Making hay with a '37 JD A

Navajo350

Member
Anyone know a good combination of implements for making hay with a 1937 John Deere A? It has a whopping 18hp at the drawbar.

Thanks,
Robert
 
No 5 sickle mower, side delivery rake, tow behind tedder, baler with Wisconsin engine!!!
 
(quoted from post at 13:04:00 06/29/16) No 5 sickle mower, side delivery rake, tow behind tedder, baler with Wisconsin engine!!!

Great, now I just have to track them down at a good price. What about for planting?
 
You do not really need a tedder unless you want to get in a hurry. Most any tow type sickle mores will work as long as you do not get say a 9 footer. 6 or 7 foot will work just fine. Most any pull type hay rakes will work and that A will play with the rakes. I have used my 1935 JD B to pull a rake many many times
 
That tractor tested at 23 HP on the pto running on distillate! It will run a pto baler just fine if you don't crowd it. I would not be looking for a baler with a Wisconsin engine! Been an awful lot of hay baled, over the years, with a tractor of that power running a pto baler, even without the advantage of live PTO.
JMHO, Dave
 
I ran a NH 280 pto baler with my old 1938 G a few times. It ran baler well, better than someother tractors I had used. I think the torque you get with those big pistons makes a difference. Not as nice as having live PTO but as said below many bales made with those old tractors. One thing that is nice about baler with Wisconsin engine is that you can turn as sharp as you want on ends of the rows. With PTO you get used to kicking it out of gear when you come to a slug in the row.
 
When my folks started farming in 69 dad had an A and a B.
Had a Massey Harris 3 semi mount mower he left on the B cuz it took half a day to hook or unhook it.
Ran a New Holland crimper an old steel wheel rake and a New Holland 67 baler behind the A.
Mom wasn't too good with the hand clutch and they went through a lot of shear bolts on the baler.[urlhttps://photos.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/gallery/gallery_pic.cgi?pic=http;//photos.yesterdaystractors.com/gallery/vphotos/c50466.jpg&firstrec=854&Parameter=&w=vphotos&cc=0&s=[/url]
 
I started with a 40' A, a #5 mower, 9' basket rake, and a 336 baler. The non-live PTO made baling less than ideal, but it worked. The baler was almost too much for it in heavy hay or steep hills, and it was all in 2nd or 1st gear when baling. Lots of stopping and inching forward in thick hay.
Pretty slow, system.... But it worked and when I wasn't in a hurry it was kinda' fun.
 
I never understood the need for a tedder other than to knock the leaves off the stems, When I was a teenager I worked for a neighboring dairy farmer bailing hay and we did not use a tedder. I don't remember how many bales we did but it seemed to last all summer. Three cuttings minimum. Seems the only ones using a tedder around here these days are the horse crowd. And you know their hay has to be perfect. So, maybe tedders are necessary.
 

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