New Mower

[tessiers]

Thinking of a new mower. Currently using a Hesston 1091 sycle machine, looking at mounted disc mowers. Dealer is suggesting a Kuhn GMD 24, 7'-10" cut. Will be running it on a JD 3020 about 70hp with loaded rear tires, he says no problem at all. He also has a GMD 20 to look at and the JD 7'-10" too, not sure on that model. Would love to hear thoughts or suggestions on the disc vs sickle, and Kuhn brand.

 

[M5farms]

Kuhn is a very good mower , Should see a lot of life out of it. I currently have a vicon and they are very similar. I have a friend with a vemeer and their blade change system is by far the absolute best I've seen. A caddy is the way to go if you can afford it and your terrain lends itself to using one. I will buy one when I replace the mower I have now

 

[cabinhollow]

I would buy a 210 drum mower. Just under 7' cut, will cut more in a hour than a 10' disc mower and cost under $5000 for a new one. I have been using a drum mower for 20+ years and have used other types off and on. Hands down, the drum mower is the best.

 

[bulldog69]

You can't go wrong with a Kuhn mower. I have a GMD 700 and love it. The JD mower is probably made by Kuhn just with green paint and higher price. the difference between a disc and sickle is night and day. If you mow with a disc mower you'll wonder why you didn't switch years ago.

 

[Texasmark]

I had my belly full of sickles and said there had to be a better way. Started looking at used discs as new and disc MOCOs were totally out of the question for my bottom line. Every, mind you, every disc I looked at had brass braze repairs to the bottom of it. Plus I looked at all the parts to fail and all and said phoey on that. Accidentally saw an ad for a drum. Bought a 6', 2 drum unit and haven't looked back. That's my story.

Will post again in case you missed it; top of my cab is 8' off the ground for a yardstick:

 

[Jerry/MT]

I had my belly full of sickles and said there had to be a better way. Started looking at used discs as new and disc MOCOs were totally out of the question for my bottom line. Every, mind you, every disc I looked at had brass braze repairs to the bottom of it. Plus I looked at all the parts to fail and all and said phoey on that. Accidentally saw an ad for a drum. Bought a 6', 2 drum unit and haven't looked back. That's my story.

Will post again in case you missed it; top of my cab is 8' off the ground for a yardstick:

I bought a Galfre 190 drum mower. It's all shaft and gear drive and it'll cut anything. It doesn't windrow the cut either. It has vanes on the drums to spread the cut out for quick drying.

 

[Texasmark]

I bought a Galfre 190 drum mower. It's all shaft and gear drive and it'll cut anything. It doesn't windrow the cut either. It has vanes on the drums to spread the cut out for quick drying.

Mine does a ww and I need it. Considering the tire width on my tractor and it and the mower being setup for a 6' width, even on this heavy crop it keeps me from stomping on the cuttings on the next round. Teddering has become the way I do it anymore since learning the benefits first hand so it doesn't bother me to have a slight ww.

On this years crop of the same seed, I was over the field about 4 times to get it to dry. After the crop in the picture I tried to get to it sooner, like at 4-5' but the weather this time, as that time, wouldn't let me in the field and it was back up in the 4-7' height depending on whether it came off the regular fertilized part of the patch or the part I grew and incorporated Austrian Peas.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I like teddering long stem crops as the tedder not only spreads things out, it also crimps the stems for me and is much easier to incorporate than a regular crimper like the IH 404.

 

[Tx Jim]

M5farms
Why only 7' cut with a 70 pto hp tractor? I've pulled a 9' disc mower with a 45 pto hp tractor. I like my Krone 9' disc mower because it is shaft drive to cutterbar IE no belts not to mention it quieter operating than most other brands of disc cutters.

 

[tessiers]

So its been a while, busy I guess. I ended up with a New Holland H6740, roughly 8' cut. It came from a dealer I have a great relationship with, which was important to me, and after looking at the New Holland cutter bar, I think it is pretty comparable to the Kuhn I was looking at, at $1400 less. I did hook onto a friend of mines 6'6" drum mower, and it was decent enough, but no local dealers. No chance of me buying something like that over the internet, I guess I'm old school like that! I have mowed over 30 acres so far, and I am very happy. the first 20 went into grass silage, I have 10 down now drying, so we will see how much I miss the conditioning rolls. Mowing at 6-8 mph cuts like my old haybine only dreamed about (at least the last few years).

 

[bill ns]

If i had to use anything with a sickle bar I would quit haying ! i hate those things .I grew up using a sickle bar mower .Then graduated to a sickle bar haybine A few years ago i bought a Kuhn drum mower Light years ahead of a sickle bar .But if money was not a object i would have a Kuhn discbine mower