Windrower

Bobl1958 · Jun 9, 2021

I am looking at a new Case/IH disc blade windrower. This swather does not have crimping rolls at all. My question to anyone who has any experience with one is if it would be a major problem not to have the rolls.

I have a JD 3430 swather with a 14' head. It is a nice swather, but I have too much trouble swathing big brome hay. It keeps wanting to slug the machine. I have installed new belts, guards, sections, the works, but in heavy brome can barely move without issues. I have put up with this for 3 or 4 years, and am looking for a change.

Any thoughts on not having a crimper? I know in the old days using a cycle bar mower it seemed the hay dried fast, but it was more laid out in a wider swather. Let me know your thoughts. This one I am looking at is condidered 10'-6 wide I believe. Narrower swather, but I would assume at a considerably faster speed. Also, I small bale about 300 or so, and sometimes the swath in big brome is almost too much for the baler. Thanks for any information, good or bad. Bob

wore out · Jun 9, 2021

If your tractor has a cab, rig a debris shield of expanded metal behind the rear window or you will be replacing the glass sooner or later.

If your tractor doesn't have a cab, I dunno, DUCK, mebbee?

Bobl1958 · Jun 9, 2021

Another thing I noticed is with this swather, I would need to go round and round. Don't know if that would be an issue or not. I'm used to back and forth. Thanks

paul · Jun 9, 2021

You have a 14 foot swather with sickle bar and a crimper, and it doesnt handle the hay?

You want to go to a towed disc mower 11 feet wide without a crimper on it?

I got a little lost when you went back and forth on the terms there......

Paul

ADB-Ia · Jun 9, 2021

I'm curious as to how it could throw your hay into windrows without rolls. Maybe you intend to always throw a wide swath but you called it a windrower so I assume you are wanting to windrow the hay. The problem you were having mowing tall brome is probably that the rolls are grabbing the hay and trying to run it through before it is cut. That will make a 150 horse tractor smoke. BTDT. If you can cut going in the same direction the hay is leaning you get along better.

Bobl1958 · Jun 9, 2021

That is correct. My swather with 14' twin knife head and rubber/steel crimpers just won't handle the heavy brome without wanting to slug. It wants to stop the reel and auger and the belt squeels. It has a new triple drive belt, again new sections this year, guards a couple of years ago and should at least be able to creep in this brome. It will swath prairie hay pretty well, but the heavier, probably damper brome it just won't handle it without barely creeping, and stopping quite frequently. When I say barely creeping, I mean as slow as the swather will move without stopping.

I have always hear the disc mowers will go through anything. Also, the brochure says there are crop deflector shields to guide the cut hay into a swath in between the wheels.

Pic is of the swather in very light brome.

BarnyardEngineering · Jun 9, 2021

I can tell you that around here the hay would not dry without conditioning. Good crimping is essential as it cuts down the dry time by days. It's cooler, wetter, and the season is shorter so we can't cut hay and leave it lay for a week.

The only way I'd consider a mower without a conditioner is if I only made haylage. Maybe things are different where you are. I don't know where you are. If you can string 5 sunny rain free days in a row. We can't.

Never had the disc mower/conditioner throw a rock, period, and we live on stony ground.

Not sure what you mean by "round and round." We make 6 or 8 passes around the outside of the field then go back and forth, splitting the field if the headlands are too wide. Of course you can't start at one side and work your way across, but it's no big deal. I've seen folks who just mow an entire huge field in one big coil-shaped windrow, going around and around and around, but the corners get too tight after 6-8 times around.

David Snipes · Jun 9, 2021

I don't have a cab so I made a plexiglass shield about three feet square and I bolt it on my right fender for cutting. It protects me from any thrown debris. Before I made that, I had the cut adjusted too low and it threw a rock which hit me on the head, sent my glasses flying and made me see stars for a bit.

