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hay cutter

J

Jack-Iowa

Member
thinking of growing my own hay as cannot find dependable people to buy it from.
so was wondering what is the best way to cut it that does not cost a whole lot of dollars and is simple to maintain. really do not want a sickle mower as it does not look fast.
any help ?
thanks
 
If you are going to want something fast you are going to pay alot of cash.

What type of hay? If you are just raising grass hay you can get by with just a sickle mower, rake, baler, and wagon. If you are raising a legume you will need a mower-conditioner instead of just a sickle mower.
 
Jack,

Not trying to be a smart-alec here. I cut and bale 20 acres of grass hay twice a year.

In my experience, nothing is cheap and easy to maintain. I have a:

Ford tractor
Ford sickle bar mower
New Holland rake
Tonutti tedder
New Holland baler
non-descript hay wagon
some various sized sheds and barns to store the hay

Everything breaks down occasionally. Everything has to be maintained. It's hot outside.

Good luck with your endeavor.

Tom in TN
 
i have an old jd # 5 sickle mower and it cuts just fine. i can mow in 4th with a farmall m if need be. james or nancy howell may chime in and post a link to some videos of them cutting hay with a #5. good solid dependable old mower, and parts are still available from mother deere. if you are looking at a baler, which ever one you choose, be sure parts are still available for it.
 
In your case,it would probably be cheaper for you to find a reliable custom operator,or continue to buy hay
 
there is no such thing as reliable anywhere near this area . a year or two maybe but nothing longer.
and as far as custom operater even more scarce. none show when they say they will and will not even contact to let you things change.
but thanks for your useful and to the point thoughts.
 
If you are buying new, Drum mowers are the easiest to maintain, fastest cutting, lowest horse power requirement attachment you can buy. Give the Hay DR a shout in the implement section, or google Carter and Carter machinery in TN.
 
Don't know how much hay your making or how much time you want to spend.I have a 489 NH haybine 9Ft I like it much.cost me $1000. 1650 cockshutt tractor and borrow my brothers round baler.Have 346 JD square to do small bales.cost me $1000.Also have cheap side delivery rake but don't use.4400 veratile swather with bean pickup to pickup hay and put in swath.I cut full width and it dries way faster in heavey alfalfa.(I know I'm wierd)cost $2500.If you don't make alot of hay you are better off buying hay from even 100 miles from home than to buy all the equipment and do it yourself. If you have the land and time to do it and enjoy doing it diffrent story.I custom make a neighbors hay (10 acres).she pays $300 a year I cut and bale once only.She now whants to buy all her own equipment to save $300 a year,does not make sence.I always do it on time whenever she asks, but she is independent(also a school teacher).after buying you still have to fix so be prepared to spend some money.
 
(quoted from post at 14:56:59 08/10/10) thinking of growing my own hay as cannot find dependable people to buy it from.
so was wondering what is the best way to cut it that does not cost a whole lot of dollars and is simple to maintain. really do not want a sickle mower as it does not look fast.
any help ?
thanks
Click to expand...

I'd be more concerned about affordable, reliable, dependable and fixable long before "fast". Fast would enter the equation after about 500 acres a year.
 
I've yet to have a customer stay gone more than 2 years who planned to get in the hay business from scratch unless they ended up selling their livestock. Good custom operators are hard to find, theres no question there. We had 5 in the area plus a couple of guys starting up. Both of them are out and we lost two of our old timers last year. One died and one sold out.

I certainly wish you the best and do encourage you to try. Stuff breaks down, the older it is and the harder you use it the more often it generally breaks. Nothing like having to fiddle with a square baler trying to get it to tie when rain is coming, or have a mower breakdown that costs you a weather window fixing it.

As far as what I use to mow, I've been running 2-5408 New Idea discmowers. Just upgraded last year to a NH 1411 discbine. Then realized I was going to need to drop another 20 grand in a tractor upgrade to pull it at a decent speed. I'd say on the low end you could get in for under 10 thousand not counting the tractor. If you've got a lot to do its EASY to get in 10-15 times that.
 
I have 3 tractors,sickle bar mower,NH 851 baler and NH 256 rake I bought almost new that I use regularly to make about 300-400 round bales a year.
Have a grand total of $9000 in the whole lot.I could cut out the Zetor and David Brown tractors and use only the Cockshutt 1650D if I didn't mind hooking and unhooking equipment.Also if you get your hay cut and raked and live near other farmers you should be able to get them to roll it up for you pretty reasonable.Plus the quality of sickle bar cut hay is superior to that of hay cut with as discbine that basically turns hay into cut lawn grass.
 
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