The Life of a Custom Mowing & Clearing Contractor

[Hay Dude]

15 acres in one hour is impressive!!!!! How fast are you going? In my tractor, just mowing with the batwing, I'm uncomfortable when I'm going faster then 3 mph!!!!

Probably about 7MPH. My passes are about 20-21’ wide.
A disc mower cuts a lot faster & cleaner than a rotary

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm laughing because I never would of thought of 7mph as being way too fast for me. But I know that there is no way in the world that I would ever try to mow at such a crazy high speed!!!!!!

 

[Hay Dude]

Thats probably higher than average because I slow down around trees, poles, etc.

 

[Gregster613]

Here’s some scenes from today.
It’s been so dry, the radiators are clogging up with hay chaff. Spent a few hours flooding the radiators until they were flowing clean.
Headed over to cut some pretty rough flood plain that actually makes some nice hay. This is Reeds Canary grass.
Here we are after a few swipes

View attachment 879684


Heres a look at the 302 on the side

View attachment 879685

Even with lots of poles, I was able to get this little 15 acre field cut in a little over an hour.

View attachment 879686

When we exit the field, we have to cross over East Penn’s RR tracks

View attachment 879693

Down the road and back to the shop


View attachment 879689

Back at the farm & parked for the day

View attachment 879691

Hay Dude, I've got to ask a quick question. You said "radiators are clogging up with hay chaff. Spent a few hours flooding the radiators until they were flowing clean." Did you actually use water to flood them clean? I ask because although I've got the Genie set, I've only ever used the air portion to blow out the fins.

I'm kind of afraid that if I use the water portion I'll end up with mud caked fins and a much bigger problem. So how does the water flood seem to work? In your opinion, as well as - or better - than the air portion? It sounded as if it does take quite a bit of time, but if it works better I'm willing to try it.
Thanks for your opinion. Greg

 

[pmsmechanic]

I use a varsal gun for cleaning radiators. You can get them cheap at Princess Auto or Harbor Freight. If you use water instead of varsal it works really well. The water softens up the dirt and the air blows it away. I then run the tractor etc. for a few minutes to dry everything off and you can go back to work.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Hay Dude, I've got to ask a quick question. You said "radiators are clogging up with hay chaff. Spent a few hours flooding the radiators until they were flowing clean." Did you actually use water to flood them clean? I ask because although I've got the Genie set, I've only ever used the air portion to blow out the fins.

I'm kind of afraid that if I use the water portion I'll end up with mud caked fins and a much bigger problem. So how does the water flood seem to work? In your opinion, as well as - or better - than the air portion? It sounded as if it does take quite a bit of time, but if it works better I'm willing to try it.
Thanks for your opinion. Greg

I've been of the same opinion as Greg. I've always thought using water would make things worse, but I've never tried it, either.

Looking forward to more info from HD about this when he gets a chance. Maybe I need to change up how I do things.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I use a varsal gun for cleaning radiators. You can get them cheap at Princess Auto or Harbor Freight. If you use water instead of varsal it works really well. The water softens up the dirt and the air blows it away. I then run the tractor etc. for a few minutes to dry everything off and you can go back to work.

Can you provide links and/or more info on these? I've never heard of a "varsal gun"?

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I'm laughing because I never would of thought of 7mph as being way too fast for me. But I know that there is no way in the world that I would ever try to mow at such a crazy high speed!!!!!!

Me either, Eddie. Not sure which would break first, the machine or me.

Lol.

 

[LouNY]

The Discbine style of mowers can handle quite high speeds they are often advertised as being capable of mowing and conditioning hay at 10 mph. The larger frame 4wd tractors with good sized tires can handle 6 to 8 mph in most hay fields and in a real smooth one 10 mph is doable but the same hp tractor in a 2wd model with the much smaller front tires is often too rough. Between the tall tires and the air suspension seats the ride can be quite comfortable , the head lands are often rougher and merit slowing down for.
Fields that I have mowed at 6-8 mph in an IH Magnum, I can only do 4-6 mph with a tedder or rake in a smaller tractor such as my Branson 8050.
Then a couple of places around here have the Krone Big M mowers with 30+ ft of swath width and 400-500+ hp, these things are flying down fields at 10+ mph. And a price tag of half a million dollars.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Can you provide links and/or more info on these? I've never heard of a "varsal gun"?

https://www.princessauto.com/en/24-in-wand-high-pressure-engine-cleaning-gun/product/PA0000430071

Robot or human?

