New to mowing/bailing

This message is a reply to an archived post by paul on July 14, 2022 at 12:45:25.
The original subject was Re: New to mowingbailing.

Never had that live power take off and did not miss it. Later got a tractor with independant PTO and tried it on PTO after half a day took it off and went back to old reliable with no live PTO OR POWER steering. Farmal H handled a 9 foot mower conditioner just fine. 27 PTO HP MAX. Baler on John Deere B NO live PTO 28 HP max, plenty of power Did not miss live pto or engine as previous baler. Have no idea what rake or baler would cost now but stay away from a wheel rake, neighbor found that out when he lost hay crop because rake would not rake it.

Leroy
Live pto definitely has several advantages over transmission driven pto.

You shouldn't condemn wheel rakes especially if you have ZERO EXPERIENCE operating a wheel rake. Yes some early wheel rakes left a lot to be desired.

In the 20 plus years of use I've never found a crop my H&S Hi-cap rake won't rake & perform the raking task very well. My rake is just like rake in photo below. My rake has literally raked several 1000's of acres that produced over 30,000 rd bales since I purchased it new in 2002

I'm with you on that one Jim. There was a huge difference between the newer ones and those old things with the
short tines bolted to the outside of a wheel. Those were worthless after they for worn so the tines laid back.
I've got the newer one like yours and I wouldn't want to go back to a parallel bar.

Helped farm when I was 8, driving the farm all H, 300, Ford 960. The Oliver 88 had too hard a clutch and was dads tractor anyhow....

We baled with the H a few times. We did anything to use the 300 with the independent pto and TA. Or the 960 with live pto. The H worked. If you knew what you are doing. Sure had to watch for big spots in the swath, choke the baler and cant react after the fact, need to be ahead of it.

Here we make hay in the places too wet to grow a grain crop. They dry out in summer and the grass is good. Heavy. Wet. A tough way to make hay.

There is a swamp I bought, I cant get the rake to rake up the thick heavy stuff. I bale as it was cut, then rake after that and bale again. The New Holland fall a bar can rake it, but the swath from a single pass is too much for my NH 270 baler or old wore out round baler. The wheel rake just skids and bunches up the hay. This is some years. Others raking and all works ok. Could never use the big double rake like the Texas fella pictures, the hay wouldnt flow through and if it did no baler could swallow that.

I cant see preferring to use the H tractor with 27 hp and no live pto over the 300 tractor with independent pto and twice as many gear speeds, and the couple extra hp helps power through and pull the wagon behind.

Paul

I've raked single 9 foot swath cut by disc cutter with my rake similar to rake in photo that the field averaged making 8 rd bales per acre that were 4X5.5 in size. My High-capacity rake will form a windrow with that much hay without clogging & JD 467 rd baler baled the windrows.

This post was edited by Tx Jim on 02/10/2023 at 09:44 am.

His probably was older. Never saw it, did not know difference.

I had one of the early ones, a New idea. It wasted a lot of hay. I couldn't make near as much hay as I do alone without this V type wheel rake I have now. It doesn't take long to whip through 20 acres with it.

Two years ago I had some hay so thick and heavy my old ground-driven John Deere 670 side-delivery rake wouldn't rake it. The tires would just skid. Neighbor had a Ford three point pto powered rake sitting in his weeds which hadn't been used in a decade. I borrowed it and it worked perfectly. I was able to lift it, lower it slowly and rake that heavy hay. That old Ford rake saved my neck. kelly

Leroy also says disc mowers cut horribly and the only real way to feed hay is small squares in a manger. Some people are convinced the only right way is their way, despite having never tried other ways. And they are usually eager to tell everyone whether they ask or not.