Sickle Bar Too much horsepower for sickle mower?

[powerstroke444e]

I should have mentioned that we are looking at a sickle mower/conditioner. The hay is in a dry, clean field and is grass with scattered clover throughout. We do live in central Missouri though where weather is not always cooperative for drying. Mostly I am just worried about the mower holding up with the HP. We have a 540 PTO. Would we need to run it at real low Rpm?

540 pto is 540 rpm and has nothing to do with power. That being said I am running a 48inch sickle bar with 6hp gas motor but have used the 9 foot sickle on 200hp front assit jd it. The mower will hold up just depends on how you treat it.
With all mower conditioners I have used they need to be ran at rated pto speed to work correctly.

 

[scottsfarm]

I have used a Ford 501 sickle for the past few years and have had other brands before it here in Missouri. I did not have the money to drop on the fancy disc mowers. The sickle will work fine, however you have to take your time they will not set speed records.

 

[Rustyiron]

HP is like fun, money and sex, you can't have too much!

 

[RickB]

540 pto is 540 rpm and has nothing to do with power.

Driving a wooden pitman stick with 150hp guarantees that it will be shattered before the operator realizes that he hit something. The same sickle machine driven by much less HP will tolerate shock loads better. The amount of HP driving a machine has everything to do with how it performs and more importantly, stays together.

 

[flusher]

We have about a 75hp Ford tractor and are looking to buy hay equipment to bale between 30 and 35 acres mostly grass and clover hay. I think we have decided a sickle bar mower would work well for what we are trying to do but are wondering if our tractor if too much horsepower to operate one? Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you're talking new sicklebars, I'd go with a drum mower if you're budget limited (5-6 ft version costs about $3K).

HayMAGNUM Drum Mowers by CCM

Your 75 hp tractor can easily handle that size mower. What you gain over a sicklebar is mowing speed (probably 2-3 times faster than the sicklebar) and no clogging/jamming with the drum mower. I own 3 sicklebars (a 3pt, a mid-mount and a pull-type) all used. They are a pain to use and service.