If you have small acreage and thinking of cutting hay... Drum Mower

[foreman Etexas]

That's a really nice field.

 

[DaveOmak]

Drying time with the Drum..... I cut that alfalfa Monday about noon.... turned it Tuesday about 1 PM.... Turned it today Wednesday.... Planning on baling tomorrow, Thursday..... 3 days from cut to bale.... the thin layer of hay dries very quickly.... When my neighbor cut my hay with a 14' JD MoCo it took 9-12 days to dry.... the swath was about 8-10" thick..... The water is on 8-10 days earlier... and the crop is growing again.....

 

[atgreene]

Are you tedding or raking to turn it?

 

[aczlan]

Drying time with the Drum..... I cut that alfalfa Monday about noon.... turned it Tuesday about 1 PM.... Turned it today Wednesday.... Planning on baling tomorrow, Thursday..... 3 days from cut to bale.... the thin layer of hay dries very quickly.... When my neighbor cut my hay with a 14' JD MoCo it took 9-12 days to dry.... the swath was about 8-10" thick..... The water is on 8-10 days earlier... and the crop is growing again.....

We currently use a 9' NH Sickle MoCo set to leave as wide of a swath as possible (~5'). With that, we can cut on Wed or early on Thu and bale on Sat and we often dont get more of a window between rain than that, so going to something that would lengthen our drying time would be suboptimal.

Aaron Z

 

[DaveOmak]

I use a wheel rake to reduce leaf loss.... works for me.....

Are you tedding or raking to turn it?

 

[DaveOmak]

Aaron, evening..... I don't think you could cut that stand of alfalfa with a sickle... I tried for 2 years with a 7' sickle bar... It was too tangled and balled up.... It was a PITA.... Cutting grass, I can see 2 days drying time..... no way in an alfalfa stand like I have.... Anyway, thanks for the comment on my method of cutting and drying being "suboptimal".... This alfalfa stand was previously cut with a 14" JD discbine mo/co and took 9-12 days to dry...... I guess you missed that post... Have a very good evening.... Dave

We currently use a 9' NH Sickle MoCo set to leave as wide of a swath as possible (~5'). With that, we can cut on Wed or early on Thu and bale on Sat and we often dont get more of a window between rain than that, so going to something that would lengthen our drying time would be suboptimal.

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

Aaron, evening..... I don't think you could cut that stand of alfalfa with a sickle... I tried for 2 years with a 7' sickle bar... It was too tangled and balled up.... It was a PITA....

This isn't a sicklebar mower (like a Ford 501), its a New Holland 469 Mower Conditioner (like this one: http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=7758901 )
The pickup reel pulls the crop off of the sicklebar, then runs it through the crimper rollers. It works well as long as you dont try to run over a already cut windrow, but you cant go overly fast with it.

Cutting grass, I can see 2 days drying time..... no way in an alfalfa stand like I have.... Anyway, thanks for the comment on my method of cutting and drying being "suboptimal".... This alfalfa stand was previously cut with a 14" JD discbine mo/co and took 9-12 days to dry...... I guess you missed that post... Have a very good evening.... Dave

9-12 days to dry? In our area we have a hard time getting more than 3 days in a row with under 30% chance of rain (our measure of when we will cut) so that wouldn't work for us (hence my suboptimal comment).
If your neighbor took 14' swath of heavy alfalfa and reduced it to a 4-5' windrow, I can see why it would take a while to dry. We found that making a 3' windrow from a 9' swath took 3.5-4 days to dry while a 6' windrow from the same swath takes 3-3.5 days to dry.

Aaron Z

 

[DaveOmak]

aczlan, Morning..... I think that NH 469 would cut my alfalfa.... With the "sweeper" or what ever it's called, it would keep it from balling in front of the knives.... Nice unit.... Where I'm at, there ain't much in the way of "choices".... too far from civilization.... I guess that's why I had to get the drum mower from Tennessee.....

Dave

 

[aczlan]

aczlan, Morning..... I think that NH 469 would cut my alfalfa.... With the "sweeper" or what ever it's called, it would keep it from balling in front of the knives.... Nice unit.... Where I'm at, there ain't much in the way of "choices".... too far from civilization.... I guess that's why I had to get the drum mower from Tennessee.....

The pickup reel is the key. Otherwise it would do like our Ford 501 does and ball up in heavy/tangled stuff.

Aaron Z

 

[jimgerken]

What do those drum mowers cost?