SFI Vineyard drum mower

[dkalten]

Does anyone have any experience with the SFI vineyard drum mowers?

 

[dkalten]

I like the idea of the mower being directly behind the tractor, with no weight off to the side. However I wonder how it mows with tractor tires pushing down the hay in front of the mower.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I don't have any experience with that mower but I know with my discbine it doesn't like cutting where the hay has been ran over already. Well at least not in the same direction. Are you looking at this for open field haying? If so I would go with a standard mower, in vineyards and orchards the wheel tracks are generally worn down already making it a non-issue as we run the same tracks every time we go down the rows. This mower is designed to mow the grass that is left mostly untouched in the row centers. To be honest though I am surprised they built a mower for this, the amount of chemicals we use would turn me off from feeding the hay to any animals. There are re-entry intervals and minimum days before harvest regulations that we use to minimize the amount of chemicals that are actually on the fruit and when harvested and even then you still wash it before eating it. The hay would be cut and baled with their system during our main spray season so there will definitey be spray residue all over the grass.

 

[Mini Baler Guy]

Does anyone have any experience with the SFI vineyard drum mowers?

We have noticed no issues cutting through Burmuda Grass, Johnson Grass, Bahaia Grass with the tires laying the hay down and keeping it down, the mower has a standard 2" cutting height and can be elivated with a simple modification. We pulled an 8ft vinyard mower on the back of a Massey 1533 which has 26PTO HP through light Costal Burmuda grass with no isses. We promote the mowers to allow people to cut wider with less hp and the mower is easy to hook up. One down fall is if you do not have a cab, and you hit a giant dirt pile you will get dirty.

 

[flusher]

Does anyone have any experience with the SFI vineyard drum mowers?

I've never seen a drum mower used in orchards around here. Flail mowers and brush hogs, but not drum mowers.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I've never seen a drum mower used in orchards around here. Flail mowers and brush hogs, but not drum mowers.

The mower he is referring to is for people who want to bale the grass growing between the rows. It isn't an item I've ever seen in use either but unless the farm is running organic I wouldn't want the hay anyway.