Sickle Bar Drum vs Disc Vs sickle mower

[buckeyefarmer]

my only experience is sickle mower for cutting hay, and they are next to impossible to find these days, how are drum mowers for cutting hay? How do they compare to disc? Cost is an issue, I see Sweets price for the Superior sickle mower. Thanks.

 

[Mike120]

Easiest way to describe the comparison is:

Sickle Bar = Cheap+slow+needing the least HP

Drum = A bit more+a little faster+ needs a bit more HP

Disc + Even more+even faster+more HP

There are lots of used sickle bar mowers out there...Sweets, TractorHouse.com, Fastline.com. A friend of mine has a drum mower, he seems to work on it a lot. When I used it it cut fine. I think a sickle cuts cleaner but a disc is a lot faster. It depends on what you're cutting and how much time you've got to spend on it.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My experience is with sickle bar, we have used them for cutting hay forever.
None of my local dealers have used sickle bar mowersin stock, and the ones I've seen around for sale are junk. Dealers here also don't stock new ones. They aren't too anxious to order a new one, two of them said they had to buy them from the distributor in pairs, and they don't want one sitting around.
I saw drum mowers on CCM page, but don't know anyone who uses one or how they like them, or how long they last.
Disc mowers appear to be the most popular now, even with conditioners, but are more expensive.