Making Hay with a sickle bar

Last year I put up just over 500 bales. I cut with a 6ft rear sickle bar on a Farmall Super A.
Rake and then bail using a New Holland 66 baler.

I'm looking for opinions from experienced guys that have used sickle bars with success...
What would help me with my drying time? -- I can spend up to $500 ..

A hay crimper/conditioner/crusher ...??

Or a Tedder?. . and if so which type of tedder?

Been using a sickle bar mower on and off on my place since 1980. Pretty hard to do much other then rake it and let it sit with only $500 to play with. I did get lucky a few years back or probably more like a decade back and found an old NH 460 haybine which does help a bit but maybe only one day difference as to drying time. When you rake it try to go at a pretty good rate to make the windrows big and fluffier which helps dry time a lot

When we used a sickle mower back before NH Haybines came along, we had some trouble with drying hay to bale. I bought a John Deere crimper to pull behind the mower. It seemed to work better pulling it with a separate tractor. The crimper had intermeshing steel rolls and worked good. It was pto drive and the only maintainence it needed was greasing it.
It worked best in mixed grass and legume and alfalfa. Straight grass hay did not help drying a lot. I have seem a couple around in the hedgerows. They could easily be put into working condition as they are a simple machine. Paid $100 for it in the 1060s. If you could find one today probably would still be a $100. They never caught on in our area.

A conditioner would work well but they aren't cheap here, at least $1,000.00. You might find a two beater Tedder for $500.00 and that would help stir the hay and get air under it. We have made a lot of hay with a disc mower and Tedder combo. We usually mow one evening then tedd the next day after the dew is off, it will kink the stems but you have to wait for the joint to dry.

I'm probably lucky, but I've had great success with my sickle mower cutting hay. Below is a link to a video of it in action.

However.......

The one thing I couldn't get around was a faster curing time - and I'd say an even curing time with a sickle only cut was a problem. I also use a tedder. In the mountains where I live, between the humidity, cool night temps, heavy dew and thunder storms, every advantage is necessary to fit into the short haying window. So this past winter, we bought a haybine. Never used one, until tonight - which I posted about in Implement Alley. I was amazed at the crimping/crushing action vs straight cut hay. This hay HAS to dry faster.

So my recommendation is to get a haybine and a tedder.

Good luck,
Bill
Cutting Hay w/Sickle Mower

Get a crimper. I found one that has steel rolls which are fed by a pick up reel. Made a lot of hay using it after cutting with my old NI mower.
Still use it occasionally to fluff up stuff since it sits much higher than a normal crimper.

The benefits of a conditioner really depends on what you're cutting. As Cas indicated, a roller conditioner does very little to fine-stemmed grass other than maybe fluffing up the swath - they are far more effective on legumes like alfalfa and for heavy-stemmed stuff like sudan grass. Flail-type conditioners are common for grass hay but I've never seen a stand-alone flail conditioner; they are always part of a mower/conditioner. The usefulness and popularity of tedders depends mostly on where you live and your climate. From what it sounds they are nearly essential for haymaking in the east but in all my job-related travels in hay-making regions in the western US I've never seen a single one. I can sure see how with grass hay in a humid climate they would be helpful, though.

I've made hay for over 50 years with some sort of sickle bar mower and most of the time just let it dry and bale it.Also have a New Holland 404 conditioner I paid $50 for about 20 years ago if the hay is really heavy and conditions warrant it but I rarely use it.I've tried a couple haybines but never liked them or thought them necessary.And in my opinion haybines lower the quality of the hay and running a tedder thru the hay knocking all the leaves off really destroys it.

You only save a day. I have a New Idea pull behind crimper that needs a little work. Hooks behind a sickle mower. You can have it cheap if you have a use for it and want to try to get it going. You will need to be in SE Michigan as it would not be worth a long trip.

