The Official Farming Thread...

[Dustin4185]

@Mastermind my technician has a trailed style Kuhn. He mows with a 60 HP tractor now. He may sale it if he upgrades tractors this winter. He isn't a huge fan of trailed mowers, but he picked it up cheap and his tractor wouldn't handle the weight of a big disk mower. Our local Co-Op sells a foreign brand disk mower that is a 7' cut. It seems light and pretty well built.

 

[deedskelly]

Mastermind, just curious how does the ground lay in your area?

 

[concretegrazer]

Disc mowers will mow as fast ,but I've also mowed a lot of hay with a NH 488.

That's sums it up well. Productivity vs. Just getting the job done. What's your time worth?

 

[jakethesnake]

I've got my sickle tuned up pretty well. But you guys know how it is.......get to going along real good.......look around and you've hit a mouse nest or something, and dragging grass. It's frustrating at times.

Using stub guards will help a good bit with that. I personally don't use them as it's a pricey upgrade but they help

 

[Mastermind]

Mastermind, just curious how does the ground lay in your area?

No level ground anywhere. Not terribly steep either where I cut.

 

[Mastermind]

Using stub guards will help a good bit with that. I personally don't use them as it's a pricey upgrade but they help

So stub guards are just shorter than rock guards.....?????

 

[exSW]

So stub guards are just shorter than rock guards.....?????

They're just that, stubs. The whole leading edge of the knife section is exposed. I ran nothing else on my sickle bar m/c's. They are that much better. Don't clog near as easy and in a smooth rock free field you can run as fast as you dare.

 

[czar800]

So a good choice for a smaller tractor would be?

A NH cut conditioner. New Holland makes excellent hay equipment.

The 477/488 the mower floats and on the 479/489 just to head floats. Some guys prefer one or the other. Ive cut a lot of hay with a farmall 340 gas pulling a 489. I wouldn't want to cut anything steep as that's the smallest tractor I'd want to use. I know for a fact the 489 don't take a lot of horse power to run and it would be big upgrade over a sickle bar, Plus your hay will be conditioned and dry down faster.

 

[exSW]

I saw a guy cut reclaim with a Ford 4000 and a 479. Had no problem whatsoever. Knowing how to shim the guards,set the register,reel and the float goes a long way also. All within Mr. Evan's skill set.

 

[concretegrazer]

you can run as fast as you dare.

How fast is that?

 

[deedskelly]

We mowed a lot of steep ground with a MF 255& AC 6070 pulling a NH 488. We always ran stubs

 

[exSW]

How fast is that?

Don't know, not that 12-13 mph that some guys talk about. We got slopes and small irregular fields. Speed can be problematic. But,third high with a Farmall 560D with 16.9x 38" rears.

 

[concretegrazer]

Don't know, not that 12-13 mph that some guys talk about. We got slopes and small irregular fields. Speed can be problematic. But,third high with a Farmall 560D with 16.9x 38" rears.

Very few sickle machines are still going around here. And one of the few that's left runs stubs. He also cuts slooow... but has no problems & only puts up 2 or 3 cuttings on 20 acres and rolls his fields every year. Perfect setup for him. Hestons stubs were junk so I've never got to see what they could do.

 

[Mastermind]

I can run in 5th gear (of an 8 speed) cutting in most grasses. It ain't really more speed I'm after.......just less clogging. Stub guards might be better.

 

[deedskelly]

Stubs will gain a little speed, I don't think that I ever clogged stubs unless something broke

 

[deedskelly]

They're worth the price when the hay down and full of bees nests!They really not hard to set,spend sometime on the first two or three,then just repeat,figuring the shims on the first can be a pain

 

[exSW]

Very few sickle machines are still going around here. And one of the few that's left runs stubs. He also cuts slooow... but has no problems & only puts up 2 or 3 cuttings on 20 acres and rolls his fields every year. Perfect setup for him. Hesstons stubs were junk so I've never got to see what they could do.

I ran two Hesstons a 1090 and then a 1091. Stubs on both. I always thought the early Hesston stubs were better than the New Holland.
Probably cheapened them up. I found a CIH 8340 (Hesston 1120) at the a local CIH dealer. We'll see.

 

[concretegrazer]

I ran two Hesstons a 1090 and then a 1091. Stubs on both. I always thought the early Hesston stubs were better than the New Holland.
Probably cheapened them up. I found a CIH 8340 (Hesston 1120) at the a local CIH dealer. We'll see.

This was a new 1130 in 93. We adjust them & the dealer did too. Streaked like crazzy. Gave up & went to field guards. Cut like it should.

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

A 60 horse tractor should handle a 7' haybine (488 or 489 for example).

+1 to czar800's comment about the conditioner. Saves a day of dry time in a lot of situations, which also increases vitamin and nutrient retention.

 

[deedskelly]

The stubs on my 488 had shims,but a friend had a different model NH and it had set screws. I didn't seam to have much trouble with missing or riding over hay.Had that mower for over ten years ,put stubs on first year never missed the regular ones.Stubs don't mow as good in light hay.