointing a little to the ground helps the grass fall back instead of getting bound up with uncut hay and being dragged in a big ball.

Howq far is the cutter bar gonna be mounted from the front tire, if its to close the grass might not beable to fall completly flat before the tires run over it, you might get a big bound up of cut grass has,

just some things to think about,

good idea though,

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Taylor Lambert

11-24-2001 21:35:26




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
I I ve only used a sickle bar mower for cutting weeds on the cub. Ive got the bar off the combine and attached a hydraulic motor to the rig. The outfit i wont really need a a 3 point ive decided to mount it on my tractors dozers frame out front. And utilize its float on the blade I made the back side of the sickle bar more strong buy bolting a plate to the back of the bar. I think the total cost in the whole thing now is 25 dollars minus 8 hrs today. its just my hobby building things to speed up production around here my freind is the Raker, bailer, hay guru lol. I do apreciate your help though best regaurds Taylor Lambert

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paul

11-24-2001 07:44:53




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
Sickle bar mowers work fine.

Building your own from a combine head would be a nightmare. What kinda drive is it, wobble box or pitman? Need a 3-point frame, pto, belt & pulleys to run it, lift mechanism designing this will be the killer - sickle bars need to float over the ground, you can't just drag it on the ground), backer bar (is yours a floating sickle bar or ridgid on the combine? Floating won't have any support, ridgid still won't have a strong enough backer for it, you'll need a very stiff, tapered steel bar with holes for the guards - where to get this for free?) - ugh. Just no way to do this practically.

Combine heads typically cut dead plant material of thicker stems and have a reel to help move the material by. A sickle bar mower is shorter because they have to cut lots of very fine stemmed grasses clumping through... Two totally different things, and so likely your sickle sections & guards won't be quite right for cutting fine-stemmed grass. Cutting 60 acres with this would be the most miserable experience of your life.

Sixty acres of hay is a lot, there is no way to make shortcuts on implements with that much land.

--->Paul

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John Ne.

11-23-2001 23:09:52




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
to cut hay you got the choice of a 7 ft. sickle mower,,, a nine foot sickle,,, or a swather/haybine/windrower,, different names,, depending where you are in the country. the rotarys are faster,, don't plug as easy. Not the maintenance of a sickle mower either. Building a mower out of a combine head,,,, stuff for nightmares,,,, John Ne.



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Joe

11-23-2001 17:08:09




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
I wouldn't even attempt to try to make my own sickle mower. Salvaging this bar off an old combine (what is it, propably 12-14 ft?) and then trying to rig a workable mower is just not going to work very well. Another post said you need a regular swather; well, you do. A sickle mower will cut most hay just fine. A disc mower/swather is better. This sounds like a temporary arrangement you've got here and you probably don't want to go out and spend several thousand dollars on a good sickle or disc cutter. Could you borrow or rent one for this one time and see how it goes?

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T.J.-N.J.

11-23-2001 16:49:03




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
60 acres is a lot of hay to put up for one guy part time. You already have a big tractor you need to get a haybine,and you should be able to handle a big one at that.You are looking at a serious investment in equipment to do your buddy a favor. I would recomend you learn the hay business the way most of us did by helping some one else and then you will know what you need to get, the old man taught me lessons that would have taken me years to figure out on my own and would have cost me a bundle. Try helping someone else out first and you might find that you don't even like doing hay It is hard work. just a few thoughts I had T.J.

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Murray Dunn

11-23-2001 16:01:00




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
If youhave not had enough experience cutting hay to know the use of a sickle mower, why do youthink you know enough about one to make one? I do not want to apper sarcastic but you must face the facts



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Murray Dunn

11-23-2001 15:59:52




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 Re: Hay mower in reply to Taylor Lambert, 11-23-2001 15:23:45  
If youhave not had enough experience cutting hay to know the use of a sickle mower, why do youthink you know enough about one to make one? I do not want to apper sarcastic but you must face the facts



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capt hook

11-23-2001 20:25:05




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 Re: Re: Hay mower in reply to Murray Dunn, 11-23-2001 15:59:52  
being as how they've cut hay with a scickle bar for the last 150yrs or so id say it must be a pretty good way to do it



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