The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[Dryland Farmer]

I once screwed a plug out of a valve body on a front loader that was under pressure. The plug shot past mine head, hit a steel part of the tractor behind me, bounced back at mine head and hit me hard enough to make a bump on mine head. The threads on the plug were all bent from where it hit the steel part of the tractor before it hit me, so I don't want to think what could have happened had it hit me right away. I also got a facefull of oil.
I had lowered everything to the ground but the pressure came from the charged accumulator that is used for the loaders ride control.
I make sure to go through the procedure to discharge the accumulator now.

 

[mrmikey]

.....from the charged accumulator that is used for the loaders ride control

Accumulators aren't fun. Fella I worked with hooked up a QA set of forks on a loader and was wondering why the pins weren't locking in. He shut the machine off, crawled down out of the cab and stuck his finger in the hole which is around 2-1/2" diameter to see which way he had to jiggle the QA. Just then the pin decided to come home using the accumulator pressure ....with his finger in place. Needless to say good bye finger. He said it didn't hurt a whole bunch probably because it was a new machine and everything was tight and it was a clean cut.
I remember my dad telling me "Never stick your finger where you wouldn't stick yer doins"...words to live by. He was a shipsfitter during the war and he said you could always tell a plater as he would be missing at least on finger. Lost by checking for rivet hole alignment with said finger.

 

[WM75Guy]

Saw what I believe was a Claas tractor with the triple mower setup working in the fields cutting hay today. One on the front and one on each side. On the way home it passed me on the highway with the 2 side cutters folded up. Looks like a pretty spendy item but was cutting what looked like a 25'-30' swathe thru the hay fields. Lots of hay already baled and more on the ground waiting for the baler.

 

[Hay Dude]

Saw what I believe was a Claas tractor with the triple mower setup working in the fields cutting hay today. One on the front and one on each side. On the way home it passed me on the highway with the 2 side cutters folded up. Looks like a pretty spendy item but was cutting what looked like a 25'-30' swathe thru the hay fields. Lots of hay already baled and more on the ground waiting for the baler.

Even with Claas being a less expensive brand compared to Deere or Fendt, thats about a $400,000 set up. Just to cut hay.
I have a double on my older Massey and I’m proud to say I have “only” ~ $100,000 in it.
The mowers are $25,000 each. A new 200-300HP tractor is north of $300,000

It’s not a triple, but 21’ cut width at 6MPH ain’t bad for under 100K.

 

[Hay Dude]

Wife and kids took me to a Phillies game. They won 4-0. Nick Castellanos, Max Kepler and Alec Bohm exiting the field. Had great seats. Maybe 20 rows behind home dugout.

 

[Hay Dude]

I started cutting a field Monday morning, when a “20% chance of thunderstorms” turned into 20 hours of rain and thunderstorms on Monday afternoon into Tuesday early AM.
Tuesday morning, I got a call from a big customer asking me to clean up a split ash tree. Large 1/2 fell into field. Needed cleaned up. I jumped on this Tuesday morning while it was still too wet to do much anything else.
261C for this 25” piece. Melted through it with ease.

Trying to get cleaned-up before rain hits again on Tuesday afternoon.

100 acres of soppin wet hay and I’m trying to do other jobs to keep busy and take my mind off the stress of the wet weather.

Finally done. It’s now early Tuesday afternoon and thunderstorms are about an hour away….

Resume cutting hay on Wednesday, but over 12” of water in some spots.
It’s going to be a long, wet summer.
This field was loaded with some beautiful endophyte-free Reeds Canary grass.
All ruined.

 

[Hay Dude]

Got a short window of hot, sunny weather. So quick as I could, I raked & baled about 18 tons of rained on hay. I’m working alone cause everyone bugged-out for July-4th weekend.

End of day and you guessed it….more thunderstorms on the way.
Once again, climb up on the baler and tarp it.

At this time last year, we had about 500 tons made. Fast forward 1 year lated and we only have 225 tons made. Not sure if I will ever get caught up.

 

[Hay Dude]

Friday: Back on it. Got another 40 raked & baled….

And stacked….

Saturday (today) and back on it to finish up this sector of the property. Man it’s still soft & muddy-even in July. The tractor weighs 13 tons and the baler (empty) weighs 17 tons, so soft ground can become a mess quickly.

And here we are at another customers a few miles away doing some late afternoon baling. Today is one of those days where you could bale till 7:30. And that’s just what we did.
Still wet, as you can see over to the right.

This property makes nice tonnage per acre with it’s hearty, tough reeds canary grass.

Tomorrow is another day!

 

[LHF2019]

Same here and I'm all small equipment. Depressing watching the ground move under the tires.

 

[Hay Dude]

We have rain returning Monday, so may be back doing some cutting. I moved the 7495 & double mower to the next mowing location.