New disc mower needed, Krone, or Kuhn?

[D7E]

..Ddivinia......Sorry cutter bed or tray..????
We did lots of work on krones ..Bearings,gears...general bed re-builds.
Few due to lack of oil or other neglect,The krones just seemed to come back in more often than some others.!

 

[D7E]

Being a british immigrant years ago i've spent my life around drum and disc mowers and i'm very impressed by these american haybines.....We have 180hp on a new kuhn disc mower followed by a 90hp on a 20 year old haybine and we find the difference in performance is only in the width....They will cut at the same speed and the quality of the job is the same......For some reason all the big acreage hay men and hay dealers use haybine especially for alfalfa and i see NH by choice...We only do about 1500 big square and round bales all to sell so dont feed any our selves as grain is our main line but for reliability, hay quality and cost of repairs i will stick to a sickle with a crimper..Our hay customers certainly frefer the crimper to the conditioner ..!

 

[HayDR]

Sickle vs. disc is a religious thing I am convinced. A buddy of mine has a pair of sickles that he can cover like 30-40 per cut. Some crazy amount of area. I like my disc mower.

D.

The main advantage a drum or disc mower has over single-action sicklebar or haybines is drum/disc mowers can mow grass hay in the morning, evenings, & at night when the grass is wet. This means that the guy that has a day job away from the farm, does not have to miss work. You will have problems using a haybine or single-action sicklebar mower in heavy wet grass with dew on it. Single-action mowers and haybines work best when the dew has burned off.

 

[Marshall R]

You can cut Bermuda in the morning with a disc mower before the dew has burned off?

I only have started cutting and baling hay this year with my dad, after my retirement and my moving back to the farm. I left the farm life when I was 18 and at that time, we only did as much hay as we needed to. At that time we cut with a sickle bar.

We now have the Kuhn GMD700 and my father wont let me get started cutting in the morning until around 10:00 AM. His reason is because he says the hay wont cut good with the dew on it.

Thanks for the reply and the information sharing.

Marshall

 

[Marshall R]

No answers to my question?

Bump

Marshall

 

[MFRED]

Don't know about Bermuda, but I'm one of those guys with a day job, I cut all our hay before the sun comes up. One field is Canary grass, late cut this year, it was about 5ft tall in the wet spots, didn't even slow down. I've run disc mowers next to haybines, and I've yet to see one keep up. On our flat fields I've cut at 9.5 mph. I don't think a haybine will road travel that fast. I'm not saying some guru can't make a haybine do it, but I have yet to see one.

Oh, I do like the Krone EC320 we have as well. After the crappy weather this year, I may have to switch to a conditioner, the EC3200 priced out fairly reasonable with V-tine conditioners.

 

[blueriver]

You can cut Bermuda in the morning with a disc mower before the dew has burned off?

I only have started cutting and baling hay this year with my dad, after my retirement and my moving back to the farm. I left the farm life when I was 18 and at that time, we only did as much hay as we needed to. At that time we cut with a sickle bar.

We now have the Kuhn GMD700 and my father wont let me get started cutting in the morning until around 10:00 AM. His reason is because he says the hay wont cut good with the dew on it.

Thanks for the reply and the information sharing.

Marshall

I do ... I start cutting as soon as I can get to the field ... dew or no dew.

 

[ddivinia]

I do ... I start cutting as soon as I can get to the field ... dew or no dew.

I usually wait for the dew to burn off some and I stop when the tires are wet at night.

I had some plugging problems while cutting when it was wet. I was battling a handful of things:

1: Inexperience
2: Mower height
3: Ant mounds

I know more than I do now and can sort thru problems better with this haying stuff.
I had the front of my mower too low
I run my spike harrow over the hay pastures a week or so before I cut hay. It busts up the manure and knocks down the ant mounds.

D.