Flail for hay

[JasG]

The flails in a flail-type mower conditioner are not knives. They do not cut the hay, they are designed to strip some of the waxy coating of the hay to allow faster drying.

You can certainly cut hay with a flail mower, but it will greatly reduce the quality of the hay over mowing with a machine designed for the job.

The New Idea Flail mower or cutditioners as they were called did cut with the flails, there were no disks or cutter bar. I think though the flails were a different shape and would cut and "scoop" the hay up over the shaft.

No good images I could find but here are a couple of links.

Anybody ever used a new idea flail mower conditioner? - Coffee Shop - Red Power Magazine Community

NEW IDEA 279 FLAIL MOWER CUT CONDITIONER SICKLE MOWER WORKES GOOD NICE SHAPE - YouTube