Weight and hp of a Ford 1900?
I missed where you live too, is it dry, how many bales per acre do you normally get?
Without knowing that, can you hire the guy who normally hays to mow for you? A decent mower conditioner is $$$.
The options are:
mounted disc/drum/sickle bar - these mount on your 3 point hitch, generally no conditioning rollers in the sizes you are talking about.
Used single action sickles cheap, annoying if you don't know know how to setup, many times have poor repair work on them. Slow.
Drum, cheap, available new for decent price, simple, blades cheap easy to repair.
Disc, works similar to drum, more complicated / expensive to buy and repair, cheap blades, the best option for tough crops of all sorts.
Double action sickles, I don't know anything about them. Hear they cut almost on par with disc and drums.
Trailed Mower Conditioners:
disc / drum / sickle bar varieties.
Drum are near impossible to find so don't even worry.
Disc are $$ if in good shape, not worth the bother if in poor shape. A good disc m-c is the standard hay mowing tool now.
Sickle bar m-c can be had cheap, some are in bad shape some are in great shape. For your acres, this would be the area to look at if you need conditioning. Check the conditioning rollers, don't bother if the rubber is coming off, it is $$ to fix. Look under the side the pto shaft goes into, there is an arm attached to the sickle bar, check for leaks from the gear box this goes into. Check chains and sprockets for wear.
For more info go to
www.ytmag.com in the implements forum.
