How a Sickel Bar mower works for mowing grass hay

[semtech30]

Disc mowers plug up too.

Their high rpm is murder on stones and I find they cut a bit to close for my liking.

The high rpm also throws dirt in with your cut grass spoiling the forage, hay, or silage. The disc mower is less forginving when hitting hard objects left in the field.

Silckle bar mowing is effective just the same.

But everybody is in a hurry these day's, hurry, hurry

Your choice, Turtle or the hare!

[walkenshaw2000]

Is that a Dearborn mower?

[brian93ist]

@walkenshaw2000 looks like a ford 501

[brian93ist]

wow the dot uses these almost everywhere they turn on hydralic this is not a thing of the past it has held up for around 100 years i have pictures of family members cutting hay with horse drawn mowers i have miplaced them though you cant beat this disk mowers dont hold up like this does either the gearbox tears up this does not have a grearbox

[MaizeValleyWinery]

@brian93ist Hey Brian, that is my neighbors and I don't know the make, sorry! I actually just bought a real nice Ford mower this fall. We will mostly use in on our red raspberries.

[TVan92]

sickle bar mowers are all that we use and when mowed this way the hay most often dries faster that when cut with a haybine. especially when it gets rained on. it dries out way faster.

[MaizeValleyWinery]

I suppose it depends what you are cutting. Our alfalfa mixes dry better with the discbine.

[jdb48]

@TVan92

I mow with a sickle mower and there is now way it dries faster without conditioning it.

[TVan92]

@jdb48 let your windrows get 2in of rain on them we will see which dries out faster.

[jdb48]

@TVan92 I have. And using a hay conditioner will dry faster. That's why they use them now and not just the sickle mower. Sickle mowers are dead technology....... But the sickle mower is much more fun to use,IMO, and like you said they are cheaper. One of these days I will find a haybine, not a disc bine, and use it. You need allot of HP to run a disc bine. I will still keep my John Deere No. 8W for back up.

[19999999999999991]

i didnt make this vid but i use to put up hay this way and i think it works beter an most people do rake it in to windrows it works very well.

[zeppelin7171]

Nice video! I'm trying to learn as much as I can. We own a small acreage without pasture and are interested in cutting ditch hay. Sicklebar mower interests me for lightweight etc (when dealing with ditch bank angles). Before baling do you rake the hay to make windrows?

[gokory]

@zeppelin7171 you would often tedder it (a machine that spreads out the hay and driess it out) then rake it for baling. this is optional it just helps the moisture content be lower so that it lasts longer in storage

[MaizeValleyWinery]

@gokory Yea, we do that for our alfalfa, this grass we are cutting is just sort of a thing we do now and then on mostly the ditch banks instead of brushhogging it to keep things looking good. You are correct a tedder makes a big difference.

[MaizeValleyWinery]

@zeppelin7171 Wow I missed this comment! Sorry I missed Ur question! Yes we rake it prior to baling. I use an old "side rake" for along the ditchbacks due to the groundhog and muscrat holes and ruts.