Suggestions To Get Haybine To Cut Better

[5030]

Well we have both over on the farm, the discbine which gets used for most of the hay,
but the older haybine is still here and gets used every year for certain crops and fields.
Tip it back on the heel of the shoes and go mow a ledgey field that we do or a new field
on shares or buying the hay with no idea of were the rocks are.
Much less expensive to replace a few sickle sections then having to repair discbine heads and gears.
And on some crops that have lodged the header reel can save more feed then the discbine,
may have to mow the field in one direction which is time consuming but quality feed is expensive.
And some years quite valuable.
Also some of the smaller operations that are only doing 40 to 80 acres of hay with slower equipment can do as good
a quality job and at times better then super fast and big.
Around here to be considered one of the big boys you need a Big Mo or triple or 5 head discbine on 300 hp tractors,
a big self propelled chopper or big square bailer and a fleet of trucks.
Then on wet years you can compact and rut up your ground with the best of'em.

Compaction on spongy wet hay ground is wonderful isn't it... **** on the hay plants too.

Exactly what I do. I run the disc mower on fields I'm familiar with and the sickle bat MoCo on fields with trash or rocks or unknown / hidden stuff. The sickle bar can eat stuff that would cost me thousands in drive train repairs on the disc machine... and it saves the disc machine shields from dents and the windows in the tractor from impact damage too.

If you set the 'angle of attack' and reel speed on a sickle bar machine it will do as good a job as the disc machine, just not as fast, but then I'm retired anyway....

 

[Hay Dude]

Well we have both over on the farm, the discbine which gets used for most of the hay,
but the older haybine is still here and gets used every year for certain crops and fields.
Tip it back on the heel of the shoes and go mow a ledgey field that we do or a new field
on shares or buying the hay with no idea of were the rocks are.
Much less expensive to replace a few sickle sections then having to repair discbine heads and gears.
And on some crops that have lodged the header reel can save more feed then the discbine,
may have to mow the field in one direction which is time consuming but quality feed is expensive.
And some years quite valuable.
Also some of the smaller operations that are only doing 40 to 80 acres of hay with slower equipment can do as good
a quality job and at times better then super fast and big.
Around here to be considered one of the big boys you need a Big Mo or triple or 5 head discbine on 300 hp tractors,
a big self propelled chopper or big square bailer and a fleet of trucks.
Then on wet years you can compact and rut up your ground with the best of'em.

Who in their right mind would take an expensive discbine into a new and unknown field? :confused2:
If I get asked to cut a new field, I do it with a 15' mower first, or talk to previous farmer if it was recently cut for hay. I can find everything I need to know that way.
I run high stubble shoes on my pottinger discbine with no fear once its been cut by me with a mower. My discbine runs on skid shoes. Not tires to create ruts. My tractor tires are over width and create little ground compaction. No issues in 20 years.
My point is that if you want to brag about selling $2/bale hay because you run relics, and then rip guys for running modern (post WW II era) hay equipment as the ones who make crap hay, thats up to you, but Im not going to sit here and take BS like that. Ive got a website of great reviews on hay quality from customers.
When it comes to business, all a man has is his time and his money. I prefer to run faster, much more productive equipment to beat the weather and appeal to the more expensive $8/bale ad up hay buyer.

 

[Hay Dude]

Compaction on spongy wet hay ground is wonderful isn't it... **** on the hay plants too.

Exactly what I do. I run the disc mower on fields I'm familiar with and the sickle bat MoCo on fields with trash or rocks or unknown / hidden stuff. The sickle bar can eat stuff that would cost me thousands in drive train repairs on the disc machine... and it saves the disc machine shields from dents and the windows in the tractor from impact damage too.

If you set the 'angle of attack' and reel speed on a sickle bar machine it will do as good a job as the disc machine, just not as fast, but then I'm retired anyway....

Tell me that when the field is just slightly damp down low, like 75% of them are. You get mowhawks and uncut crop. Lordie...I cut with my NH477, NH499, JD3430SP and a my NH 1499SP up until about 8 years ago. Sold the 1499 and never missed it. There is NO comparison between any of those on their best day and a cheap small discbine. :laughing:
Discbine laughs at that and mows much cleaner. Only way a haybine cuts great is if the cutting conditions are great.
Only way youd own a haybine today is if your a hobby guy, a beer money/side money guy, or like you said, a retired guy in no hurry. And thats OK!

