Hesston 1110 and New Holland 156 at Work

Cut and tedded a little hay today. Should have cut yesterday, weather forecast was thunderstorms, they never materialized.

Hay had some lodging in places as you can see from some lumpy areas. The Hesston 1110 did a good job of pulling up/in most of the lodged
hay via the reel. Let it set for for a while and then tedded everything with the New Holland 156. Sickle drive rebuild on the Hesston was
expensive, but I could hear the tractor engine at full throttle, previously, the sickle drive sounded like a machine gun.

The 2 basket Tedder and 7ft mower conditioner delivers the mail, but are slow. I'd like to move one of these days to a 4 basket Tedder and a
disc mower conditioner at some point.

All in all a very good day!

Bill

Looks like mower is cutting nice and leaves a nice windrow.

I'm using a 1209 and 2-basket H&S tedder. I can't justify newer and faster equipment. Maybe someday if I pick up some more hay ground when the boys are a bit older.

Yes, your Heston is cutting well, but with a disc MoCo you would not only mow faster, but your yield would increase due to mowing a couple inches closer.

Thanks! We actually cut as high as the Hesston can be set for better regrowth and less ground trash.

I was kind of locked and loaded to buy a discbine, probably December 31 of this year - to leverage an off season deal and write off the machine
in 2017. Somehow I've managed to get this Hesston running/cutting really well and am questioning a discbine purchase. I've been pretty lucky
with our hay equipment. I've got a sickle mower that works like a champ - they are not supposed to be any good. I just look at the mowing
scythes in the barn that my great grandfather used to mow these same fields by hand and count the sickle mower as a blessing. Then I read of
how awful a sickle haybine is and then I see them still used around the area, I get mine going pretty good and begin to question the $$$$'s for a
discbine that puts me in higher hp/$$$$ tractors. I've had good luck with my rollabar rakes. I'm not sure I fully understand why roping is
necessarily an issue. Seems like I read rotaries dry the hay much better, but I don't know anyone that rakes a day in advance to take
advantage of the fluffiness of the windrow, most are raking with one tractor and baling with another at the same time around here. The biggest
reason for me to upgrade to a discbine, 4 basket Tedder, 9ft rake and a wagon/kicker set-up is to reduce the time it takes to make hay in the
evenings after work and to get out of stand on your head knuckle busting rebuilds in favor of routine maintenance. A discbine would really open
the early morning/after work hours window for me. Kind of wondering off topic here....

Bill

Nice looking hay! We haven't gotten any hay weather yet here.
I use an old sickle type machine (IH 990)- a disc machine would be nice, but $15k for a mower, when I only put up 5-10 thousand bales a year is hard to justify.
I do have a four basket tedder, which does allow you to get over a field pretty quick
Pete

We bought a 1120 for first cut to condition the hay and use a disk mower on 2nd or 3 rd cut. The disk mower was our first implement bought new and I love it, it just doesn't cut it on first cut hay. We bought a 4 basket tonutti for $1,200 and all it needed was a roll pin to work properly. If your 110 works for first cut and the sickle bar works for second cut I would only up grade the tedder. My brother and I work full time and I generally cut one evening tedd the next wait a day then tedd over lunch then after work rake and bale.

I'd like a disc mower of some sort just to negate the problems you get with damp grass that even stub guards have problems with in a haybine. Plus, I love the manicured lawn look of a disc mower! :roll: BUt that's just me. Reality says I'm going to be using haybines for at least a few more years. I can't complain though, they work good.