I'm from Central New York, and the hay I cut is what grows naturally. .it was a soybean field several years ago. .and now has some timothy, clover. .etc..
What I find is if we have really hot sunny days .. the exposed hay turns a golden color .. and the bottom is still green. .and takes for ever to dry out. The hay rake I have seems to just make a rope. . so I will only rake . .just before I bale.. so it has to be completely dry before raking. It's an IDEA 403 ground driven.

Hello Floyd, I am in Central NY also. I would reccomend a hay tedder. There are 2 styles- reel type or rotary . I use a haybine to cut my hay but have a rotary tedder. When ground is damp, heavy dews, real heavy 1st cut hay or you start haying real early and want to make dry hay a tedder is a big help. You want to ted it shortly after you mow while it is still real green -or early am with dew on it. Sometimes I would mow hay in the evenings and ted the next morning. Tedding spreads and lifts the hay allowing air and sun to work on it . Tedding also helps if the hay gets rained on - gets it dry quicker . For what you do a small rotary tedder would be enough. It handles 1 windrow at a time. Reel type tedders help too but dont spread out the hay as well. Tedding hay WILL NOT damage the hay if done properly and at the right time. If it is dry enough to shake leaves off the hay by tedding, it is too dry to ted - and dry enough you shouldnt need to anyhow.

I used a sickle bar mower for years, NH 451 and now have a trailed disc mower with no conditioner so it's still like mowing with a sickle bar only faster.
I use a tedder right after mowing or the next morning, If the hay is thick or has big stems I ted at a higher rpm to break up the stems and spread out the hay more. If it's finer hay I run at a lower rpm to fluff the hay for better drying. In heavy hay and high humidity I go over the hay a second time the morning before baling at low rpm to fluff the hay and get it off the ground for better drying. For Johnson grass and sudan grass I'd rather go over it with a conditioner or crimper first then ted it.

Floyd, it can be done, weather permitting. I made hay for a couple years with a super A with an A-22 (mid-mount) 5' sickle bar, used a Case f170 rake (on steel) pulled out of a hedgerow. The third year, got a JD 22 conditioner, and it helped dry time some, but the number of critters needing hay got ahead of what I could cut, condition, bale with one person, and put up (by hand) with the help of one other. This past year, I got a '44 H and a Gehl 9' haybine, separately, but that work well together. Reduced field time by about a fourth. Twice the cut and one trip to cut and condition. Still use the SA to rake and the little sickle on occasion for cutting ditches and cutting for 'green' feeding.

Haven't tried a tedder, yet. Got another hedgerow find of an IH 3 bar rake/tedder that may be a candidate for a referb.

Although I now use an ancient Hesston Windrower (which conditions) to cut, I originally cut with a New Idea sickle bar on my '50 8N, and just had to wait for it to dry. I'll agree with the folks above that conditioning may only shave a day or so from drying time, at least here in the Middle West.

I've been moving more toward a grass/alfalfa mix (originally straight alfalfa), and the grass seems to dry a day or two faster than the alfalfa (and may help the alfalfa to dry a little faster). I've also learned to do everything I can to avoid raking more than once (two windrows into one), as the second time really tends to rope as you said.



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That rake looks like the Ford PTO drive rake I have out in the field. It works good but I hate those rubber mount teeth on it and at $4 each it would cost me a mint to be able to repair it and use it

It's a Fergeson. The (coil, not rubber) teeth are hard to find as, well, hen's teeth! :lol:

Last time I replaced some, I bought teeth that were similar and bent them around to match the originals.

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Floyd, when I stared out 25 years ago it was with a sickle bar and no tedder. Here in the Northeast you have to ted, so after about twenty minutes of making hay I got a Tedder. For $500.00 MoCo is out of the question so I will recommend a tedder. Specifically a Kuhn 440GST. I started out with an older model but upgraded to the 440 after 5-6 years. They are the gold standard, but are obsolete to the bigger farmer due to manual fold. You can buy them all day for $500.00, but for considerably less at auction.

