Cutting hay... tips?

For years, I had a neighbor who cut and baled my hay for me. I would rake, haul wagons and unload using my Ford 8n. When he could no longer do it, I bought a well used New Holland haybine and my father in law who grew up on a farm did the cutting and baling.

I now have a tractor with the capabilities of running the haybine and baler and I'm determined to be able to do the cutting and baling myself. Yesterday evening I did the cutting. Once I got speed, etc... adjusted, it went pretty well. However, it took me a lot longer to get up and running (hooking everything up; little PTO problem; etc...) than I anticipated, and I ran short of daylight before I finished cutting.

I have just a couple of strips left, and was wondering if anyone has a good tip on how to finish the field when your final strip is narrower than the 9 foot haybine. I know that running hay that is already cut through the haybine is a recipe for clogs. When others have cut for me, they've managed to finish with a clean field, having no uncut strip left in the middle.

If I have to leave a small strip in the middle of the field, it's not the end of the world, but before I head out to finish that last bit, was wondering if anyone had advice. Thanks.

Here's me running out of daylight on my first time cutting hay... kind of like the way it turned out.

When I was cutting with a sickle bar, I raised bar just a bit to try to clear previously cut hay. Worked somewhat. Now that I have a DRUM mower, I can wade right in, previously cut just blows through. Donno what is going to happen with your haybind. Sickle bar cutter mechanism. right?

There's really two answers; if your haybine has been converted to stub guards, drop it down and don't worry, it may ball up under the outer shoe but you can lift the head
a little bit and it will clear itself. If you have standard guards, just carry the head up enough so that you don't catch the previous swath and mow the narrow strip a
little high. You'll be left with a strip that's a little high, but that won't hurt. If the appearance offends you, go back back after you finish haying and trim it off,
or you can do what we did before we switched to a discbine and just leave it. Good luck

You either have to raise up or plan ahead so that when you make the last few passes you run over near the swath so that you have a wide enough strip left to get between the swaths on either side. I think they call it spatial awareness or some such thing.

We have combine sections and guards on our John Deere. I just slow down to less than 4mph. Pulls it right through. If it does start to drag up, stop, back up its always cleaned out.

When I was mowing with a sickle bar moco it was an IH 990 and it was never an issue. I usually ran my inside end down the bare ground. Since you are pulling it with a Ford 960 you will have no problems either. When I got to where I was using a Moco I had moved up to a cab tractor with plenty of lights, and I did most of my mowing in the evening, much of it after dark. Your honey would like you to get a cab tractor so that you will be protected from skin cancer.

with the feed reel, not usually a problem as it will self clear... as others said, it might ball on the shoes on either end... And you double cut some of the hay so its a bit shorter going through the baler. So I run mine shoes down and keep an eye on it.. if balls on the shoes, back it up a bit and steer a bit left or right going forwards to sideswipe the balls of hay. Depending on length of hay and type of crop, longer hay, problems with balling, shorter coastal hay, no problems balling.

I second what the others said, either cut it up higher than whats down, or just run it through and back up or manually clear clogging. If I end up with some big lumps I just head out there with the ATV and a pitchfork after the fact and spread it out.

Just run it through again. If sections and guards are good it should work ok. If they are showing some wear, it may clog. Drive a gear slower (or 2) to give the reel time to move the hay off the cutterbar. Type of hay makes a big difference as to how well this works also. Grass that is damp from the dew is the worst.

Where is the LIKE button. Spot on and I agree.

I was taught (when running an IH swather, a loonng time ago) to move over on your next to last pass so your left divider is against your
previous swath. The standing strip you leave is narrower than your cutting width and the distance from the standing
hay to each previous swath is wider than your machine so it will run between them and not interfere. It sounds
confusing I know but think of it this way; instead of knocking down the last pass in one trip do it in 2 narrow (1/2)
swaths. I use this technique today when combining wheat and wind rowing straw.

I find that if i run the adjacent swath through the mower against the direction the swath was cut it
will go right through without clogging so i mow the strip and pick up some of or all of the adjacent
swath.

Cut the next to last swath only half or so ide. Then your swather will fit between the two swaths

Thanks everyone. When my father in law did the first cutting, we had trouble with the haybine clogging, but the hay was much thicker, and he was having some hydraulic problems with his tractor. In some places where the hay was thicker, I tried to cut just a little higher so I didn't pull in the cut hay, while in other spots where it was pretty thin, I just dropped it down and ran it through. After reading all the replies here, I probably would just drop it down and go slow. Next time that's what I'll do.

I do it like some others said. Start to plan ahead on next to last round so I have enough room between windrows for last pass.