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Implement Alley Discussion Forum

Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower

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Joe in IN

07-12-2006 08:49:16




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I'm certain this has been asked before but here goes.

I Have a sickle MOCO. I could afford a disc mower but not Disc MOCO. My hay fields are 80% alfalfa, in North central Indiana(West Lafayette).

I have a JD3010D...about 55 hp.

I have the horses for a disc mower or could go for a better MOCO(My old Hesston PT10 just gives me troubles.

With about 3K a used disc mower could be had. But obviously no conditioning. I do have a tedder.

I like the idea of the speed and cutting lodged alfalfa with a disc mower. Lack of conditioning scares me a bit. My hay is for horses(small square) and boy are their owners picky.

What to do...

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JWheels

07-14-2006 21:05:55




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
We bought a discbine this spring and it was well worth the money spent.

According to the manual our NH1411 requires 49hp, so you should be able to run it, just not super fast.

We just finished cutting our second crop of hay with it behind a farmall 560, driving in third gear,(5-5.5 MPH???) We"ve been dry so there wasn"t a super amount of hay out there, although we also cut a bunch of meadow hay with the 560 in first gear, TA back and it worked hard, temp ran around 200 degrees, and the radiator maybe should be blown out. We did use a 806 to cut first crop, (the 560 had the loader on for packing haylage)

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wolfman

07-13-2006 17:03:39




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
A good mower-conditioner with the reel set right will pick up & cut downed clover & alfalfa quite well. Just keep your ground speed up so that the rolls don't grab the heads before the sickel cuts the butts. That means at least 4th gear in the 3010. I used a NH 479 with a 460 for years in heavy s.w.Pa hay and wrapped the rolls once. (It was six-foot tall sorghum-sedan-tryed to cut it at 4 mph-discovered 6 or 7 mph it cut with ease) I've used our 3010D on the 479-not a bad rig. If you're going to cut 3 or 400 acres, then consider a discbine.

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RodInNS

07-12-2006 14:11:50




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
You don't have the tractor to run a discbine. Period. You might run an 8' or so disc mower. 9' would be a hard pull. Not saying you can't turn the mower, but it's going to work the tractor awful hard. You'll be driving slow, and won't really get more done than you would with a well tuned haybine. I've run a 9' Kuhn disc mower for years. The smallest tractor it was on was 60 hp, and it wasn't making much time. 70 works real good, and 85+ will make it fly... to the point that the mower doesn't have a chance. The 1460 JD that I just bought wants 70 hp, period. It will still work a 100hp tractor on a steep hill. If I was in your boots, I'd be looking for a nice used haybine, and get it tuned up good. They can still cut at 5 mph if they're set up right. That's unless you've got more power to put in front of a good discbine. You could probably scare up a good one for 5 g. HTH.

Rod

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kyhayman

07-12-2006 12:17:19




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
I use both. In first cutting, I wont even hook up the haybine. Or should I rephrase, I always regret when I do. Twice this year in first cutting I tired it, and both times the rollers jammed with that tangled mess of alfalfa and orchard grass. Spent better part of a half day both times trying to get it out. Its a good machine, and I bought it new back in the early 80s when I was still in high school. Later cuttings I like to use the haybine as it keeps the color better, but at least half the time I end up using the disc mower and the tedder as it just makes things go simpler. As the other post said, disc conditioner is the way to go. As soon as I can get these last two lots sold I want to get a new one and a new square baler.

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Jerry/MT

07-12-2006 12:00:06




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
If you're end product is going to picky horse people who usually are quite willing to pay a premium for quality hay, I don't see how you can consider anything but a moco. You need the conditioning to speed drying time and you don't want to handle it too much to dry it 'cuz you'll knock a lot of the high value leaves off.(In our pert of the country, Western Montana, I don't know anybody who makes alfalfa that does anything but moco and bale when dry. If you are in this for the long haul, spend the money on the disc moco if it's what you really need for a successful operation.

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RickL

07-12-2006 11:07:05




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
for the price you talking that is really close to new disc mower, You can get goood used disc mowco in the 5 range. I would go with it instead but if tyou don't in my case it just means about another day more before you bale. It all depaends on the weather. Have a 1460 JD unit for 5200.00 good unit just going larger



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Cliff Neubauer

07-12-2006 10:00:43




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
We've been using a regular disk mower here in south east Iowa and it works good if you have sunshine and a good breeze. This year it seems like when we mow hay it gets cloudy with no breeze so we are looking to go to a disk mower conditioner but partly to go to a 12' wide center pivot mower to speed things up.



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Carp

07-12-2006 09:51:51




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
We have both a 7' haybine and a 8' disc mower. I have put up both grass hay and alphalfa with both. We also use a tedder. The haybine makes the hay dry faster as it conditions the hay, but more importantly it fluffs the hay up off of the ground in a windrow. This allows the air to move through the hay and dries it much quicker. The disc mower lays hay dead flat on the ground and no air gets through. If you do not ted it, it will not dry all the way through. It also takes longer to ted as the tedder has a hard time picking the hay up off of the ground.

Long story short, I use the haybine and the disc mower sets in the building when I mow my alphalfa and heavy first cutting grass hay.

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jwk

07-12-2006 09:14:01




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
My neighbor tried using his 3020 on a 1411 NH disc mower. It was too much for it; got hot and wouldn't cool down.

A disc mower conditioner of decent size takes a bunch of horsepower, but you can really move with them. I feel the sickle mowers cut nicer hay if they are in tip top shape. Just takes a lot of maintenance and more time to mow. With that much alfalfa, you should have conditioning rolls to get quicker dry down.

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Iowa Jim

07-12-2006 09:00:37




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 Re: Alfalfa Hay - Sickle MoCo or Disc Mower in reply to Joe in IN, 07-12-2006 08:49:16  
One thing to consider is the increased ash content (dirt) in forages harvested with a disc mower.

Jim



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