Timmycornpicker · Jun 9, 2021

I've yet to have the Hesston 3309 throw a rock at me (knock on wood). However, the reel on the JD1209 that I used years ago picked up a rock just as I was turning the corner and klonked me in the head.

Bruce from Can. · Jun 9, 2021

The windrow cutting machine may not have crimping rolls, but might have a set of steel tines that beat the hay as it passes through. Many new hay windrowers have this type of conditioning now.
You can probably open up the baffle boards and make the hay spread out even behind the machine and not into a windrow at all.

This is my 10foot 3pth discmower. It has no conditioning, just lays the cut hay out wide same as a sickle bar mower did.
I find the hay dries just as fast spread wide and not

crimped. As it did crimped and dumped into a tight windrow

caterpillar guy · Jun 9, 2021

I would also like to go to a wider mower. All I ever see is the 14 foot with 9 foot rolls and windrows it. We don't ted so will not dry very well in a windrow. I have never been hit with a stone mowing in over 50 years of it. Don't know if I want to end up with a disc mower or keep the sickle bar mower. Currently using a 1219 Deere Mower conditioner.

Brown Swiss · Jun 10, 2021

I went from a 499 NH 12 foot cut to a DM1362 Massey disc mower, I have not noticed a difference in drying times, the disc mower is an 11 foot cut!
I remember those days trying to cut heavy matted hay with a haybine, very unpleasant days! Once you go to a disc mower you will wish you had sooner!

showcrop · Jun 10, 2021

Bob, whether or not you need a crimper or not is HUGE, but it depends on where you are and what your ground is like. Here in the Northeast there is often a lot of moisture in the ground into August. This dictates that we make hay in a very different way from those who are on dry ground. It makes no difference whether we use a mower or a swather we have to put it into a narrow swath or we are driving on it after it is cut and pressing it down into the soft ground-not good for drying. As others have said we need to crimp it or it won't dry quickly enough for the good weather stretch that we have before the next rain. We also need to ted the swaths out after 4-6 hours of letting the ground dry out. If you are on dry ground that mower will work as well as your swather. As to the round and round part, as others have said we go around 5-6 times until the corners get tight, the strike off lands that are usually around 100 to 150feet wide and go back and forth. Yes, you will mow much faster without plugging and you will have the capability of getting twice as much hay rained on as you did with the sickle bar mower.

Bobl1958 · Jun 10, 2021

Thanks for all the good replies. I am in Central Ks so usually dry, although getting brome cut can sometimes be tough to get several dry days. Most of the time we are wanting rain.
All I cut and bale is brome and prairie hay. Prairie hay is a non issue as it is cut in July and can be baled the next day. Drying is not an issue. Brome is a little different, but still far better than alfalfa for drying. I think I would be fine with no crimpers. Thanks again

rrlund · Jun 10, 2021

All I can tell you is, it didn't work for me here in Michigan. I tried a Vicon with no conditioner. Trouble getting it dry, trouble raking it, and then the cows didn't even seem interested in eating it. It was more coarse. I bought a new Kuhn with flails. Works great. Hay is as soft as I've seen since I had that New Idea Cut Ditioner back in the 70s and 80s. About a day longer to dry than my Hesston with rolls was, but other than that, no complaints.

rockyridgefarm · Jun 10, 2021

If I were buying a new machine, I would be seriously considering a center pivot model to cut both ways. I have a Gehl 2415 now. My previous machine was a Gehl 2365 side pull. It was a good machine and my neighbor still owns it, but I would be hard pressed to go back to a side pull.

As far as a conditioner goes, in my area is sw wi, dry hay is not made without one. It just takes too long to get the hay dry without one. Except this year, man we are dry

Windrower

Bobl1958

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wore out

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Bobl1958

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paul

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ADB-Ia

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Bobl1958

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BarnyardEngineering

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David Snipes

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Timmycornpicker

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Bruce from Can.

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caterpillar guy

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Bobl1958

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