Tedder opinions

[CCP]

Hi all, I am new here looking for opinions. My husband and I bale about 10,000 small square bales a year. We are in RI. He uses a Kuhn 4 disc mower. I do all the tedding. My question is about tedding. I prefer a 2 basket tedder, he thinks 4 is better. When using a 4 basket, especially in thick hay, it tends to make heavy windrows and I have a tough time getting it to dry. With a 2 basket, I can flip it faster so that the hay tends to spread out, thus drying quicker. Plus, I hate folding up the 4 basket as some of the fields we do have narrow gates to pass through. Problem is the 2 basket tedder is in need of repair. I want it fixed!

Also, does anyone know of a used disc mower, 4 or 5 disc. I have been searching and they seem to be far and few between. We had a 2nd one but had a fire last year and lost it. We like to keep a back up in case of damage to the one we have. One farm that we bale is loaded with rocks.

Thanks

 

[slowzuki]

I'll answer the disc mower first, most people say be careful buying used disc mowers. Rebuilding a cutter bar costs as much as the whole mower.

Regarding the tedder, a 4 or 6 row is faster, and when set right and run at the right speed should ted as nice as a 2 row. Sometimes people tend to feed the rows in at the wrong spots in the rotor pattern. Sometimes the spring teeth aren't on right etc.

Since you use a disc mower obviously your swaths are laid out wide. Sometimes with a mower conditioner the narrow swath setting can be hard to evenly ted.

Also, it takes half the time with a 4 rotor, and two poor passes will dry better than one good pass.

 

[chh]

First, welcome to TBN.

Tell the hubby to fix the tedder you are comfortable with. We use a 4 basket for what little tedding we do. It is a spring assisted M&W brand. I have always done all the folding on it. If my wife was doing it or we used the tedder very much I suspect we would have a hydraulic fold. I have not noticed with mine a problem of it making windrows. You might try using a different RPM settings on the pto to see if it helps. I spin ours pretty slow, just trying to get enough spin to toss the hay lightly.

 

[MFRED]

I prefer 4 rotor, I really would like a 6. If you like a 2 abd you do the tedding, that settles it. How much work does your tedder need? A new one isn't much.

 

[CCP]

He has done repairs to his disc mower, in fact, he had just finished rebuilding the one that burned in the fire!

As for tedders, he tells me you can not move as quickly with the 4 as the 2?? I can only do what I am taught When moving slowly, it tends to make windrows.

As for a mower conditioner, some of the fields we do are very hilly and rocky. Not sure how it would work with those fields.

 

[slowzuki]

A disc mower conditioner can run as fast but in bad rocks they are more expensive to bust.

An equal quality 4 rotor can be run as fast. Some 4 rotors are pretty lightly built. A good one is pretty rugged and can handle rocks.

 

[HayDR]

Hi all, I am new here looking for opinions. My husband and I bale about 10,000 small square bales a year. We are in RI. He uses a Kuhn 4 disc mower. I do all the tedding. My question is about tedding. I prefer a 2 basket tedder, he thinks 4 is better. When using a 4 basket, especially in thick hay, it tends to make heavy windrows and I have a tough time getting it to dry. With a 2 basket, I can flip it faster so that the hay tends to spread out, thus drying quicker. Plus, I hate folding up the 4 basket as some of the fields we do have narrow gates to pass through. Problem is the 2 basket tedder is in need of repair. I want it fixed!

Also, does anyone know of a used disc mower, 4 or 5 disc. I have been searching and they seem to be far and few between. We had a 2nd one but had a fire last year and lost it. We like to keep a back up in case of damage to the one we have. One farm that we bale is loaded with rocks.

Thanks

You need to look at the HayMAXX drum mowers. You can purchase the T165 brand new for $3,000. It is the same size as the Kuhn mower you are currently using. You could spend $3,000 on a used disc mower and it fall apart during the first use. The HayMAXX drum mower will have a 1 year warranty. There are thousands of the drum mowers sold every year in the USA and allover the world.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

What size are your bales? For the size of your equipment it must take quite a while to bale 10k bales.

As for the tedder, I would not want anything less then 4 baskets but would prefer a 6 basket hydraulic fold. All the tedders should ted the same way if set up the same regardless to how many rows. I had my helper ted one of my fields for me. She called me up complaining that the hay was wrapping around the wheels on the tedder. Well, she had never used a tedder and didn't know she was suppose to adjust the pitch so all she was doing was driving over the swath and the back of the tedder was grabbing the hay the wheels were on and wrapping it around them. I am going to assume you know how to set up your tedder so if the 4 basket isn't giving you as good of results as the 2 basket then either something is broken on the 4 basket or it isn't adjusted properly (what model is it?)

 

[CCP]

I've seen those drum mowers when I started looking for a used disc mower. I am going to mention it to my husband again. CCI, are the drum mowers less apt to have damage in rocky fields? I am looking at the pictures on your site and it looks like there is more protection to the discs. I will definately do some research on these. Thanks

The tedder is a NH. Yes, I know how to set up the tedder The bales are about 40 - 50 pound bales. pretty much all we do all summer in between rain. We sell it to a local feed store. We are baling 4 seperate farms, including our own. We have a pretty good system going for getting it done quickly.

 

[HayDR]

Both the drum and disc mowers cut in the same manner. Realize that thees blades are moving 150-180 MPH. The life of a blade will be reduced in a rocky situation with either mower. The drum mower will be less susceptible to collateral damage than the disc mower when in a rocky situation. On the drum mower the usually damage to a drum mower if you hit a solid rock will be a damaged blade and/ or blade holder. These are wear parts and are not expensive to replace. The drive transmission on a drum mower is up away from the ground and is not as susceptible to impact damage as a disc mower.
We sell both mowers and they both will cut equally well. You also have to understand that any operator can wrap either one around a telephone poll and do damage to them. Either mower will mow as fast as you can ride on your tractor. If that is the case then you can be upon an object before you know it. Both mowers have a safety release to trip back if you do hit a ditch, stump,etc.
Our drum mowers are designed for smaller tractors in the 25-75 HP range. They do gove the mowing technology of a disc mower at 50-60% of the price of a disc mower.