Drum Mowers - logistical questions

[quicksandfarmer]

Some of the drum mowers from Europe, Australia and New Zealand have tedder options that are built into their drum mowers to spread out the windrow. Check the Maxam website for more info.

Does anyone have experience with these? I see Galfre has a similar one with what they call their "Black Hole conditioner" although to my untrained eye it looks more like a tedder than a conditioner. Are there others out there? Is the Maxam mower available in the US?

 

[Texasmark]

I have the 6' drum from SFI. My PTO hp is 57. It loafs. Biggest concern is to have enough tractor to keep the left front tire on the ground when in the mow position (mower to the side) and 3PT raised. Course when mowing as others have stated, the drum sits on the two bottom discs and there is very little weight on the rear of the tractor. My tractor weighs about 5300# plus the FEL and I usually don't have the bucket or spear attached; don't need it. Never a problem. Phil from SFI has some videos of he cutter and shows that it will follow pond banks and will run as fast as you dare drive your tractor.

I like the windrow as it gives you a clean start into the next round and no piling up of wads of grass like you hear some folks talk about with their discs on the far end. You can mow forwards, backwards cutting as you back, go over previous cut windrows with no clogging, crawdads and fire ants are no problem. Blades are 3 per drum, run about 3500 rpm and are reversible. Depending on what you are cutting they have varied life cycles. The blades are sharp on both sides and can be put on the opposite drum to use the second side. Phil at SFI sells a 100 count box for $25. Takes about 15 minutes to change out all 6.

Mine comes from Turkey. Belt drive from the pto shaft to the gear train on top of the mower. The gear train consists of a pair of pinion gears on a horizontal shaft, supported by bearings on each end that drives the gears that are attached to the drums. About a dozen parts total, all in an oil bath. Not going to break any time soon.

I had Phil install the extra 1" spacers for a total spec of 3" cut. But since the crop is tilted forward as you cut, I have measured my stubble and it's 4.5 inches for the norm.

So now, the bottom line. Why go to the effort I have for the last several years to inform others? I owe him nothing and I don't work for him. I retired to a small place and got tired of sickle bar problems with JD 1209 antique MOCOs. Being retired I didn't feel the cost of a current disc MOCO suited the application.....minimum revenue for payback, besides me downsizing my tractor to 57 PTO hp.

This crop DID need crimping and teddering. I got about 2 1/4 tons/acre on this one cutting. If you are running grass you don't need a crimper and that's where I'm headed. Problem with grass is that I can't get the yield I did with this Sorghum-Sudan GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HYBRID SEED (Note for the tree huggers). So I am currently dealing with my future plans.

Mark

 

[SPYDERLK]

You must mean the left rear tire.

 

[flusher]

Does anyone have experience with these? I see Galfre has a similar one with what they call their "Black Hole conditioner" although to my untrained eye it looks more like a tedder than a conditioner. Are there others out there? Is the Maxam mower available in the US?

Reese has a U.S. distributor for their drum mowers

http://www.tigercoinc.com/mobile/drum-mowers-c1.html

Don't think the MAXAM has any U.S. distributors.

Note that Reese and Maxam mowers are entirely belt driven. Other manufactures design their drum mowers with solid shafts and gear boxes to drive the drums.

 

[avillahdw]

I've been running a Reese 2070W this year (6'9" cut) on my LS U5030 with zero problems. Only problem I had was not equipment caused but rather operator error. Friend that helps me was cutting since I had to work late and got into some exceptionally heavy mixed gas that that had not been cut on first cut due to be in a low lying area. He forgot to reduce his ground doped and wound up throwing the belt to the outer drum. One edge got chewed up to the point it wouldn't stay on. Replaced- 22'3" x 7/8" for $155 from Tigerco. This mower has been a loaner with intent to buy. Nothing but good things to say. If I had a bigger tractor and was in the market, would buy next bigger (about 9' cut if I remember right). The tedder, when properly adjusted, works pretty good the scatter the windrow naturally created by the counter rotating drums. I like it. They are substantial in weight and fold toward the back for transport rather than raising from side as disc mowers do.

