The Official Farming Thread...

[exSW]

Hot,dry,nothings growing,watering the garden,pastures burning out. I may have to ship earlier than I planned.

 

[Mastermind]

That sucks.

 

[stihl023/5]

One field to go.

 

[jakethesnake]

Dry here too gettin just enough to keep stuff goin supposed to be 98 an 97 sat n Sunday been chasing irrigation a round

 

[czar800]

We need rain desperately!

Got first cutting done a few weeks ago and the beans sprayed. g a really nice looking group of calfs!

 

[jakethesnake]

One field to go.

Type of bine you runnin there ?

 

[stihl023/5]

Type of bine you runnin there ?

489

 

[jakethesnake]

489

I have a 488 I believe yours would be a newer setup of what I have. The two are slightly different I think I work on mine quite a bit. Bushings in the knife seem like they go out enough other random minor things. I think I'm gonna try a new knife in mine and new guards

 

[jakethesnake]

I have a question on the guards on a sickle bar in general.... I had a shop manual for an older haybine. It said when adjusting the knife to cut you could bend the guards up in order to make the sickle contact the guard. Well I tried this slipped a pipe over the pointy ends of the guard I sure as hell couldn't bend them Does anyone do this? Seems the guards now will break off before they would bend. On a combine head they have clips that fit in behind the knife itself to hold the whole knife forward and down I just haven't found a good way to adjust the ones on the haybine

 

[concretegrazer]

My gehl had a tool to straighten guards. Never used it though.

 

[jakethesnake]

A sickle bar will usually cut about anything off clean I was tinkering on the hay bine last time I cut with. Broke a couple guards and put the new ones on it just had me wondering really. My bine is a hatefull cuss I'd really like to move up to disc bine but I just don't fool with enough hay to justify one.

 

[jakethesnake]

Is your hay RR or conventional? If conventional try buckdryl and buturack it is a good combo if the stand is short anyways. RR is only tolerant to glyphosate up to 9" with the seed I plant anyways. Not sure what you have planted. Hope this is of some use to you my friend.

I missed this post My hay is orchard grass that I'm having the milkweed in. Not glyphosate resistant What about 24d I know I use the stuff before I plant corn and it typically doesn't affect grass. I've decided to wait and see what I have this fall it's an older stand of grass it's heavy in places pretty optimal really just have some heavy patches coming in it. I'll evaluate this next cutting and decide between then and next spring what is necessary

 

[stihl023/5]

I have a question on the guards on a sickle bar in general.... I had a shop manual for an older haybine. It said when adjusting the knife to cut you could bend the guards up in order to make the sickle contact the guard. Well I tried this slipped a pipe over the pointy ends of the guard I sure as hell couldn't bend them Does anyone do this? Seems the guards now will break off before they would bend. On a combine head they have clips that fit in behind the knife itself to hold the whole knife forward and down I just haven't found a good way to adjust the ones on the haybine

Never messed with the guards. It is a cutting machine. Harder to work on than a 488 but the thing is a tank.

 

[concretegrazer]

A sickle bar will usually cut about anything off clean I was tinkering on the hay bine last time I cut with. Broke a couple guards and put the new ones on it just had me wondering really. My bine is a hatefull cuss I'd really like to move up to disc bine but I just don't fool with enough hay to justify one.

Keep an eye out for a 9' Heston. They are good mowers with typically low resale value. Around here at least. Once you make the switch you'll wonder why you waited so long.

 

[concretegrazer]

Never messed with the guards. It is a cutting machine. Harder to work on than a 488 but the thing is a tank.

A 489 with stub guards is what cut the last two fields I baled. Good cutter for its time.

 

[concretegrazer]

I missed this post My hay is orchard grass that I'm having the milkweed in. Not glyphosate resistant What about 24d I know I use the stuff before I plant corn and it typically doesn't affect grass. I've decided to wait and see what I have this fall it's an older stand of grass it's heavy in places pretty optimal really just have some heavy patches coming in it. I'll evaluate this next cutting and decide between then and next spring what is necessary

From what I've read milkweed has a good root so hit it hard. The only thing labed for it I've seen is gly & dicamba.

 

[jakethesnake]

Milkweed is an *a-hole. It's tough to deal with in general but I'm thinking next spring I could probably roast it with some 24d I'm thinking maybe do it with a little sprayer on a four wheel er. Really don't know if I want to spray the whole piece. I know I got some heavy milkweeded up round bales off it in places this time

 

[skidooguy]

As @concretegrazer mentioned a glyphosate dicamba mix will knock it down easily. I mix a dicamba fluxophor stinger 2-4d mix that will smoke any weed but not effect your grasses. Just be careful on the rates you mix. I will gladly give you the mixture if you want it @jakethesnake

 

[exSW]

A sickle bar will usually cut about anything off clean I was tinkering on the hay bine last time I cut with. Broke a couple guards and put the new ones on it just had me wondering really. My bine is a hatefull cuss I'd really like to move up to disc bine but I just don't fool with enough hay to justify one.

If you're going to change guards go with stubb guards. They also make shims to set the guard height to cut down on the bind. Last check the knife register,may be why you're taking out that bushing.
Plus one on the Hesston but parts are not cheap.

 

[jakethesnake]

When you say knife register What exactly is the knife register. I'm the guy who works on this haybine for the last 6 or plus years but I'm not familiar with the actual names of some of these parts. I have looked into the stub guards I think I'm going to stick with the standard ones because I have several me guards on shelf. I can't see changing it over just yet. I believe the stub guards are the better setup though