The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Tx Jim]

I like the way your cutter folds toward center past straight up when transporting on road. That type design relieves a lot of weight from right rear axle & wheel/tire

 

[Hay Dude]

I like the way your cutter folds toward center past straight up when transporting on road. That type design relieves a lot of weight from right rear axle & wheel/tire

And it takes away the possibility that IF you forget to lock it in transportation mode, it wont fall outward.

 

[Hay Dude]

Final baling day before the July monsoon hits. It was a good one.
Working by myself, I raked & baled 30+ acres and made 64 bales between 11AM and 5:00PM.


Well into the day, but heres a raking pic

And now a little baling

Had some scale issues, so into the monitor I went for a little more info/diagnostics.

In the back of the property now. Almost done.

In the back parallel to the River, to the right.

A few rafters on the river.

Tractor is getting pretty toasty. Time to clean the radiator.

300th bale. Last year at time, I was well past 500 bales. So I’m way behind.

Forecast looks horrible. Might be my last day of baling for a while.

 

[Rustyiron]

A buddy sent me this mid day Sunday. I can't repeat the comments included in his text.

Part of it included "the monitor took out the back window as it flew past my head"!
He makes 900+ rounds a year by himself with occasional raking help. All on scattered fields in a 30 mile circle so he's well experienced. S hit definitely happens!
HD he's feeding cattle (haylage) and wraps them so not nearly your weather requirements and there's no mushroom growers up here.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thats a lot of repair work. And not cheap, either.

 

[LHF2019]

I like the way your cutter folds toward center past straight up when transporting on road. That type design relieves a lot of weight from right rear axle & wheel/tire

I like the ones that fold up. My cousins folds back. Seems like a lot of stress when bouncing not to mention the tail swing. So far his is the only one I've seen like that.

 

[LouNY]

A buddy sent me this mid day Sunday. I can't repeat the comments included in his text.
View attachment 3715711
Part of it included "the monitor took out the back window as it flew past my head"!
He makes 900+ rounds a year by himself with occasional raking help. All on scattered fields in a 30 mile circle so he's well experienced. S hit definitely happens!
HD he's feeding cattle (haylage) and wraps them so not nearly your weather requirements and there's no mushroom growers up here.

Ouch that is going to hurt both in labor and the pocket book. I see that the outer pto shield is missing they seem to get damaged and tore up easily when working equipment hard and then they are such a pain in the butt to find the correct one and replace them.
I would hate to try and count the number of unguarded shafts around. I can think of close to dozen off the top of my head.
Then a cable or hydraulic hose gets down close in a tight turn and bam, there it goes.

 

[5030]

Interestingly, I had to remove the outer PTO shield on the cabbed M9 so as the final CV joint and shroud would clear, something I wasn't crazy about doing but I could see no other practical way to gain clearance. On the Kubota bailer, the monitor is hard mounted in the cab on the right side above the FEL controls and the harness come in through the back window and plugs into the control box monitor with a 1/4 turn multi contact plug. Everythijg else stays on the outside but I'd probably have a heart attack if I got my leads (hydraulic and electrical) caught up by the spinning PTO shaft. That could be a quick couple grand fix...

I'm always doubly careful to use rubber bands (tarp straps) to sequester all the conncetions to the tractor from the bailer or mower where there is no chance they could contact the spinning PTO shaft and I check to make sure they aren't over extended or under extended in a hard left or right hand turn as well.

My NH centerpoint discbine has a really nifty spring loaded capture arm and the end of the draw tongue that keeps all the hoses and electrical stuff up and away from anything rotating. Has a 'U' shaped end with a cross arm that is captured with a hitch pin so once you run all the hoses and electrical stuff through it and capture it. it don't go anywhere.