 

[bjr]

What is the grass your cutting? Do you bale it? That's a awesome harvest compare to my alfalfa. I'm in WA state, cold climate in the winter. I got five cuttings on the alfalfa this year. How many cuttings a year with your crop? bjr

 

[Texasmark]

Reese has a U.S. distributor for their drum mowers

http://www.tigercoinc.com/mobile/drum-mowers-c1.html

Don't think the MAXAM has any U.S. distributors.

Note that Reese and Maxam mowers are entirely belt driven. Other manufactures design their drum mowers with solid shafts and gear boxes to drive the drums.

If you are talking about the mower that SFI sells, like I bought, you can see the belt shev and protective cover in my first picture. The PTO shaft is inserted in the drive shev with 4 groves. At the end of the belts, over the mower is another shaft with the receiving shevs that is on a shaft with a gear attached. This gear drives a horizontal shaft that connects to the gears of both drums to ensure they remain in sync since the blades overlap in the center, all contained in a steel "box" for sturdiness and oil filled with a fill/vent spiggot on top.

I don't which is better as I only have the one but it works for me.

Mark

 

[Texasmark]

What is the grass your cutting? Do you bale it? That's a awesome harvest compare to my alfalfa. I'm in WA state, cold climate in the winter. I got five cuttings on the alfalfa this year. How many cuttings a year with your crop? bjr

If you are talking about my crop it is a sudan-sorghum hybrid grass. It is bred to be late in heading out which allows you to get a stand like this with no heads....check out the picture. It's also bred to be small stemmed but putting out 50# of seed to the acre ($31 per bag) helps to keep the stems thin, again check out the picture. It is also bred to have the leaf nodules closer together than normal hybrid Haygrazers to increase the yield, again check out the picture. It comes out of Denton, TX. and I would have to dig around for the name of it; but could.

It is a warm season sorghum cross and needs 65F average soil temp to germinate. Down here that put me out to April 16 with a harvest date of June 26 for a 71 day growing season.

This is my first year with the seed. I only got this cutting (plenty for me) due to the regrowth being attacked by Sugar Cane Aphids which caught me off guard and within a few days of my last inspection which was doing great, had sewn their damage, killing the plants.

I was impressed with the crop but it was mainly due to the fact that I couldn't get in and cut it earlier due to the rainy spring we had. However, other than the tremendous amount of foilage I had to process with my small farm equipment, I'm glad now that it happened due to that mentioned.

It obviously requires crimping and I used my NH 404 for that...gave the old girl a real workout.

Yes I baled it and see if I can dig up a picture of a bale, 5x4 from my JD 375 roller.

Funny, I have had these pics out there since early July and you are the first guy to inquire.

Mark

 

[flusher]

If you are talking about the mower that SFI sells, like I bought, you can see the belt shev and protective cover in my first picture. The PTO shaft is inserted in the drive shev with 4 groves. At the end of the belts, over the mower is another shaft with the receiving shevs that is on a shaft with a gear attached. This gear drives a horizontal shaft that connects to the gears of both drums to ensure they remain in sync since the blades overlap in the center, all contained in a steel "box" for sturdiness and oil filled with a fill/vent spiggot on top.

I don't which is better as I only have the one but it works for me.

Mark

Yep, drum mowers like your SFI are hybrid--double or triple belts between the pto pulley sheaves and the sheaves on the first gearbox. From that point on the driveline is gears and driveshafts instead of belts. You're right--that method keeps the phase constant between the drums to prevent the blades from whacking each other.

Belt slippage can cause phasing problems with overlapping blades on drum mowers with belt drive only. One way is to handle this problem is to design in a 0.5-1" difference in cut height on the adjacent drums to prevent blade whack. That amount of uneven cut isn't a big deal on a hayfield. Could be a problem if you use your belt driven drum mower to cut the rough on your golf course.

 

[powerstroke444e]

I starting to look for same thing a affordable way to cut grass hay with some clover in it on a small scale 8-15 acres per cutting, and don't want to use a sickle bar mower or someone else used/abused equipment . I found this mower from Kuhn PZ 170 - Mowers - KUHN North America.com I like that is comes from a name brand dealer. I am also looking at a mower conditioners but good used ones bring more money than buying a new drum mower.