 

[EddieWalker]

The Discbine style of mowers can handle quite high speeds they are often advertised as being capable of mowing and conditioning hay at 10 mph. The larger frame 4wd tractors with good sized tires can handle 6 to 8 mph in most hay fields and in a real smooth one 10 mph is doable but the same hp tractor in a 2wd model with the much smaller front tires is often too rough. Between the tall tires and the air suspension seats the ride can be quite comfortable , the head lands are often rougher and merit slowing down for.
Fields that I have mowed at 6-8 mph in an IH Magnum, I can only do 4-6 mph with a tedder or rake in a smaller tractor such as my Branson 8050.
Then a couple of places around here have the Krone Big M mowers with 30+ ft of swath width and 400-500+ hp, these things are flying down fields at 10+ mph. And a price tag of half a million dollars.
View attachment 879988

This is where I struggle the most when trying to figure out farming. How much hay do you have to sell to break even when a tractor costs $500,000? Then their is the cost of the other tractor to bale it and the cost of the baler, then the cost of the truck and trailer to haul the hay.

It all adds up to a massive monthly payment that I can't figure out how they make that payment by selling hay.

 

[LouNY]

Spread over a lot of years

 

[EddieWalker]

How many years? I don't know how they do things for big tractors. My experience has been that tractors are financed just like cars are. 5 to 8 years, with 5 being the standard. I did my Massey over 7 years with zero percent interest, and it's $664 a month for $55,000.

Is it wrong to think that a half million dollar tractor over 7 years with zero percent interest would be over $6,000 a month?

 

[LouNY]

Often 3 to 5 years, some even have only one payment a year, some will do bi-annual, and some monthly. Most have a very substantial down. Some large places use leases to control costs, but yes they are large payments.

 

[Coffee drinker]

A decent used tractor that can run a baler shouldn't cost $500,000.

 

[LouNY]

A decent used tractor that can run a baler shouldn't cost $500,000.

Most used ones don't, that said someone has to buy the new ones to have used ones. Also the tractor to run a baler depends greatly on the baler and or accumulator being used. To pull a small square baler with no bale wagon or kicker wagon doesn't take that much, heck even on hilly ground a good 60 hp would be fine. Add a kicker wagon to the train on hills a 100 hp is safer. Go to a big round baler doing silage bales 100-125 Hp on hilly ground works well. Go with the big square baler and maybe an accumulator a 180-250 is nice to have in front of it.
New 290 Hp on the PTO 340 on the engine;
just over half a million dollars,
it can be yours for a mere $632,183.00

or used, 2 year old with 770 hours on her, for just $498,000.00

going on 10 years old for only $250,000.00

Or a 2008 model for just $150,000.00 with only 4060 hours on her,

low hour 1995 model CIH 7240 with only 3400 hours for only $94900.00

Or something like this, which is what we have on the farm for most work, only 170 Hp with almost 7700 hours and asking $55,000.00 for a thirty year tractor.

 

[LouNY]

Hay Dude sorry about posting so much on your thread.

Lou

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Lou, can one reasonably expect to get 30 years out of a new large frame, 150+ hp tractor being sold today?

 

[LouNY]

Mr. Lou, can one reasonably expect to get 30 years out of a new large frame, 150+ hp tractor being sold today?

It might but with all the integrated electronics I'd be hesitant to say yes.

 

[Hay Dude]

This is where I struggle the most when trying to figure out farming. How much hay do you have to sell to break even when a tractor costs $500,000?

Farmers running 500K tractors don’t generally do only hay. They’re doing hay, corn and beans on a pretty massive scale. Hay-only farmers generally run older lower value equipment.
I do ~1,000 acres now and my most expensive pieces are a $75,000 tractor and a $45-55,000 large square baler.

There’s maybe a little over 100K in these 2 pieces.


And those prices are about 1/6th the price of new.
I shop for bargains and am not afraid of something that looks run down if it runs good.

Then their is the cost of the other tractor to bale it and the cost of the baler, then the cost of the truck and trailer to haul the hay.

ALL my equipment added together is worth under 500K, some is owned outright. Some is partially/lightly financed.

It all adds up to a massive monthly payment that I can't figure out how they make that payment by selling hay.

It depends on how much hay you make. If you make $150,000/yr in sales and your payments on all equipment are $35,000, then you have $115,000 left over for fuel, repairs, insurance and yourself. Then you have off-farm income. That may net far more than farm income.

It either pencils out or it doesn’t. Just takes basic accounting skillz.

But I don’t know anyone doing only hay with any 500K tractors unless they have a very large operation.