 

[5030]

Lou.. My biggest fear besides loosing my fingers or my scalp in the spinning PTO shaft (would be had to loose any scalp as I'm pretty bald), is winding up any electrical, electronic or hydrauic connections in the PTO shaft and having to remove the shield to fit the Kubota bailer's pto shaft to the back of the tractor still gives me concern. I realize back in the day, tractors didn't come with rear shields and mine was easily removable (4 bolts) but I still don't like it. Discussed it with my dealer and neither of us could see any way around it, so it came off.

The one thing that always gives me concern is a rotating pto shaft. Lots of farmers around here are missing fingers and scalp from just a second of being inattentive. My most 'fearful' implement os my grain leg because I have to be out of the tractor with the pto running and making sure the grain is flowing into the hopper so I'm right there, close up and personal with the parts that could cause me great greif. In fact, been thinking about converting the grain leg to an electric motor and doing away with the PTO, entirely.

Way back in High School, I witnessed another student literally rip his scalp out with a drill press. He got too close to the spinning drill chuck and bam, that was it. I'll never forget that, ever. Always kept my hair short and now the lack of hair eliminates that issue for me.

 

[LouNY]

Yes, they can be hazardous for sure. On the farm we still use self unloading wagons into an ag bagger for haylage and silage. So you are often standing between the tractor and wagon with the pto shaft spinning engaging and disengage the wagons drive until the feed table is cleared out, then the apron chain is engaged and the speed is set. Until a large clump comes over the beaters and you have to hustle to prevent clogging or stalling something.
So 2 pto shafts and the wagon one's are connected and disconnected frequently during the course of a day.
I think the newest wagon is 20 years old the others are up to 40.
My favorite tractor end pto guards are the larger flip up ones that will flip up out of the way to get those heavy pto shafts and couplers in.
The fender mount pto switches come in real handy, you really miss them when you are using one of the older tractors and have to climb 2-3 steps up onto the platform to reach the pto and flip it on or off, lots of moving and twisting and turning in a small area.
And then the bagger keeps moving forward as the bag is filled, so up on the unloading tractor to keep the discharge chute were it needs to be, about a foot of back and forth play to maintain.
Those 100+ hp rated pto's get pretty substantial.
I won't say that we get lax but we certainly avoid floppy clothes and especially for me the hair isn't an issue.

 

[LHF2019]

Yes, they can be hazardous for sure. On the farm we still use self unloading wagons into an ag bagger for haylage and silage. So you are often standing between the tractor and wagon with the pto shaft spinning engaging and disengage the wagons drive until the feed table is cleared out, then the apron chain is engaged and the speed is set. Until a large clump comes over the beaters and you have to hustle to prevent clogging or stalling something.
So 2 pto shafts and the wagon one's are connected and disconnected frequently during the course of a day.
I think the newest wagon is 20 years old the others are up to 40.
My favorite tractor end pto guards are the larger flip up ones that will flip up out of the way to get those heavy pto shafts and couplers in.
The fender mount pto switches come in real handy, you really miss them when you are using one of the older tractors and have to climb 2-3 steps up onto the platform to reach the pto and flip it on or off, lots of moving and twisting and turning in a small area.
And then the bagger keeps moving forward as the bag is filled, so up on the unloading tractor to keep the discharge chute were it needs to be, about a foot of back and forth play to maintain.
Those 100+ hp rated pto's get pretty substantial.
I won't say that we get lax but we certainly avoid floppy clothes and especially for me the hair isn't an issue.

When filling silo as a youngster we were taught to grab the pto shaft of wagon to stop it spinning. We would cross over it. Stand on tongue watching the silage with it spinning between our legs. I still have one of the wagons. To this day I do all those things. Old JD and Papec wagons. Not the smartest thing we were taught by my father and uncles.

 

[LouNY]

Mostly Dion, a couple of deere's and some Meyers and a couple of old papec's.

 

[Lastkidpicked]

A few rafters on the river.

Funny different perspectives you see, making you wonder what they are thinking when they see you running the equipment.

