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A sickle used on good clean hay/grass is just fine. They tend to have their problems, as long as it in good working condition, in wiry old uncut for years, full of trash and/or wet ground. By working and planting the ground you have eliminated over half your concerns. Just make sure the ground ends up flat. As far as wet goes that comes down to a timing issue. Not so much the grass as the ground under it. This year around here it was always wet (ground). So timing was everything. Last year it wasn't. Dirt (mud) sticking to the bottom of the cutter bar because of wet conditions can cause clogging problems, but it affected the drying more that anything else. Is a crimpier a must, no. I baled my first year (grass) without a crimpier or a rake. Took longer but can be done, I did it. Crimpers have two main advantages. But both concern stems. First it can save a day in drying time. By crimping (smashing) the stems they dry faster. Second conditioning, Some folks prefer the stems be crushed so the animal isn't eating sticks. Notice neither apply to grass. In fact I couldn't see a differance between crimped and uncrimped. Unless you have a stalky grass or clover in it you shouldn't need one. That said if you plan to mix, I would suggest you use a crimpier. The will grass dry faster that the alfalfa stems, you will loose nutrition as the grass turns brown and leaves dry up waiting for the stems to dry. Regarding your plans, "Just feeding a few cows though the winter..... if I intend to sell some, horse people want alfalfa mix too". Don't go to crazy on the alfalfa thing. Yes many horse folks want mixes, but they also tend to be pretty picky on the mix itself as well as other things. God forbid their horse get sick, it will be your fault. There will be plenty of guys that will take whatever you have little or no questions asked. I am in no way an expert, but now in my third year (learning as I go) here's a few things to consider. 1st - Just how much do you plan to do? Starting with a few acres you don't need much. I started with a tractor, sickle, and baler. Total investment $3800, with the tractor being $3500 of it. Baled up 400 bales, 1 cutting on roughly 8a of grass that hadn't been cut in two years, for myself and a neighbor. Didn't have a rake or crimper. Those came later. What did the lack of that equipment cost - time. which leads to #2. 2nd - Time. Does it really matter that with an old sickle it may take 40 min to cut an acre vs 20 min with some fancy mower? Is that 20 min (your case two hours) worth $2000. This is where you really have to watch what people are tellin ya. I have heard claims of 5, 6, 7acres an hour. But do the math. An acre is 207' by 207'. divide 207 by 6' cut and you get 34 passes. 34 passes x 207' come out to 1.33 miles. 1.33 x 5 acre is 6.6. So you would have to run like 7mhp to get that performance and not make very many turns. Not to many older tractors gonna do that unless your in road gear. Go look at your proofmeter. Figure 4mph on avg, and you get a little more realistic, 3a an hour. Ideal conditions, 5mph - 4a/hour. Not much difference if just doin a small piece of ground for yerself. But jump up to 40, 50 or a 100 acres it makes a difference. I moved up to a moco to buy time on 40 acres. Cut "and" condition (save the second trip) in one pass, not much faster but one lest pass. Which brings me to money. 3rd - $$$. One of the things I didn't pay attention to at first was cost. Some fool planted in my head that I could get rich on this. I think his comment was make $400 a year per acer, couple hunderd acre, bla, bla, bla. I did after the fact and chucked it up to education. My first year the hay cost me somethin like $4 a bale. Second year bout $2.50. didn't take long to figure that I'd be better off buying it. Going forward I planned, calculated, and set a goal to break even. In other words get the cost down to or under the market price of $2 a bale. Which brings me to the final point. Goal 4th - Goal. I set a goal of spending no more that it would cost me to buy and if possible less (not doing this for a living). Having calculated my equipment, operation, and labor cost, I knew how much hay I needed to bale to get there. (about 800 bales). But to do it I would need to change a few things. I needed more ground. To do more ground I needed more time. To get more time I needed more/faster equipment. To get more/faster equipment I would have to spend more money. So I sat down to figure what cost the most time, what it would cost to cover it $ wise, and how much more product to make up the difference. Settling on desired equipment, money spent and to be spent, and needed production. Having an investment of roughly $7000, spread out over ten years (I know wishful thinkin), and including op and labor it takes about 1400 bales to break even. In your case with 6 acres, assuming you already have a tractor (so I won't include it in the calculation) you will need the following, Mower, rake, baler. Six acres will produce roughly 500-600, 40-45 pound bales per year (2 grass cuttings) an established bed of alfalfa 3, maybe 4 if you put in a lot of effort and have perfect weather, but since it will be new figure it about the same as grass the first year. I have heard a lot of guys claim 5 cuttings, best stuff ever, etc. but experience thought me to figure conservative, those guys aren't going to bail you out if you figure high based on their word and find out the predicted 50 bales per/acre, per/cut, 4 times a years (200), came in at 37 bales per/acre per/cut twice - 75 bales (which it did, unlike what I was told). Big difference, anyway if you get 500 bales and the going price is 2 bucks, figure $1000 + what's the education worth. You can get a decent baler for $600-800 vs $2500 newer used, a pull type rake for $100 vs $300-400 new wheel, crimper and sickle for $200-300 vs $2000+ new mower(don't forget postage, the fact you have no crimper/conditioner, and the tedder your going to need to spread it out to dry), see where I am going. Just watch what your buying and don't take nobodys word for it.
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