haying equip advice

Forget the haybine, you'll be better off getting you a drum mower and a tedder. You can purchase a NEW CCM drum mower for the same money or less than a good used haybine. With the drum mower you can mow in the mornings or evenings when the haybine will not mow because the grass is wet. The drum mower will mow as fast as you can ride the tractor. You will be finished mowing with the drum mower before you can start with the haybine.

I live in central Ill where the humidity is high. Except for maybe July and Aug, any hay I mow has to be baled within two or three days otherwise it gets rained on. I figured using a haybine would condition the hay and allow me to bale sooner thus keeping the hay from getting wet. Plus I'm told using the haybine is lot less trouble mowing than my sicle mower. Never seen a drum mower in these parts! Sounds like a good mower, does it still leave the stems long? Wouldn't I still have to condition in order to bale right away?
Yes, the hay does bunch up using sicle mower and is a pain in the neck, not to mention the drying and mold problem. Sounds like if I get a tedder it would help but that means another trip over the fields. Does a tedder knock the leaves off alfalfa which is what most of my hay is? I'm still leaning toward haybine but want to explore all options. Also I've been told by others that round bales can be baled sooner than square bales. Seems to me the hay would be more likly to mold in round bales than in square.

This is great forum. Thanks for advice

As far as the tedder goes, make sure its really nice for that money. $1250 if you shop around will get a brand new one. Do you need it, one day you will. Nothing fixes rained on hay like a tedder. I struggled with the investment of $500 in one a few years ago. The next year, I sold it and spend $2500 on a 4 basket. One of my better investments.

A tedder allows for even curing. I tried several things to "get the hay right", but having cows and a back pasture that has beautiful grass that horse folks love, I had 2 types of hay to bale. Cows get fed long stem, coarsy sudan sorghum and the horses light, fine stemmed, grasses. Cow feeding is best suited to the roll while the horse owners perfer squares.

The haybine works fine on both. I don"t like mowing wet grass so I usually wait to mow till 10am ish. The haybine is 9", easy to connect and disconnect, very versatile, easy to operate, and makes as much windrow as I want. On the stemmy stuff I roll for cows, the conditioner crushes the stems so it cures more evenly. The grass, being fine stemmed goes thru the conditioner without event.

The last (of 3) sickle mowers I had (currently have none...yeah) I couldn"t get the early season grass to cure cause it would lump up. Always had big clumps of grass here and there, especially in turns where the cutter reverses to make the square corner.

Bought a tedder to follow the sickle (another trip) to scatter what I had cut. Worked ok after I modified it so it would do the job it was supposed to when manufactured. The haybine doesn"t make clumps so I don"t need the tedder and since it cuts both nicely, that"s my cutter and tedder combined.

Neighbor had a D17 and put out 5x6 rolls of coastal bermuda for years. Based on that I would say it"s a good enough match.

On hobby or not, I suggest you find a good local tax preparer that caters to the farming community. You"d be suprised what is written into the tax code that can offer a big advantage for you.

Good luck,

Mark

Mark

Mark