Small MoCo's??

[jimg]

Yes, or the 3pt mocos. I asked the Kuhn guy at Field Day and he seemed not too interested to sell one. He thought the trailer mower was the better product.

 

[mark.r]

Yes, or the 3pt mocos. I asked the Kuhn guy at Field Day and he seemed not too interested to sell one. He thought the trailer mower was the better product.

Maybe so but with out the ability to efficiently trailer a pull behind moco than I would say he is missing the point. Urbanization is real and 3pt. mocos like Vicon's look mighty tempting.

 

[jimg]

Mark
I know...didnt make sense to me either. He did mention resale value but usually Im looking to ownership for the long term. By the time Im done w/ it Ive gotten my $$ worth. Think he was also concerned I didnt have 'enough tractor' to counter balance it....although my tractor was w/i the published rating.

 

[mark.r]

Mark
I know...didnt make sense to me either. He did mention resale value but usually Im looking to ownership for the long term. By the time Im done w/ it Ive gotten my $$ worth. Think he was also concerned I didnt have 'enough tractor' to counter balance it....although my tractor was w/i the published rating.

I hear you. I know I've probably beaten the idea of my equipment being mobile to death but it's a real issue that we in my area have to deal with. Many of the fields that are close buy are currently already being cut by someone so unless I can get in early or get lucky and grab a few of those I will have to go further out from my place to get those 10, 15, 20 plots to square bale. That in itself may not be a bad idea anyway but it means be able to get EVERYTHING from the tractor to the baler to the mower on a gooseneck at some point if those pieces of land are miles and miles from my place. I'm not looking to make 10 trips shuttling equipment to and from.

 

[jimg]

Youre situation is a good bit like most of New England...much of the land has been split up into tiny fields that want smaller equipment and to get any sort of production you need to have several. Those several could be miles apart. If you wind up hauling equipment around youre going to need some high power organization to keep expenses to a min. or cultivate a market close to the fields. An alternative is to simply custom bale...which has its own set of problems.

 

[mark.r]

Youre situation is a good bit like most of New England...much of the land has been split up into tiny fields that want smaller equipment and to get any sort of production you need to have several. Those several could be miles apart. If you wind up hauling equipment around youre going to need some high power organization to keep expenses to a min. or cultivate a market close to the fields. An alternative is to simply custom bale...which has its own set of problems.

That's pretty much the deal. There are still significant large properties around but of course they are being actively farmed some those are out unless you get lucky and you find someone who is downsizing or god forbide hits a hard spot and doesn't want to farm their whole plot for a season. So it really is a bunch of small plots where you running around much like a giant lawn care service would be except your cutting hay for your profit/use . . . unless like you said you are doing custom stuff. I could see doing some brush cutting for hire but I'm not really interested in doing haying for hire. Do it on shares maybe an option however . . . especially for cows as you not quite kept to the same crazy schedule as horse hay.

 

[Bob_Young]

The maneuverability of the mo-co is almost all in the tractor driving it.

I don't understand that statement; but maybe it's true on some equipment. My only exposure to MoCo's is the JD956 which I've been running a lot lately for a neighbor. For as big as that thing is, it'll work about anywhere it'll fit and it's incredibly precise. I'd say it's manueverability is almost all in the skill and courage of the operator.

The neighbor's got hay on a lot of odd shaped postage stamp sized fields scattered all over and the 956 amazes me at how well it does on them. If you can get it into the field, it'll clean it up. Only time it screws up is on steep and wet sidehills where it'll slide out of the swath if conditions are bad enough. But, if you raise it enough to put some weight on the tires, it hangs in there OK.

Road transport is another matter. You've got to be on your toes with mailboxes and other traffic...though I've gotten adept at steering the mower onto the shoulder for oncoming traffic, then sashaying it out to get around mailboxes when the coast is clear. Plus, you need close to $30K to buy one and at least 100HP to run one. Probably a smaller version would cost almost as much and there'd be no market. Impressive machine, though.

It seems odd to be mowing with equipment this big & sophisticated. 50 years ago, the job got done with an 8N or Farmall H and a sickle bar mower. No one complained; that was the way it was done. Sometimes I think we've let things get out of hand.
Bob

 

[AKfish]

Small postage stamp farms and fields here in this part of Alaska, too. And narrow gravel roads (with mailboxes...).

Large farm in this area is 160 acres. Of course, lot's of trees and wet, swampy areas interspersed here and there that you have to work (mow) around. Housing development and folk's wanting to live outside of the city limits is the direction that things are goin' as well.

High volume, big production machine is not anything that fits the landscape or the reality of the type of hay, either. With only 1 cutting per season (8 out of 10 years) and only a ton/acre average yield; a 14' cutter is way more machine than is necessary (unless you do ALOT of custom work)!

I've been lookin' at the neighbor's old, JD 350 3pt sickle mower (7') and it would certainly do the job... but the conditioner can really make a good hay year a "great" hay year if you can get the hay off the ground 1-2 days earlier than a straight cut field.

Especially during a year like we're currently experiencing -- one neighboring farmer just lost 1/3 of his hay to rain (we got 86 very marginal, bales) and the fellow up the road has nearly 1/2 of his hay on the ground right now and it's been rained on for 2 days straight! We were hoping to get 150 bales from him and now it's lookin' like we'll have to truck hay in from up north or buy hay from the lower 48 states or Canada. Either way; my hay bill this year will likely be in the $3,500-$4,000 range for 2 head of horses!

(I've heard that the Brits and French consider horse to be a fine menu item... might have to review my family's dietary requirements!)

AKfish

 

[mark.r]

Small postage stamp farms and fields here in this part of Alaska, too. And narrow gravel roads (with mailboxes...).

Large farm in this area is 160 acres. Of course, lot's of trees and wet, swampy areas interspersed here and there that you have to work (mow) around. Housing development and folk's wanting to live outside of the city limits is the direction that things are goin' as well.

High volume, big production machine is not anything that fits the landscape or the reality of the type of hay, either. With only 1 cutting per season (8 out of 10 years) and only a ton/acre average yield; a 14' cutter is way more machine than is necessary (unless you do ALOT of custom work)!

That about sums it up in this are as well. It gets a bit different the further you go west and northwest out from Washington DC. As you said, the last thing I need is a 13ft. cutter of any kind. 9 to 10 ft. would be more than enought in a pull type or 3pt. type.

 

[Renze]

Doesn't JD have hitch now that is also good to > 90deg turns too?

doesnt JD still repaint Kuhn equipment ?