Best Hay Year on record!!!!!!!!!

Now about those 5 ton yields per cutting..... .... That's why I had to go with the disc mower, isn't ammonium nitrate grand :-).

CCM drum mowers for small utility and large compact tractors

--->Paul

In wet years, I'm sure the volume is there, but I hear most of it is baled with rain damage.

My haybine busted right at the start of harvest. Just finished 1st cutting yesterday, all done with my 501 sickle. Sure glad I had it, the weather window was there & I got a crop.

--->Paul

In wet years, I'm sure the volume is there, but I hear most of it is baled with rain damage.

My haybine busted right at the start of harvest. Just finished 1st cutting yesterday, all done with my 501 sickle. Sure glad I had it, the weather window was there & I got a crop.

--->Paul

--->Paul

Actually, one of the best years for hay - hope we get 'conditions like this year' every year!!! Dry winter, cool damp early spring, been quite dry now for the last 2 weeks - could use some rain, it's forcast for the next 5 days.

Don't really know what a 'drum mower' is, no one here in southern MN uses one.The small outfits use a sickle mower, the medium outfits use a moco (sickle, fading into disc) and the big outfits use a big moco & chop it into an Agbag.

No one uses a drum mower, really haven't figured out what that is yet. Sounds too narrow to be productive, from previous posts. Don't want to cut in the rain, as the heavy clay soils here keep the moisture, the hay never dries out even if the sun comes out the next day - ground wicks the moisture up intot he cut hay, & it never dries out. Must work someplace, but not here. In adition, the clay soil becomes slick & gooy pretty quick, don't want to rut up my field; the ground quickly squishes as you drive over it, ruining the previous swath of hay that you drive on.

Just so totally _not_ the way hay making can work _here_. Not knocking it for the locations it does work. But 'here' it's just a gosh-aweful idea all the way around.

--->Paul

would that be productive enough for you?

Your scorn for those of us who don't buy the latest/greatest/most-expensive equipment is why I would *never* buy anything from CCM should I ever decide to replace my older equipment. I'm not sorry I'm just a small-timer without your decades of experience, because I do alright doing it "my way."

Tom A

What is a drum mower exactly? How is it different from, say, a disc mower? Or a flail mower? Just curious.

Europe does have a lot of innovation in hay equipment, there aren't many dealers in this part of the country, but from the ads & farm papers I see a lot of high-capacity, newer style machines.

--->Paul

• Mini Drum Mower

The drum mower is basically the same cutting system as the disc mower. The drum mower actually came before the disc mower. The small drum mowers work great and pull with little HP. Drum mowers work best when there is an even number of rotating drums. So a 4 drum tractor needs 85 HP or so and cuts 9'. The 2 drum mowers match the large compact and utility tractor market to 60 HP. Any MFG drum mower is more rugged than a disc mower. We sell lots of disc mowers but 2-3 times as many drum mowers because of the tractor market. 96,000 compact tractors were sold last year in the USA, 40,000 - 40-75HP utility tractors and 5,000- 85HP and above were sold last year. Each tractor is a customer for implements. Look at the numbers and realize where the customers are and what size machines they need. The average 7' disc mower sells for $4,000. So a CCM drum mower for $1,800 that cuts the same as a disc mower looks appealing to someone harvesting 50 acres or less.

You could use a little polish on your selling technique - but I don't wish to bash you, you do provide good info in between your commercials. :)

Thanks for the info on the mowers. Seems the drum is driven from above, while the disc is driven from below? Similar principle tho.

People prefer conditioned hay here. By rollers - too much alfalfa is grown to use any type of impeller/ flail unit. For Roy, a mower conditioner with sickle will pull up down hay pretty well - I think you said they are not used in your country. But I agree, a disc or other rotory mower will certainly work head & shoulders above a sickle device - at increased expense & parts cost. For the large operators here, disc conditioners are the new best thing.

Life is always a trade off. :)

--->Paul