help! cant find a good hay cutter..

Looking around for a new used discbine. Cant get to the good ones fast enough..at least in my price range(around 10k). Uncle is going to have an auction, has a hesston 8200 self propelled sickle mower. Looks like about my price range. So, I know all about the disc vs sickle debate. But what I dont know is how a 14 ft self propelled sickle compares to a 10 ft pull behind disc mower in terms of productivity and dry down. Not cutting a lot of hay, but having a job off the farm means it has to work when I want it to. Thanks for your opinions.
 

Disc mowers will cut as fast as you can sit on the tractor seat, assuming you have the horsepower. Speed depends on the smoothness of the ground. So unless you have very rough fields the speed advantage of the 10 foot discbine would overcome the 14 foot width of the sickle mower. I( asume you are cutting crops that need conditioning, other wise you could use a 3 ph disc mower and maybe use a tedder on the hay.

Just because the hay has been cut with a moco dosen't mean that tedding isn't sometimes desirable. After all, the tractor will pack down the hay in spots, or it may rain on the hay. We don't live in a perfect world.

KEH
 
I think for the simple reason that you're mabey not going to always cut hay at the ideal time... the discbine would be the better solution for you. I think a 10' discbine is still going to outcut a 14' sickle machine. It should anyway if you run it the way a discbine can run. The big thing is that you can cut wet hay with a discbine that you aren't going to cut with a sickle...

Rod
 
Why anybody would want to cut wet hay is beyound my comprehenson. Always let it dry off before cutting and it will dry a day faster.
 
Where are you? In Pa 10k would get you a decent used 10' discbine. That would be towards the lower end of a NH 1411, but they are out there. It seems like I see a lot of Kuhns or JD's in the $7500 or less range, and they still seem like nice mowers. As long as you have a good tractor, I think a 10' discbine would be a better investment than a self propelled sickle machine.
Josh
 
I'm with you. Maybe it is because I only do a small amount of hay but I am just not that crazy about speed when I do it. One of the more enjoyable things I do and usually at a pretty time of year. I wait until it is dry and then take my time cutting it.
 
I guess if you live in an arid climate you don't have to worry about such things... when you don't, and you live with the reality of knocking out a pile of hay at once, working in the mornings, late evenings, etc... you deal with what you got. Pi$sing around with a haybine that won't cut is not one of the things I want to be doing. We've had years where we had to cut before the rain or sometimes get caught in the rain just to get something down so it would dry when it stopped raining..

Rod
 
Id get the discbine. Since we got our 1411 new Holland, id have a hard time going back to anything that involved a sickle bar.

We all work off the farm jobs too, and with 200+ acres of hay.....you have to mow when you have TIME to mow....wet, dry, tangled, down, whatever....that discbine will mop it off in short order!
 
(quoted from post at 10:05:08 07/29/14) Id get the discbine. Since we got our 1411 new Holland, id have a hard time going back to anything that involved a sickle bar.

We all work off the farm jobs too, and with 200+ acres of hay.....you have to mow when you have TIME to mow....wet, dry, tangled, down, whatever....[b:d1bfde98c9]that discbine will mop it off in short order![/b:d1bfde98c9]
ill the cutter drive piles up that is :)
 
Question Rod..since your the Ford guru..7710 ford mfwd..Will it handle a 13 ft roller machine? I have hills..I dont think it would. But I do have a 7600 deere...2wd. I still think it would be a load for that?
 
I forgot to say Im in ne Iowa. Tough to get hay
dry. Some guys use both a mower conditioner and a
tedder. So I need to crimp the hay.
 
Oh, you could probably make the Ford do it but it'd not be healthy for it. I find the 10' is a good match for it. Mine is turned up to about 105 on the PTO and it can certainly do damage to a 10' mower but I think 13' would be a lot. Come right down to it... it'd probably be a lot for the Deere too. You can knock out 5-8 ac hour with the 10' discbine.

Rod
 
I already have a jd1360..cuts like a dream, but the frame is going and the gearboxes are leaking. Thinking I dont want to put any money into it. That one is impeller, and I have to bump the rpms up a bit or the Ford will stall on pto engagement..but im sure a roller machine is easier to start. After I get it started, the ford runs it well, except on one extreme turn on a hill, then the front end gets a bit light, but it works if you slow down and take it easy. The 1360 will finish out the year i think, so hopefully I can find something a bit better by spring.
 
