Windrower/Swather Options

MFan

Member
What would be out there in the way of a 10 foot swather/windrower, self propelled or pull-type? Looking for make and model options.

I don"t mean a mower/conditioner, but a windrower for cutting small grain before combining. Thanks for the help.
 
Think so old swathers like the JD 215A(?) had an attached conditioner but I don't remember if they had an auger feed, or canvas. Also, don't know what size header was available. Only have seen a 14' or maybe a 12'. Probably hard to find.
 
Where are you located, makes a big difference.

JD 800 windrower was canvas or draper head only. Don't think 10', maybe 12' was smallest.

JD 830 could be either draper for grain, or auger for hay.
 
Owattona was very popular here, perhaps because I live 50 miles from the town, but anyhow they were good machines. Parts are probably getting harder to find, but thry are typically common items or a welder fixes the rest. The very old yellow and red models are quite old and obnoxious to run (like mine) the newer green and orange models have some creatures and work nice.

JD 800 is the other standby. Still very common.

I had a very very old owatonna 10 foot, and have a JD 800 14 foot now.

They came in many sizes, perhaps a few 8 foot owatonna out there tho rare, and up to 14, possibly 16 feet? Most of the newer generations you could bolt on a hay crimper as well to cut and condition hay. I think 12 foot might be the most common size.

Didn't see many Red ones locally, but there certainly are some IHC and Case and newer Heston and so forth out there as well, might depend on where you live.

Paul
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm in Wisconsin so probably not the best area to look for a windrower. But, may be what is out there would be on the smaller side.

I've seen some tricycle-type windrowers. How stable are these on a contour?
 
Why a 10 foot? Do you have to get through a narrow gate or do you have a small combine that won't handle bigger swat? After 1st. round you can cut less width with a wider head. I have a 12' JD. 800. Old and out dated but still gets the job done. I have a parts machine out behind the shed. One thing about the 800, there are a million of them out there and you can buy them every day for a couple hundred bucks.
 
Thanks. Yes, have a smaller combine that I don't want to choke with too large of a windrow. Also, if I could find one with a crimper I could improve production over the 7 foot mower conditioner that I currently use. But there again, I have a good JD 24T that can't take in too much hay at one time. I probably could get by using a 12 foot windrower as they appear to be a more common size based on the responses so far.
 

What part of WI? I have a Hesston 6650 with 15 foot draper head that seems to be a pretty nice machine. It came from Pipestone MN with a 21 foot head. I used the head one year, decided to was too big, and sold it to a fellow in Ridgeway. He modified it and put it on an 8000 series machine. I then bought a 6450 with the 15 foot head out of St Cloud, MN. I used that machine as-is the first year, then switched the head to the 6650. The 6450 sits here with no head. I know a guy in Soldiers Grove that has a 6450 with 12 foot head, but I don't know if it's for sale.

I had a JD 800 with 10 foot head for a couple years. It's a good enough machine, but it's not a hydro and the steering wheel/lever system takes some getting used to. It was a death trap for getting on and off a trailer. The Hesston is, too, but I can drive it down the road at 15mph so that is what I've done. Eventually I'll get a dedicated trailer bought or built.

I don't know anything about Owatonnas or Versatiles, but there are a lot of them out there.

Basic lesson from the story - you're gonna need to go to northern Minnesota/ the Dakotas to find one.
 
I swath my oats and barley with a 12 foot MF . It came with a crimper to use while cutting hay, but it isn?t handy to put on and take off. I live in South Central Ontario, just north of Lake Ontario. Here the grain grows much heavier than in the west, and a 12 foot cut is a good match for my MF 851 combined. My MF swather is a three wheeler , but I don?t have hills, so it feels comfortable to ride. I also have a JD model 2320 , which I use to cut hay with, it has 4 wheels. The JD has a much sturdier drive train, and is hydrostatic drive. Only hang up with the Deere is , the company says this is an obsolete machine, and is not going to support these swathers with parts.
I wouldn?t get to hung up on width. If you get a bigger cutting head than you want, with a swather , you don?t have to cut the full width it will cut , and have it still work well. If you get a good 12 foot machine, and can only put a 10 foot swath through your combine, just leave 2 feet of the cutting head out of the standing grain. Bruce
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Some of the older, smaller windrowers are tricycle-type. How stable are these if working on contour strips?
 
I have a Versatile 400, 15', hydro. A huge improvement over the JD 800 I had before. There aren't a lot here in WI, but a few show up every now and then on craigslist. Owatonna, JD, and Versatile seem to be the most common here. I know crimpers were available for both the JD 800 and Versatile 400, but neither strike me as being well suited for mowing hay... hay cuts a lot harder than small grains.
 
the 6450 has a wide rear axle but has a auger head with conditioner,, I have cut many acres of grain with one you just have to open the conditioner rolls
 
I've never worked on contour strips, but my 400 has never seemed unstable. The front tires are w-i-d-e apart.
 
I have cut thousands of acres with both styles I see little difference in the two other than the wide axle with two wheels rides a bit better, as far as stability I do not see any big improvment
 

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