new at haying

[bjr]

I second the Drum Mower. I've never grew hay before and I only have a 35 hp imported tractor and someone suggested a drum mower and it's been a good investment. Now if I can only make that old NH 269 tie a bale of hay. bjr

 

[flusher]

Hello, I have a Mccormick 40hp, and I am wondering what cutter/mower, small baler and rake would work best for that size of tractor?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks.

I assume you mean 40 hp on the pto. If so, a small baler like my Massey Ferguson 124 would work (manufacturer recommends 35 hp pto minimum). Much smaller tractors like the Farmall Super A have been used to run balers this size on mostly level hayfields with no problems. See this video

FARMALL Super A - YouTube

The baler portion is about 6 minutes into the show.

I'd pay the money ($3-4K) and get a small drum mower. Old sicklebars are a PITA to get working properly and are prone to clogging. Rebuilt sicklebars run around $1.5-2K. New ones are $5K+.

Wheel rakes are inexpensive, but could contaminate the hay with dirt and rocks if you're not careful in setting them up. Old side delivery rakes (ground-driven) are available all over the place and are a good choice. Mine is a Deere 350 (3pt hitch model that's pto driven). The pros tend to like rotary rakes which run in the $3K+ range depending on size.

Good luck.

 

[Nissan197]

I only had a 10 acre field to bale this year, but my Mahindra 3215 was able to handle it all. I used an 8 ft. MF Dynabalance sickle to cut, an old McCormick-International rake, and a IH 37 square baler. I was able to get all the used equipment for around 2K. I was always in L 2 to bale, but with the amount of grass I had I wouldn't have been able to go much faster. The PTO HP is around 27. The bales turned out to be around 45 - 50 lbs. Next year I will be making them heavier; thinking around 60 lbs. This year was the first time I ever baled and next year I will make sure I preplan a lot better. I just assumed I would get around 500 bales and didn't have my barn organized too well and did not have much help lined up to pick the bales up. I ended up with around 1,800 bales and was scrambling to find room in my barn. I got to the point where I had to store over 100 bales in the neighbors barn. For my first time I thought things went pretty well. I was pretty impressed with the sickle. At times it clogged, but it was not very often. The baler would miss tying a knot every so often, but I expected that from a machine that is 40+ years old. Good luck to you. Just make sure you check all of your equipment over real well and keep everything greased up.

 

[flusher]

I only had a 10 acre field to bale this year, but my Mahindra 3215 was able to handle it all. I used an 8 ft. MF Dynabalance sickle to cut, an old McCormick-International rake, and a IH 37 square baler. I was able to get all the used equipment for around 2K. I was always in L 2 to bale, but with the amount of grass I had I wouldn't have been able to go much faster. The PTO HP is around 27. The bales turned out to be around 45 - 50 lbs. Next year I will be making them heavier; thinking around 60 lbs. This year was the first time I ever baled and next year I will make sure I preplan a lot better. I just assumed I would get around 500 bales and didn't have my barn organized too well and did not have much help lined up to pick the bales up. I ended up with around 1,800 bales and was scrambling to find room in my barn. I got to the point where I had to store over 100 bales in the neighbors barn. For my first time I thought things went pretty well. I was pretty impressed with the sickle. At times it clogged, but it was not very often. The baler would miss tying a knot every so often, but I expected that from a machine that is 40+ years old. Good luck to you. Just make sure you check all of your equipment over real well and keep everything greased up.

Glad that MF sickle worked for you. I've struggled several seasons with my MF 31, also Dynabalance, trying to get a good cut. Still not working like it should. I'm going to a drum mower.
Grass? I assume you mean native grass, not a planted crop.
Your numbers add up to a little over 4 tons per acre, which is similar to what my neighbor gets off his irrigated alfalfa hayfield. You must have had a lot of rain this season in your part of KS.
Anyway, nice going.

 

[Ross71]

I was looking to buy a mower this season and could have bought an 8' sickle bar mower at a good price. I can't afford to buy machinery that isn't up to the task, so I asked some advice from an old guy who comes around my bosses farm, as I don't know a single working farmer who uses a sickle. "Don't touch it" was his reply. He told me all about how they are prone to getting clogged up, blunting, loosing teeth etc, and "when you think you've finished for the day and then have to spend an hour getting it fixed for the next day". He reckoned that when disk mowers came along they were a dream- haymaking without the work was his words. Just one (experienced)man's opinion, but I listened. I'm saving my money to buy a drum mower for next year.

 

[keegs]

The sickle bar mower clogs easily and backing away from a clog kills time. I've had some issues with the cutter bar but it is pretty easy to maintain it seems. I've been told that if you know had to use one and it's in proper working order they'll do the job. I can cut the veg that grows on the banks of the pond and there are sections of my driveway that drop off that the sickle bar can easily access.

What will a decent drum mower set you back?

 

[Ross71]

About £1500-£1800, which is around the $2500 mark. A fair chunk of money, but the work is there for it

Ross

 

[IloveJesus]

Thanks everyone for replying lots of good useful info. I found someone to cut it for me for this year, which saves me some time. So thanks again.

 

[IloveJesus]

Thanks Ross71, that seems to be the way to go for sure!!