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Implement Alley Discussion Forum

Double cutting hay with a swather

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Canadian Ken

06-18-2005 20:41:19




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Hi!
This post is in relation the the previous one about using a mower. We have owned swathers for years, starting with a Owatonna,then a MF 34, a MF 36, and now a MF 785 with a 12 foot head and a attached crimper. We would double cut the alfalfa/grass hay if it got too tall before cutting . It would make excellent, short stemmed hay. First you drive each round counter clockwise in the field with the swather head sitting about halfway between the heads on the hay and the ground.You could drive almost as fast as the machine would go.At the end of each round, you turn the machine around and drive clockwise with the swather with the swather head at ground level. Any hay that was tramped by the swather the first time over was sucked off the ground by the cutbar. I don't know how much faster that made the hay dry. We would go over the hay a second time with a PTO crimper. First we had New Holland 402's which wrapped the hay on the open center rolls if the condition were right/wrong?LOL! I found two John Deere 22 crimpers that have closed center rolls, the older one has modular cast iron rolls, and the newer one has formed steel rolls. They both worked excellent to condition the hay. The rolls are both driven, and they are timed so that they don't touch and make a lot of noise. This also helps to keep the rolls from grinding the leaves off the alfalfa, just like the New Holland 488 haybine did that we owned for a short time before we bought the MF 785. The haybine rolls are cranked tight together to squeeze and kink the stems. The rear of the haybine was always heaped with leaves that the rolls removed. The rolls of the crimper also squeezed the hay as well as kinked the stems better than the 488. My $.02 worth.
Ken

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txgrn

06-20-2005 05:29:00




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 Re: Double cutting hay with a swather in reply to Canadian Ken, 06-18-2005 20:41:19  
If I want chopped up hay I just use a bush hog type cutter. Square bales ok, dries fast, and horses easily digest it. If I want to roll it, I have to swath it; single pass.

Mark



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