grandpa Love
Well-known Member
Showcrop asked in my post about my cutting pattern. I clearly need help! Any and all suggestions appreciated. I'm used to bush hogging, just get it cut.
- Thread starter grandpa Love
- Start date
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Just looking at my phone, I can?t make much sense out of your map, lol. I always cut 4-6 rounds, then pick the longest straight side in a odd shaped field as my guide. Then go make a cut up the Center of the field parallel to the longest straight side. Then turning to the left, cut back down the say swath I just came up. And turn left at the end and repeat widening out the Center strike until it looks like a shorter drive empty across the end that had the longest side, go down the longest side, and being turning right. This is cutting in strikes, and makes baling hay with a small square baler and a wagon behind much nicer job
dcarp
Well-known Member
- Location
- Schulenburg Texas
Bruce, sounds just like how I try to mow. 6 or 8 rounds, then the longest straight line. I use a wheel rake & those do not like corners. Plus it?s a lot easier to bale straight than it is to turn and bale.
My only advice is to start cutting clockwise until the field is cut, then do your trimming around the edges. If/when you screw up and get a fencepost into the mower, it will be on the trim pass and the field will already be cut. My neighbor always insisted on cutting the first pass counterclockwise. Then he always wasted precious time repairing the mower before he could get the rest of the field laid down.
Tx Jim
Well-known Member
- Location
- Coyote Flats, Texas
Ditto! Cutting a field in lands especially with a cutter that only has capability of cutting on one side of tractor is a waste of time irregardless due to shape of field. Baling in a straight line is great until one calculates the time wasted on the swooping turns on each end of the field when one isn't making bales
Although cutting with self propelled or center pivot(GN) cutter is a different story
BarnyardEngineering
Well-known Member
- Location
- Rochester, NY
Don't overthink it. Just start on the outside and work your way to the middle.
On large fields try to break it down into rectangular sections that take no more than 8 rounds with the machine to cut. That way you are spending as little time as possible going back and forth across the headlands.
With some practice you'll get an eye for it.
On large fields try to break it down into rectangular sections that take no more than 8 rounds with the machine to cut. That way you are spending as little time as possible going back and forth across the headlands.
With some practice you'll get an eye for it.
Super H Mike
Member
All my fields are odd shaped, I have tried different ways and it always ends up about the same. I try to break it up into more rectangle or square shapes. Starting on the outside and going clockwise is what I usually do. Starting in the middle and working outward SEEMS faster, but I don't think it really is. An old neighbor now passed always told me you have to cut, rake and bale all the same direction, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference, at least not in grass hay.
formerly ny bill
Well-known Member
Bruce has it down. on bigger fields (8+ acres), I make 6 rounds of the outside (counting the backswath), because it takes about that much room when baling or chopping to get lined up with the next windrow, after the outside is picked up. then cutting out from the middle, like Bruce described, will save you a lot of running across empty ground on the headlands. also makes a difference if the field is long and narrow, or more squarish. smaller fields, like a couple acres, just cut from the outside. if there is a tree or swale out in the field that I need to avoid driving into, I circle around it when I get to it, and then turn around and go right back the other way around it again, so there is space to maneuver the tractor and haybine the next time around.
I also second the idea of wearing earmuffs. your ears will thank you later.
I also second the idea of wearing earmuffs. your ears will thank you later.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Cutting and raking in the same direction was important when you cut with a sickle bar mower, and raked your hay with a roller bar rake. Especially if the roller bar rake was the old 3 bar steel wheel ground drive style. Cut with a haybine, doesn?t make much difference, and pto rakes can beat any hay into a row
Made absoulty no difference with those rakes either, light hay would rake one pass, turn around and rake second pass going the other way. Who ever said that did not what they were talking about, About as smary about raking hay as prpbly building a space ship. Over 60 years since I started raking hay and grass-legumes makes no difference.
danofarming
Member
I usually start by going all the way around the outside. Obstacles in the field usually dictate any deviance from the Around and Around and around and Around and around ..............................
When cutting hay with a right hand semi-mounted sickle mower, I always made the first round with the left rear tractor wheel as close as possible to the fence surrounding the field. Then immediately turn around and mow the "back swat". Keep the left rear tractor wheel in the "swat board" track & you will not hit the fence. (Do NOT LOOK AT the fence!) You can then decide how to best cut the rest. In our part of the world, most of our fields are rectangular. That makes decisions simple.
Only seems like the younger ones like just cutting back and forth. I started mowing with a horse drawn mower pulled by a tractor. Only way that could be done was around and around. First piece of machineery I bought was a horse drawn mower in 1959. With those you would have to mow back and forth stop at each end raise cutter bar put out of gear turn and put bar back down and put in gear and how long would that take getting off unit twice for a pass with mower. And those mowers you had to raise bar slightlt to go over the cut hay to mow out the corners that the bar in front of wheels would not do. When the mower came out with wheels in back of bar eliminated that and semi-mount never had that strip left from turning. That is ifyou could make a square corner, turn wheel and hit brake and turn was made. Mow back cut first as that gives you correct starting point for going clockwise. Should be able tosee any obsticales laying in hay to go around them. If you try just going back and forth you have to wait to cut field untill those outside rounds are baled so you are not traveling on them all the time just trampling the hay into ground. And you will never make up lost time traveling empty across ends. The only time back and forth cutting makes any sence is with a self propelled outfit or a hydra-swing that you stay on same side for every cut and then you still have to wait for the outside rounds to get baled. If you have time for waiting from first cutting to baleing before cutting rest of field then might make sence but who has the time to do that. And either your bar mower or your mower-conditioner will make those perfectly square corners you do not have to cut out after rest of field is mowed. This works just as good on any shape field. Only split a field if it is large enough that you want tobale as seperate fields because you could not do it in one day.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
The more you cut the field up the more corners and turning you'll have to deal with,no reason I can see for you not to go around the outside and just keep circling.I usually
cut 3 or 4 rounds and then cut the back round,then rake and bale the same way.
