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Haying equipment

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Jake

07-15-2003 08:08:30




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I have a JD 70 Gas and a JD 720 diesel standard. I want to get rigged for hay. I have about 20 acres of hayable ground. I have a 2 bottom pull plow, a 8' JD disk and a 7' cultivator.

My land is 5 acres highland ground with clay soils, and the other 15 ares is a wet meadeaw that I am going to ditch and drain. Its peat/organic type soils.

I am going to grow reed canary grass on the wet ground, which will grow very high and thick.

Can I use a sickle mower, and a square baler in the thick wet ground? If so, what is a few good models of sickle, rake and balers for me to start 'yard hawking'!

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John /Wa

09-01-2003 08:01:08




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 Re: haying equipment in reply to Jake, 07-15-2003 08:08:30  
I have a small area of reed canary that I've been cutting with a JD 501 6' on my Kubota B-8200. I had to replace the swath board a couple times. Then I got smart and used two pieces of 1/2 treated plywood. I also have the grass stick on it which helps a lot. I had to manufacture new longer arms for the three point hitch to fit the mower on my tractor. I also replaced all the knives (took about an hour) and with it very sharp it cuts the reed canary just fine. If you happen to find one of these mowers and need a manual, Link has copies at very reasonable prices.

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Ken/Wa

07-19-2003 11:43:37




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 Re: haying equipment in reply to Jake, 07-15-2003 08:08:30  
I have been cutting a couple fields of canary grass for two years with my little AC B with a 5 foot sickle bar. I cut the first cutting with the sickle mower, and just did the second cut with the rotory mower. It is all my 8n wants to handle with a 4 foot cutter. The key on the sickle mower is having good sections, guards, and ledger plates. I believe the 5 foot bar is good for the canary grass also. I even tackled a field that had not been cut in 15 years. Very thick and matted at the bottom. My little B cut it fine, but on the next passes, the fallen grass was so thick, it was hard to keep from clogging up. I do not hve the kick board on the end of the bar, so may have worked better. I finally used my JD rotory cutter on my 8n, and took 2 feet at a time. Most people cut there field more than once every 15 years, so the sickle works fine. I like using my little B, but the grass thinks I want hay and grows faster when I cut it this way. It thinks twice about growing when I use the rotary cutter. I agree with the 16" to 24" statement on the canary grass. That is the height I cut last weekend, and if I was a cow or horse, I would have been in heaven. When it gets tall, it is all stalk. I can believe it has little protien in it. I have thought about suggesting to the owner about making hay, but having grown up on a 100 acre alfalfa farm, I did not think grass hay had much nutritional value.

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Sam

07-16-2003 07:10:54




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 Re: haying equipment in reply to Jake, 07-15-2003 08:08:30  
Reed canary gras makes fine hay if you can try to cut it when it is about 18-24 inches tall. About 18% protein. I used to make about 4 acres of it. Couple of problems are that sometimes I couldn't get on the ground in time for first cutting (too wet). Usually round baled first cutting just to get it off the field. After that it wasn't to bad. I've tried sickel bar mowers and it did'nt work at all for first cutting. Total waste of time. Got a 479 NH haybine. Worked very well. After first cutting you probably could use a sickel if you mow it before it gets tall. Protein content goes down when it gets taller. I did this for about 10 years. We sold it to all kinds of livestock owners. Never found an animal that wouldn't eat it. Even my wifes fussy horse loved it. In a drought year I always made a lot of hay off it. One year we baled it 5 times. Not bad for central Indiana.

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JMS/MN

07-15-2003 22:44:04




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 Re: haying equipment in reply to Jake, 07-15-2003 08:08:30  
Forty years ago, that's all we had, sickle mowers and square or AC round balers. For those few acres, it will still work. If you want to do it easier, get a Haybine or disc mower, if you can justify the cost.



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Chris L

07-15-2003 19:53:41




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 Re: haying equipment in reply to Jake, 07-15-2003 08:08:30  
I don't know if a sickle mower will cut that stuff or not - I would try it - cause I have a sickle mower ((albeit very old) - if it is real wet or snarled it might be slow going -



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paul

07-15-2003 08:11:57




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 Re: haying equipment in reply to Jake, 07-15-2003 08:08:30  
Low ground is hard to get the stuff to dry out, you might want a crimper involved. Also, you are gonna itch & scratch when handling those bales, peat is something else! :)

--->Paul



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