That Ih 3 bar rake-tedder is a good piece built in 3 different versions from 1916 to 1050 Just don't drive faster than you or a horse would want to walk. At that speed they do more lifting than beating but try to run faster it will beat the hay bad and also beat up the rake. If you have trouble getting teeth I can get them easy. That is still a popular rake in Amish country. Some slide over the bar and to replace one tooth you have to take the real apart, later teeth just bolted on. And with that JD No 22 you pought the worst model of them that deere built altho it was the newest. The 21 is a lot better machine and where the 22 would take 2 days for drying time the 21 would only take one. And it is not unusual for hay to lay a week here even with conditioning and tedding. I have tedded 2-3 times or even more to get hay dry. And I di like a very tight winrow when I rake (what a lot call ropeing) I do not want a fluffy winrow. When I started out making hay crimpers were not yet thought about let alone a haybine. Over the years I tried at lest 4 different models of crimpers and a mower-conditioner but have not made hay since 1980.

(quoted from post at 11:52:34 06/08/16) That Ih 3 bar rake-tedder is a good piece built in 3 different versions from 1916 to 1050 Just don't drive faster than you or a horse would want to walk. At that speed they do more lifting than beating but try to run faster it will beat the hay bad and also beat up the rake. If you have trouble getting teeth I can get them easy. That is still a popular rake in Amish country. Some slide over the bar and to replace one tooth you have to take the real apart, later teeth just bolted on. And with that JD No 22 you pought the worst model of them that deere built altho it was the newest. The 21 is a lot better machine and where the 22 would take 2 days for drying time the 21 would only take one. And it is not unusual for hay to lay a week here even with conditioning and tedding. I have tedded 2-3 times or even more to get hay dry. And I di like a very tight winrow when I rake (what a lot call ropeing) I do not want a fluffy winrow. When I started out making hay crimpers were not yet thought about let alone a haybine. Over the years I tried at lest 4 different models of crimpers and a mower-conditioner but have not made hay since 1980.

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Leroy, did you ever have a Cunningham? I wore out my pocket knife under one of them as a kid.

I mowed hay on Sunday afternoon and then raked an baled it yesterday. I use a Farmall A wit ha sickle bar mower and I did big rounds but could have done squares also. Hay was nice and dry like it needed to be. I raked it them an hour or so later baled it

That is a make that was not sold in my area. Think first we tried to use was a Yetter,borrowed from neighbor. Then Uncle bought New Holland was tried and taken back. McCormick brought out. Then First one we owned was a John Deere No. 1, then an AC, then a Deere No. 22. Would have liked to have had a Deere No. 21 but not to be but that had the good style rolls in same as first model but both rolls were driven so did not have all the clatter. The AC amd IHC were both rubber roll crusher models while the Deere were crimper. Don't remember on the others.

[i:15a8f09d37](crossposted in the Ford 8N forum, but thought it relevant to this thread)[/i:15a8f09d37]

I have my hay field divided in two sections this year, one of which is established alfalfa/orchard grass and the other is the same, only seeded this Spring. The oats nurse crop headed out last week, so it was time to take a first cut off that section, and second cut off the established field.

As usual, I used the Hesston 6400 windrower to cut, starting in the older field. I finished that and made it two times around the new field only to run out of gas, mumble, mumble - meant to top off before I started. Naturally, I was at the far end of the field, too.

Walked back, loaded the gas cans in the truck and topped it off. Crank, crank, crank, no fire. Crank, crank, click, click, no battery. Drove back and got the jumper cables and ether. Finally got it started (the old Dodge /6 in the Hesston is balky when hot). Made it one more time around, then started losing power gradually, to the point where it was about to stall. Limped back to the shed and shut it down. No time to troubleshoot, so I got the 8N out and after digging through last year's leftover pasture fencing supplies, was able to back in and hook up the old New Idea sickle bar. Greased it up, and went back to cutting.

After making a few adjustments to the bar angle (kept hitting dirt clods and plugging up), it settled in and did an absolutely fantastic job - I think I had fewer plugs than any time I'd ever used it in the past (maybe it missed me?).

Finished up around 10pm, and other than the bugs, had a nice therapeutic time muttering around the field to the snick-snick-snick of the sickle.







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