cut 3 or 4 rounds and then cut the back round,then rake and bale the same way.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Congratulations on your 60 years of experience doing hay. My experience has been different from yours. I have no experience building space ships, but vey extensive experience making hay using both antique horse drawn ground driven equipment right up to new hay equipment built last year, and I stand by what I say. Same thing goes for picking up grain swaths with a combine equipment with a pickup head..
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
You ever pulled a forage harvester and forage wagon picking up hay? Even a bale thrower wagon doesn?t like being dragged around square corners.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
I could run circles around that rig with my Yanmar and NH 456 mower.
The reasons younger guys like going back and forth are self propelled and hydro-swing hay and disc-bines, hard to go around corners with choppers, round balers, kicker balers, and newer hay rakes that do not handle corners very good without missing some hay. Old (50-70 or so years ago) steel wheel rakes did 90 degree plus corners very well making round and round mowing work. Growing up we mowed round and round with a JD no 5 mower on a 1935 JD B and later with a 1946 JD A. When I started chopping most of my hay I went back and forth in lands and later back and forth with a hydro-swing haybine. It makes it handier hauling in using this method. Also if the hay got too dry I wood just leave it and round bale it in the evening or the next day. This way is harder on the ends especially the area towards the exit for the field. One 40 acre field we would end up with a 16' chopper box full on one side near the road exit after 2 12' rounds. If the chopper guy filled the wagon before the end, he would pull out and bring the load to the end. I would park the empty wagon next to the full one so it was close and I would hook up the chopper when I hooked up the full wagon. Every so often the chopper would clean up the abandoned windrows left behind. This field was close to the buildings so I did not need help hauling in. We would start chopping 11:00 AM and usually finish by 5:00 PM so I could milk. 22 -24 loads and maybe 1-3 loads on wagons to unload after milking. I had my JD 4440 on the blower filling my 90' tall Harvestore.
No way is wrong. Whatever makes you happy. Most people have reasons the way they do things.
No way is wrong. Whatever makes you happy. Most people have reasons the way they do things.
showcrop
Well-known Member
Leroy, you are exactly right!!! it is the younger ones that like cutting back and forth. I would say that the cut-off for younger is at about 75 right now, LOL. You are right about trampling the hay in the headlands too!!. But if we are making dry hay we are back in a few hours to fluff it out anyway. It makes no difference. The difference that it does make is acres per hour cut. The faster it is cut the sooner it is drying. These days farming is tougher. Margins are tighter. More has to be done faster with less labor. You have to be covering ground when cropping.
Robert (ID)
Member
I have to agree with svcummins on this one..
Running a big baler and a tractor with m4wd on bigger pieces I catch about every 3rd windrow after its raked.
Anyways I cut the first round counterclockwise (it comes from running a grain combine near trees with an auger hanging out the left side).
I cut 4 rounds to 8 rounds (14 ft new holland)around the outside depending on the size of the piece. We rake 2 to 1 on the heavy stuff or 3 to 1 if its lighter
Running a big baler and a tractor with m4wd on bigger pieces I catch about every 3rd windrow after its raked.
Anyways I cut the first round counterclockwise (it comes from running a grain combine near trees with an auger hanging out the left side).
I cut 4 rounds to 8 rounds (14 ft new holland)around the outside depending on the size of the piece. We rake 2 to 1 on the heavy stuff or 3 to 1 if its lighter
Destroked 450
Well-known Member
- Location
- Harned, Ky
If that ditch running from the tree to the garden is big enough that it bounces your tractor and equipment around when operating at normal speed I'd lay that field off in 3 sections, start with the section where you come thru the gate mowing clock wise, this puts the tractor next to the ditch, trees and fence, best to find a washout, downed tree limb or fence post with the tractor than with the cutter bar, none of those sections are big enough to get setup for straight back and forth mowing, i'd just go around the field until that section was done then cut out the back swath before moving to the next section, this way should you have problems there's not one strip of uncured hay around the outside swath when the rest of that section is ready to bale.
If that ditch is just a low drain that can easily be crossed split the field into two sections with the 400x100 ft section below the big ditch being the second section.
Some spots I'd leave as I believe in never mowing into a corner that I have to back out of, you waste more time mowing raking and baling those spots than the few bales you'll get are worth.
With your style rake I like to rake 2-3 double windrows (around the field and back) to make room for turning around, then rake back and forth starting at the longest point and working down to the short rows, I've found this is makes raking and baling much easier.
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