disc mower

I've got a JD3010 gas that i'd like to use to mow and bale my grass hay with rather than hiring it done. What model of mower would anyone suggest. i'm not familar with the disc mowers. I'm looking at about 30 acres total, flat to rolling hills.
Thanks

Give a shout out to Hay Dr, he sells several models of Drum mowers. Drum mowers weigh a little less, and have fewer moving parts. Also you can cut hay at a higher speed than with a sickle bar, certainly at the same speed as a disc mower. Good news is they cost a lot less! I have the Haymax 165, and I can cut hay in road gear on My Allis Chalmers D-12, if the field is smooth enough!

Buying used disc mowers is a chancy thing. BTDT.
If possible, you should hear it run first. You should check for oli leaks in the cutterbar. Take the filler plug out of the gearbox, shine a light in, and look for broken gears. Don't but if any are broken.

Buying new: Buy whatever make a nearby, reliable dealer has.

The 3010 should have enough weight to handle up to a 9 foot mower. The 3010 has about 55 hp, dosen't it? That should be enough.

A 7 ft 10 inch mower is cheaper than a 9 ft and is enough for small acreage. The disc mower can be operated at high speed, as fast as you can comfortably sit on the tractor, unless the hay is very heavy. Also it will cut hay that is still wet with dew.

Reread your post, saw the 30 acre figure, so I don't think the 9 ft would be worth the extra expense.

Two types of disc mowers, the shaft drive which has a shaft running the length of the cutterbar driving individual cutterheads which have sealed bearing in them. Reliable authority says this type uses less horsepower to pull. In case you hit an obstruction and tear up one of the cutterheads, it can be repaired individully. I know of 2 makes of this type, Vermeer(whichI have and like) and Agco which sells them under Hesston, New Idea, and Massey Fergueson name plates.

The other type is a gear bed mower which has the cutterheads driven by a series of gears which run in an oil bath. Supposedly each gear acts as a small hydraulic pump which requires more hp to pull. Two main repair problems with this type: In case the mower hits an obstruction and a tooth is broken off a gear, the broken tooth can travel up and down the cutterbar and break off more teeth. Also, if the cutterbar has too much oil in it pressure will build up and blow seals and in extreme cases damage the gears. If careful attention is given to maintenance and the oil in the gearbox and cutterbar is changed each season, They will give many years of good service. Kuhn, Vicon, and Krone are good brands.

The New Holland has some of the features of each type. It is shaft driven and each cutterhead has its own oil bath.

Hope this helps.

KEH

keh,
Which model NH disc mower is shaft drive?

Kuhn, if you want a mower for the long haul.
Change the gearbox and bed oil before you start the season and you'll never have trouble with that bar.

From what I've found with them, the mounted mowers are light enough that they mostly jump over obstructions so that they don't damage the bar unless you ram them into a pole or something like that.
Discbines are more prone to damage because of their weight.
The newer Kuhn bars are also modular in that you can repair them without complete disassembly of the bar, unlike the older GMDxx series. The GMDxxx series are the modular ones.
We've got an older NH 465 which is nothing more than a repainted Kuhn GMD77HD. I don't know how many thousand acres it's cut now, but it's seen a hard life in behind a lot of power. It's had a few sets of drive belts, at least one PTO shaft rebuild, new jack shaft bearings, new pivot bushings, a new breakaway latch, a few new discs, countless welding on the rest of the discs, a lot of skid shoes and more blades than one person should be required to count. It's spent it's life on rough, rocky fields at high speed.
The bar has never been opened. Never a bearing failure. Never a seal leak. Nothing. With that said, it is due to be opened now because the bar pan is worn thin and cracked at the outer end...
Considering the abuse that machine has taken, I don't think it's given bad service.

I think if you've got 55 hp you're asking a lot of the tractor to run that size mower tho. 8' would probably be better suited to the tractor, both from a power perspective and a side draft perspective.
You can run the 9', but you're pushing it. You'd need to drive quite slowly or not cut a heavy, tangled crop.

Rod

Tx Jim,

NH 616 and 617 in 3ph mowers to the best of my recollection. Don't know about the disc MOCOs.

Neighbor has a 617 and likes it. He says to check the oil in the cutterheads he first uses a carpenters level to see that the cutterbar is level.

Saw a cutaway demo of the cutterhead at a farm show. The shaft is made up of a series of short shafts that telescope into each other and drive bevel gears on the cutterhead. In case of damage, hopefully there will be just one cutterhead and short shaft to repair/replace.

The NH is heavier than some other models. See Hay DRs figures on weight in the post below.

KEH

in north ala i use to cut for the public and i wouldn't think about doing it again without using mower/conditioners. why? they will produce better quality hay and it will dry a day faster to beat a front coming in, in some cases. hay put up with a mower/conditioner will have more food value than hay left laying in the field to get dry enough to bale and bleching out in the sun. you can look at hay mowed with a mo/co and see the difference in color and smell the difference. any grass hay i cut by dinner one day i bale the next using a mo/co. a little advice never cut that much hay at one time. i'd do 10 acres at a time and not take a chance on machinery tearing up or rain catching you with all of it down at once.

KEH,
I did own a NH 617 but I didn't realize it was shaft drive. I traded it off because the pivot points where cutter bar raises gotten very worn. I have no clue how many acres it cut but way up in the 1000's I ran 6 yrs custom rd baling about 5000 4X5 bales every year. I never touched cutter bar except to change blades,etc.