 

[5030]

Tell me that when the field is just slightly damp down low, like 75% of them are. You get mowhawks and uncut crop. Lordie...I cut with my NH477, NH499, JD3430SP and a my NH 1499SP up until about 8 years ago. Sold the 1499 and never missed it. There is NO comparison between any of those on their best day and a cheap small discbine. :laughing:
Discbine laughs at that and mows much cleaner. Only way a haybine cuts great is if the cutting conditions are great.
Only way youd own a haybine today is if your a hobby guy, a beer money/side money guy, or like you said, a retired guy in no hurry. And thats OK!

Like I said the exception is hidden junk in a leased or shared field (I have one). You take a drive out of a disc machine, you are into thousands in repairs not counting the down time. I've gobbled large branches with mu MoCo in the past. Just keeps on going. You do that with a disc machine you have major issues. Why I have both. Just because I'm retired don't mean I want to spend days and days out there with the bugs and the heat either.

 

[Hay Dude]

Like I said the exception is hidden junk in a leased or shared field (I have one). You take a drive out of a disc machine, you are into thousands in repairs not counting the down time. I've gobbled large branches with mu MoCo in the past. Just keeps on going. You do that with a disc machine you have major issues. Why I have both. Just because I'm retired don't mean I want to spend days and days out there with the bugs and the heat either.

Ive hit logs with my discbine and no damage! The blades are $1.50 each :laughing: Actually cheaper and much much faster to replace than sickle sections. The skid shoes do an amazing job of protecting the gear bed and turtles from damage.
I have hit 12” diameter fallen logs on some of my flood plain fields and replaced the blades and continue mowing in less than 5 minutes. :thumbsup:
I don’t know if you realize this, but discbines built in the last 20 years have quick change, inexpensive, clamp-on blades and skid shoes that protect the cutter bar for literally everything but striking a huge stump or boulder. Also, the cutterbars are built in sections, so if the worst happens, you can replace parts of it and not all of it.
One time I broke a cutter bar a customer told me “ nothing in the field “. Unwisely, I believed him and he left a 2 foot diameter stump and I hit it. Insurance paid the damage, customer gladly paid the deductible. I got a new, updated cutterbar. A haybine would have been destroyed, too.
But I get it. Some guys are doing it more as a hobby or retirement gig. In that case slow is no big deal. I have to make a living doing hay, a haybine would ensure minimal profits or bankruptcy for $2/bale hay :laughing:

 

[5030]

You, my friend are on borrowed time.

You wack a gear train internally, it's always big bucks. Far as knives go, I keep at least 20 of each direction in stock plus the hold down bolts and nuts in the shop. I change out my knives after first cut, before second and third every year. Get them from Shoup. I think less than a buck fifty each. Keep a spare turtle and crop lifters as well and my skids are all plastic skinned on the discbine and the MoCo. Never, never mow a strange field unless I walk it first, usually in the late fall when the grass is deceased due to frost. My NH discbine has the 'Mow-Max' heads but I still don't trust them 100%

I would never expect a landholder to cover the cost of my lack of my pre planning. Just not how I roll. Stuff happens and I'm insured as well but stuff don't happen (like hitting objects hidden in the forage) with some inspections.

Mowed a few fawns before. They go right through the machine and make excellent Coyote dinners.

 

[Hay Dude]

You, my friend are on borrowed time.

You wack a gear train internally, it's always big bucks. Far as knives go, I keep at least 20 of each direction in stock plus the hold down bolts and nuts in the shop. I change out my knives after first cut, before second and third every year. Get them from Shoup. I think less than a buck fifty each. Keep a spare turtle and crop lifters as well and my skids are all plastic skinned on the discbine and the MoCo. Never, never mow a strange field unless I walk it first, usually in the late fall when the grass is deceased due to frost. My NH discbine has the 'Mow-Max' heads but I still don't trust them 100%

I would never expect a landholder to cover the cost of my lack of my pre planning. Just not how I roll. Stuff happens and I'm insured as well but stuff don't happen (like hitting objects hidden in the forage) with some inspections.

Mowed a few fawns before. They go right through the machine and make excellent Coyote dinners.

Been mowing hay for 30 years, so I don’t know about “ borrowed time “ :laughing:
The landowner volunteered to pay. He cut a tree down and didn’t tell me he left the stump. Anyone with a conscious would have told me they left the stump. Lucky nobody got hurt.
Like I said, I dont think Ive taken a discbine into a new field more than 2 times in my life.