Sickle or disk mower

[HayDR]

The Vermeer disc mowers are made in Pella, Iowa. They use a Lely designed shaft drive cutterbar.
Since you purchased your Fort mower from Valley Equipment, you would be hard to find a better dealer than them. I'd stay right there because he will give you great prices and service.

 

[jwcinpk]

It was definately the cheapest price in town. However cheapest doesn't always mean best deal. Don't get me wrong I haven't had any problems. Valley is having some growing pains. Highway is taking his building and lot. Been trying to trade with him on a new tractor, but can't quite get there. Maybe after one more year. I'm gonna have to buy a rake and good used square baler.
There's also a good Massey/Kubota dealer pretty close and a good Deere dealer across the mountain in London, KY.
Still didn't answer my question are First Choice just as good as the others or just cheaper?

 

[plowrup]

If you are o.k. with the longer drying times that a sickle or Disc Mower will give you, then my vote would absolutely be for the Disc Machine-we sell LOTS of Windrowers and Mower Conditioners and have everything from Alfalfa to tall Grass here-95% of our Machines are Disc Machines-they will cost you more up front, but over the life of the Machine it will even out. I think the Kuhn design is probably the best for a 3 point unit, but if you do decide that you want faster drying times by all means get an Impeller Conditioner- JD, Hesston, Kuhn all have their variations, but we see dramatically improved dry times with the Impeller versus Roll Conditioner, as well as less leaf loss.

If I were going to choose between the three Mower Conditioners with Impeller Conditioners listed above I would buy the Deere, simply because of the Cutterbar protection offered. I have had a bunch of Customers hit Fence Posts rocks, whatever with, say the Hesstion (which has a Kuhn Cutterbar on it) and it would cost the Customer in excess of $2000.00 to repair it, as you have to pull the Cutterbar out of the unit, take off all of the Hats, and split the Cutterbar horizontally-the Deere has a Safety Hub that takes all of 5 minutes to replace and around $40-45.00-

As far as speed goes, I have had a 15 foot Disc Mower Conditioner on the back of a John Deere 7820 in road gear cutting thick Alfalfa(1st cutting)-if you can sit in the seat (rough ground) and have enough power, they will cut incredibly fast-

 

[plowrup]

With regard to First Choice, they are using the "Land Pride" template for selling machines (they go to Europe and buy them, rebadge them as theirs). I purchased some stuff from them a few years ago, then they had some type of problem and couldn't supply anything for a year or so. After that, I was contaced by a Company that said they were making some of their stuff-my suggestion would be, watch out! If you are buying a tool tht is "consumable", their prices are cheap. If you are looking for long time parts availability, service help and the like stay with a brand name-

 

[HayDR]

LandPride did have Fort dsc mowers for a while but now Landpride makes their own mower using a Comer cutterbar.

 

[IHCman]

I'm new to this forum and I have some questions about disc mowers and this seemed like the place to get them answered. I'm using two Rowse double 9' bars with new holland heads to cut my hay. This year and other years in the past have been a pain with the wet damp conditions we've been having here. Hay is extremely thick and tall, never seems to dry out underneath, mole hills are like mud that stick in between the guards and plug the bar. To sum it up just plain maddening. This has got me looking at a better way and i think it might be a disc mower. I'm very interested in the Vermeer TM 1400 but I'm curious how it will work if I cut very short grass. I cut a little of everything from alfalfa, grass hay, CRP, slough hay and cattails. What happens to the disc mower if I hit an old rake tooth in the field, or tree branch, or some other kind of obstruction. Do i damage the disc mower badly? Or when cutting CRP, what about all the mole hills. Some of those can be quite tall, does the disc mower just cut through em or does it cause damage. I see that the Vermeer mower has a neat suspension system but I think I tall mole hill or badger hole mound wouldn't be enough to make the vermeer mower rise up I think it'd just hit it. Also anyone have any idea what a Vermeer TM 1400 costs new? I haven't called my dealer yet and was just curious what price range i could expect. $30,000?
thanks

 

[IHCman]

I have a few more questions about disc mowers that i forgot to ask. How well does a disc mower cut extremely tall grass, clover, etc..? Does the safety shield push it down so the mower can cut it? Does the disc mower chop up the grass your mowing? How bad is it on alfalfa? With all the disc conditioners I can't imagine its too bad on alfalfa. I'd like to hear from anyone that has a Vermeer Trail mower to see how well they like it and if they've had any issues with it.

 

[hawkeye08]

Curious on this myself.

 

[elkhurst1]

Disc Mower:thumbsup:

 

[2950johndeere]

both are good we run 2 sickles and 2 disc mowers the sickles cut pretty and a little closer to the ground but the disc will cut when its wet and they cut fast we average 8to10 mph with the disc the sickles run a little slower

another big thing to consider with the disc mowers is parts they cost a good bit more than the sickles

i guess if your doing it like us it wouldnt make that much difference we run ether or both on the same feilds it all comes down to money and production for us if we get behind we run the disc mowers and some of our feilds are very rough so they have to take a beating most of the time some thing to look at also is how heavy duty is it agco massey ferguson mowers are good heavy built mowers with good logevity ive got one thats got some where in the area of 10000k hrs on it and it works fine there are some realy good mowers on the market now like krone vermeer fella agco new holland and some others goood luck with it

 

[sweettractors]

We have sold untold hundreds of the Fort/First Choice Disc Mowers with no problems, if the customer reads him manual or buys from a dealer to show/tell him how to set it up initially. We stock all parts for Fort/First Choice disc mowers. We usually have good used parts in stock also. Used parts are 1/2 price of new. Ken Sweet

 

[foreman Etexas]

I bought the VICON, the three blade system allowed me to go a wider cut with what hp I have

They only way it will throw anything on you,is if your cutting with the cover up..