It's rare to see a passenger train on these rails, so I took a pic. . .

Then noticed some were taking a pic of us mowing!

 

[Lastkidpicked]

When filling silo as a youngster we were taught to grab the pto shaft of wagon to stop it spinning. We would cross over it. Stand on tongue watching the silage with it spinning between our legs.

There are safety training videos on youtube where they take a scarecrow and lay it's arm on the PTO.

It spins and shreds that thing in seconds! Any time a new person comes around, we show them those videos. They stay back for sure!

 

[5030]

Yes, they can be hazardous for sure. On the farm we still use self unloading wagons into an ag bagger for haylage and silage. So you are often standing between the tractor and wagon with the pto shaft spinning engaging and disengage the wagons drive until the feed table is cleared out, then the apron chain is engaged and the speed is set. Until a large clump comes over the beaters and you have to hustle to prevent clogging or stalling something.
So 2 pto shafts and the wagon one's are connected and disconnected frequently during the course of a day.
I think the newest wagon is 20 years old the others are up to 40.
My favorite tractor end pto guards are the larger flip up ones that will flip up out of the way to get those heavy pto shafts and couplers in.
The fender mount pto switches come in real handy, you really miss them when you are using one of the older tractors and have to climb 2-3 steps up onto the platform to reach the pto and flip it on or off, lots of moving and twisting and turning in a small area.
And then the bagger keeps moving forward as the bag is filled, so up on the unloading tractor to keep the discharge chute were it needs to be, about a foot of back and forth play to maintain.
Those 100+ hp rated pto's get pretty substantial.
I won't say that we get lax but we certainly avoid floppy clothes and especially for me the hair isn't an issue.

Neither of my M's came with fender mounted pto linkage but they both have it now care of Kubota parts. Something I feel should be standard on any ag utility tractor. They have nice flip up shields, problem is the shields aren't large enough to accomodate the CV joint and housing on the end of the shaft. I considered removing the housing but the only way to remove it was cutting it off and being a new bailer, I decided not to go that route. PTO shafts have become pretty complex today with all the 'safety' related junk on them.

 

[Hay Dude]

Some bales to gather after yesterday’s furious baling session.
I’m getting tired. Could use a few days off.

Up to the stacking area. I’m running 2 at a time. I know the loader can handle it, but the front tires & operator (me) are taking a beating. Luckily, this field is nice & smooth in most places.
I brought in 68 bales in about 2.5 hours.

Once I finished stacking these bales, I headed back over to where we left off cutting and resumed cutting hay. About 1.5 hours of rain fell, then I got back in the cutting tractor. This is a pretty little spot to cut/rake/bale. The stone spring house, stream and pond are nice to look at while mowing. Steep hill though. In the background, you can see the bales we made Saturday’s afternoon, July 5th. I have to stack them.

I wrapped-up about 8:30. Sun is going down. Another 12+ hour day.
The 7495 has seen a lot of cutting. Holding up well so far. Knock on wood.

 

[5030]

Sure glad I got smaller at this point at least and cutting down the road miles also cut down the maintenance costs as well.

Rained here almost all day, how exciting.

 

[Hay Dude]

As most of you know, we do all types of large property maintenance.
We’ve had weeks of rain, so along with falling behind on hay, we’ve fallen behind on rotary mowing.
Almost all my hay is in bales, maybe only 20 acres on the ground, so I decided to get one large rotary mowing customer done today.
This is a 7 hour cut. One hour after finishing, it rained like a sumbitch.

 

[EddieWalker]

How often do you have to change your blades? Do you ever sharpen them?

 

[Lastkidpicked]

Some bales to gather after yesterday’s furious baling session.
I’m getting tired. Could use a few days off.

This is why I respect you, @Hay Dude
It's easy to do it in early spring, and when you are fresh at it.
Harder to do it when tired.

Definitely respect your hustle, and thank you for being generous with your time to share your experiences with us!