I can knock down that much per hour with our Hesston 1014+2 hydro-swing. In thick first crop it's closer to 5, but in subsequent cuttings I can get 7 or better per hour. Used a newer Hesston once before we bought ours and I knocked it out even faster.

Only trouble with first crop is that the crimper rolls are so narrow. Of course we only paid $600 for it from a scrapper abd then that much again in parts to replace the sickle and guards. Had it for about 10 years now.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
I would stay with a pull type machine. Why have another entire engine and drivetrain to have to maintain. My 2 cents
 
I would not go back to a sickle machine like the Hesston 8200. You need to be cutting when ever your home from work. That might be when it is a little wet under the hay. That sickle machine will not cut very well then. Also the Hesston is a big windrow to get to dry down.

If you can limp your JD 1360 through until fall/winter the market will be much better for finding a good mower conditioner.

Also your should be using the JD 7600 over the Ford. That Ford just is not enough HP to run a disk mower correctly.
 
Mine is a 1460, the roller version of your mower, plus a gyro type hitch. It's no different to start. The bar is what takes the snort to start on those things, not the impeller... Not putting money into it may be wise... I need a bar for mine. One of the intermediate gears lost a bearing and cut the bar tube wide open... I'm too stubborn to not fix it but common sense tells me otherwise...
If it was just the main gearbox leaking.. I'd suggest fixing it... but that requires some ingenuity to do yourself. I rebuilt mine... I think 2 years ago.


Rod
 
The Ford in question is more than enough to blow his mower to bits... I'd love to know where you get that idea or if you've even run one. The dog clutch will generally explode in mine when it starts powering up...

Rod
 
it runs the 1360 fine after initial start up. I havent checked..but 6-7 mph probably catches it. But I can run 9 with the 7600. So while the deere will run circles around the ford, the ford is certainly capable. But I prefer the deere because the ride is much better with the longer wheelbase, and the powerquad is much nicer to run, especially in new seeding with a bunch of weeds in it, being able to go from 9 mph to 6 without clutching is nice. The ford is actually more of a cheaper backup to the deere. I like the ford, but its just not quite as nice to run. But it works well for what I use it for.
 
You should look at a DRUM MOWER. For what they are, they're amazing. Sure has revolutionized my hay harvesting.
 
I generally run in 6H with the 10... that's somewhere in the 8-10 mph range. If I stay there it kind of survives. That tractor will take it in 7H on level ground. In tough cutting that's when the parts start flying... I also run it sometimes with a TS90 which is about 75 hp. It handles it fine other than on steep ground in wet crop... then it will power out on the hills. Otherwise it normally runs fine at 5-6 mph.

Rod
 
(quoted from post at 03:19:26 07/30/14) The Ford in question is more than enough to blow his mower to bits... I'd love to know where you get that idea or if you've even run one. The dog clutch will generally explode in mine when it starts powering up...

Rod

That Ford 7710 is a 86 PTO HP tractor. The JD 7600 is a 115 HP tractor. That is a lot of difference. I am not bad mouthing the Ford, it just is not enough HP at STOCK settings to run a 10 foot JD Mo-co in thick hay and hills. He is in North-East Iowa. I know exactly what conditions he is mowing in.

I have owned JD disk Mo-COs since they came out. (JD 1360,920,935) I currently own a JD 735
 
It's no worse than we work with here... IIRC, I've seen some of your pics mabey last year with hills, etc. It's much like here... lots of rolling ground up to 20% grade.
I guess I have a different opinion because here that tractor is more than adequate for that mower... Where mine is set it enough to cause a lot of trouble... for the mower.

Rod
 
I am going to look at a Deere that is for sale tonight.I do not even know the model number yet,the owner died a year ago and it is in the shed.They had a small horse farm I can post more info after I look at it if you are interested.I am in southwest WI.Tom
 
It is a 920 with rolls and the cutterbar seems very tight.There is a pile of stuff parked around and in front of it.She has someone coming on tue to move the stuff out and I am going up then to hook a tractor to it to check it out.My third cutting alfalfa will be ready next week so I want to try it out.I will post back when I know more.I will start a new post then on John Deere 920 moco. Tom
 

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