 

[doohicky]

We have used both the sickle bar mower/conditioners(Hesston & New Holland) and an older Vicon discbine(KM321) with crimper rolls. I really wasn't impressed with this discbine(maybe because it was older) but the Hesston haybine did a better job. As for the expense of repairs, the regular haybine is MUCH cheaper. If you have 1 bearing go out in the bottom of the discbine expect to replace EVERYTHING! Ours went out 2 times and we had over $1k each time in the bearings and gears, the third time was the charm, the junk man is getting it.

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

A friend of mine had a rock (soft ball size) total out a discbine. All of the gears driving the turtles run in the same oil. Metal went through the whole bar. $14,000 estimate to repair. My old NH 489 sickle cut might of needed a guard and section replaced for hitting a rock like that.

 

[Joseph Musil]

I am in the same situation with my Vicon KM321. I am going to fix it if I can for the 3rd time. One bearing went out and it ruined 4 gear shafts and 8 of the intermediate gears. Do you still have your KM 321? I would like to buy your cutter bar for parts if you still have it or if you know of anyone else including your junkman who might have parts.

Joe Musil 319 389 0158 Leave message

 

[codybigc]

We have a Massey/hesston rotary good mower however it seems to be hard on even our big tractor, if we had a caddy not so much. We have just purchased a tm800 and the first thing I saw was how easy it was to change blades. About 15 min for the Vermeer and 45 min on our Massey. Second I bought it used for 6500 and the darnd thing cutts like my a champ. U can see everything you mow . Have not tried it on our little tractor yet but it seems like I can go as fast as the field will let me. I will be cutting a very smooth field in about one hour and we will see how fast I can go . For right now I know the thing can handle 7-8 mph quite easily.

I am thinking about getting a "new" mower and I would like some opinions. I currently have one double 7' Kosch sickle and one 9' JD sickle mower. I am possibly haying by myself this year, so speed is important, and here is what I was thinking about as far as choices. I have varying types of grass, a lot of lowland/thick (if it would ever rain), and some very thin, mostly flat ground. I only go over about 900 acres or so a year. The two choices below are basically about the same price.

A Kosch double 9' hydraulic drive sickle mower. This is similar to a Rowse mower, but I will not buy any Rowse product no matter what.

A Vermeer TM800 disc trail mower 10.5' cut. I don't know anyone that has a disc mower, and I know little about them. I thought I heard that you could mow faster with them. If so would it be possible to mow about as much ground (in the same ballpark or close) as the 18' sickle?

I don't want a mower conditioner, anyone I've seen with those the hay gets moldy before it's dry, even when they turn the row over. I don't want a drum mower, I don't think there are any of those around.

Thanks.

 

[blaze 57]

I am thinking about getting a "new" mower and I would like some opinions. I currently have one double 7' Kosch sickle and one 9' JD sickle mower. I am possibly haying by myself this year, so speed is important, and here is what I was thinking about as far as choices. I have varying types of grass, a lot of lowland/thick (if it would ever rain), and some very thin, mostly flat ground. I only go over about 900 acres or so a year. The two choices below are basically about the same price.

A Kosch double 9' hydraulic drive sickle mower. This is similar to a Rowse mower, but I will not buy any Rowse product no matter what.

A Vermeer TM800 disc trail mower 10.5' cut. I don't know anyone that has a disc mower, and I know little about them. I thought I heard that you could mow faster with them. If so would it be possible to mow about as much ground (in the same ballpark or close) as the 18' sickle?

I don't want a mower conditioner, anyone I've seen with those the hay gets moldy before it's dry, even when they turn the row over. I don't want a drum mower, I don't think there are any of those around.

Thanks.

I have used both a double action sickle mower and a disc mower and to tell you the truth the double action sickle mower can mow just as fast as the disc mower in the tall thick pain in the butt grass. I would go with a 9 ft double action sickle mower over a disc mower plus I think the regrowth is much better when using a sickle mower compared to a disc mower. I notice this as a side by side comparison when using both the sickle mower and disc mower on the same field. Also fuel consumption is WAY WAY less with the sickle mower...they take little HP to run.,

 

[sweettractors]

I have used both a double action sickle mower and a disc mower and to tell you the truth the double action sickle mower can mow just as fast as the disc mower in the tall thick pain in the butt grass. I would go with a 9 ft double action sickle mower over a disc mower plus I think the regrowth is much better when using a sickle mower compared to a disc mower. I notice this as a side by side comparison when using both the sickle mower and disc mower on the same field. Also fuel consumption is WAY WAY less with the sickle mower...they take little HP to run.,

I have a employee that owns a double action sickle mower and a disc mower. He mows just as fast and with virtually no clogging with the double action mower. People see him mowing a field and later ask him what the H--- is that machine you are mowing with. Call us sometimes and ask for Kenny, he will give you first hand knowledge of disc mowers and double action mowers. He and I have over 100 years of combined experience operating mowers of all types. Ken Sweet