hay mowers

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color="blue"> You can't go too fast with hay </font>

I agree with that--Last evening after we closed the shop--I rolled 87 5x5 rolls with our M&W baler in 2 1/2 hours--I think that figures out to a 1400 pound roll of hay about every 1.7 Minutes--and 35 seconds of each 1.7 Minute cycle was the baler tying--I could have run a little faster, but my reaction time is not as quick as it was a few years ago--Ken Sweet
Sweet Farm Equipment Co. * Hay Specialistists*

 

[5030]

That's too fast for me. I like to take my time and smell the alfalfa so to speak. I average about 1.5 minutes per round on my 4 square baler. The tying cycle is about another minute.

People often ask us why we round 4 square bales and my answer is that horse people can handle them and the Amish have discovered that rounds are cheaper than squares and they can handle them without a tractor, as tractors are not part of their upbringing.

 

[HayDR]

Cowboydoc,
JD has a 467 Silage Special baler for dry and high moisture hay. Every standard Vermeer baler from the 5400 Rebel to the 605XL will bale haylage. The M&W 4500, using the Krone design, will bale both haylage and dry hay. In Europe: Claas, Krone, Welger, Pottinger and some others will bale both haylage and dry hay. When baling haylage the 4'x4' or the 5'x4' bales are about all one at a time wrappers will handle because of the extra weight from the moisture. The Tube-Line wrappers will handle 5'x5' bales.
Studies from NC State, Clemson, Auburn, & Tennessee universities concerning recommendations for baling dry hay forage is in the range of 12-18% moisture content. When you start baling dry hay above 22% moisture you start to lose protein. How does this happen? Bacteria, as the Doc knows, eats protein. When hay starts to heat up and the moisture content is there and the food source is there, you have a bacteria colony. The bacteria will flat eat most of the digestible protein and yet the hay looks good and tastes good to the animal. If an analysis is done on the hay little protein is present because the bacteria consumed it. Hay fed in this condition will cause cattle to lose weight.

 

[barticus73]

Well, got my mower in today. Less than 48 hours from time I called to delivery to my home. Not too bad!!!

Jerry /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[barticus73]

Hooked up the mower on Saturday and tried her out. Mowed a very thick timothy field in less than 20 minutes. That same field on a much less thick condition used to take me about an hour or more with my sickle bar mower. I couldn't even cut it this year with the sicklebar mower...too thick and twisted. But the disk didn't have any problems at all. So far so good!!

Jerry /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[HayDR]

barticus73,
Now that you have the capacity to mow at faster speeds it is very important not to mow in fields that you do not know. A property marker spike, rock or just any obstacle 2" high will do damage to your mower. Do not use a disc mower to clip your pasture, use a brush hog for this. Now what are you going to do with the extra time? LOL

 

[MikePA]

Mark, what do you recommend for cutting at the edge of a road, a sickle bar?

 

[HayDR]

MikePA,
The edge of a public road is the most dangerous place one can cut. Many loose objects are there and can become air borne if a disc mower is used. If it's a private road then it's up to your discretion. If its a choice between disc mower and a sickle mower for trimming I'd use the sickle most of the time. With a disc mower everything is moving so fast the margin of error is very small. The single action sickle mower is moving slow and the operator is as well so the margin of error is much greater. If a standard brush hog can not be used then a ditch bank rotary cutter is the best choice but that takes a large tractor and most farmers do not have a single use piece of equipment like this. Boom mowers are available for CUT's but they are in the $4,000- $5,000 range. For the money it's hard to beat the old single action sickle mower for trimming on the side of the road. The double action sickle mowers just are not as durable as the single action mowers and should not be used for trimming.

 

[JohnMiller3]

<font color="blue">...The edge of a public road is the most dangerous place one can cut. Many loose objects are there and can become air borne if a disc mower is used... </font>

A flail mower is normally used in this situation… (but no equipment is 100% safe or fool proof)

 

[HayDR]

Yes, John III you are correct. The safest mower is a Flail mower. If one could use a brush hog then a flail mower could be used in that situation. Side mounted Flail mowers are available but CUT's do not have enough mass for these mowers. The smallest boom mowers have flail or sickle heads and the larger CUT's can handle these small boom mowers.