Jd Impeller conditioner

Doug Wi

Member
Ran a gehl 2345 discbine for many years. $7 corn and $12 beans bought me a newer Jd 530 MOCo last fall with an impeller conditioner. Major complaint I have heard is that guys complain that it will chew up the alfalfa too much, which I believe is caused by the Impeller shroud set too close. So far I have been cutting mostly grass and have had the adjustment set about 3/4 of the way to most aggressive. Got into a field today with more alf and didn't change the setting at first. Checking the alf, I didn't see much shattering of the leaves, but also I didn't see much evidence of conditioning of the stems. Is it supposed to crack the stems or is it supposed to scrape to stems to aid in drying? What should I be looking for? Backed the adjustment off abit and sure took less power. Still have the gehl, and thought about hooking it up to another tractor and run them side by side to see any difference in drying , but haying has been such a struggle this year haven't taken time to monkey with that. Guess I'm just looking for operation tips from you guys that have run them more. I haven't looked to see which speed the impeller is running at. thanks
 
Look in your operator's manual. There's a sprocket or something that can be changed to slow the impeller down...
 
awhile after you cut the stems will look like they are bruised, the impeller just removes the wax , dom you have a setting for a shield that goes over the impeller?
 
I have a 946 and have it set on the fast (normal) setting on the impellers. It can be set to do nothing to alfalfa or set very aggressively, or any setting in between. At first it will look like you aren't doing anything to the hay. But after a little while you will see the stems have the wax coating bruised off (from the crop rubbing against itself) and then you can gauge your setting for proper curing. In some varieties of alfalfa the cutterbar knocks off more leaves than the impellers do. You can play with the board setting and find what works best for you.

Most people that try impeller conditioning don't go back to rolls, at least in my area. Mike
 
All, and I do mean all the dairy farmers in my area of sw Wisconsin tried impellers when they first came out.Now you couldnt give them an impeller machine.
 
Interesting. In my area of northeast Missouri the only ones that use rolls are the ones that have not tried impellers. Very few new machines with rolls are sold around here anymore. Mike
 

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