Which type mower

[RPW]

I'm just about to close on 38ac here in Central Texas and would like a recommendation. I plan on putting about 15ac in grass hay and was wondering which type of mower should I be looking at. I've got a JD5103 (45hp) and originally was looking at a sickle mower because of it's low hp requirment. Keeping in mind that I'm doing this more for my own horses and not as a business. I'll also be retiring in a few years so this will be my play time on the tractor. I've also heard that disc mowers are better but may require more hp than my tractor has. Please educate me.

Thanks, Richard.

 

[mimilkman1]

Did you mean just the sickle itself or a sickle type haybine? That size tractor would handle a 6-8' haybine relatively well. Just the sicke bar alone wouldn't condition the hay very well and you would have to wait longer to get the hay dry enough to bale. Just my .02.

Kyle

 

[flusher]

I'm just about to close on 38ac here in Central Texas and would like a recommendation. I plan on putting about 15ac in grass hay and was wondering which type of mower should I be looking at. I've got a JD5103 (45hp) and originally was looking at a sickle mower because of it's low hp requirment. Keeping in mind that I'm doing this more for my own horses and not as a business. I'll also be retiring in a few years so this will be my play time on the tractor. I've also heard that disc mowers are better but may require more hp than my tractor has. Please educate me.

Thanks, Richard.

What's your mower budget? I have 6 of my 10 acres going into oat hay this Fall. My mowers are a used Massey Ferguson MF41 sicklebar (7ft, $550 at auction plus about $125 for new sickle sections and guards/ledger plates)



and a used Allis Chalmers 80T tow-type sicklebar (7-ft, $150 from a neighbor).



Either one of these mowers could handle your 15 acre hayfield with ease, but it might take longer than you like to do the mowing job. And sicklebars have been know to clog up and require you to back up to clear the mess.

If you want to do fast mowing and you have $3K to spend, maybe there's a pre-owned 7ft disc mower or a very small moco in your future.

For example, JD 260 disc mowers (7ft cut) go for $1500-3000 on eBay.
JD 1209 haybine mocos (9ft cut) go for $1000 to 3000. You need to find a moco that has decent rollers since these can be expensive to replace.
However, 45hp is a real limitation when you want to step up to these high speed mowers. My Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto) is on the small side when it comes to handling these kinds of mowers.

Or, going the whole ten yards, maybe you would like to check out self-propelled windrowers. You can find these used for $2-10K depending on type of head, size and vintage. My neighbor gave me this old Massey Ferguson 44 windrower--a future winter restoration project. It has a 12-ft wide draper head with a sicklebar mower. I'm going to have a ball getting this old hunk of iron working again.

 

[chh]

In Texas unless you grow a very heavy type of hay, you probably won't need a haybine. A sickle mower takes very little hp, can be found used cheap, but they don't cut at a speed anything like a disc mower does. Your tractor could handle some of the of the disc mowers. As an example, the MF 1328 disc mower is 7.8 cut rated for 40 pto hp and the 1329 is 9.16 cut and rated for 45 pto hp.

MF 1300 Series Mowers

Personally I wouldn't run anything but a disc mower, but I do quite a bit more hay than you do. Sticker shock on a new disc mower for what you want may be a bit of a shock, so remember when looking used condition is "king".

 

[RPW]

Right now my budget is $0.00 only because until I close and see what's left. Seriously I will be able to swing what's necessary but right now I'm seeing what options I have. I like the idea of a disc mower. One of the next things is to finally decide on a baler. I'd prefer round but not sure how many bales I'll get out of 15ac at a time. Also I'm pretty much a one man operation so rounds would be a lot easier to handle. Anyway I'll probably be looking this fall after hay season. Maybe I'll be able to pick up something reasonable. One of the next steps is to find someone knowledgable to determine if what I find is worth the money.
Richard

BTW; if anybody can get ahold of an adminstrator as I've been trying for over a week and haven't gotten a response. My other logon is "rwolf"

 

[HayDR]

I'm just about to close on 38ac here in Central Texas and would like a recommendation. I plan on putting about 15ac in grass hay and was wondering which type of mower should I be looking at. I've got a JD5103 (45hp) and originally was looking at a sickle mower because of it's low hp requirment. Keeping in mind that I'm doing this more for my own horses and not as a business. I'll also be retiring in a few years so this will be my play time on the tractor. I've also heard that disc mowers are better but may require more hp than my tractor has. Please educate me.

Thanks, Richard.

Take a look at the CCM drum mowers. You can purchase a new CCM drum mower for the same money or less money that a good used disc mower. They both mow in the same manner. The CCM drum mower will mow as fast as you can ride the tractor. The CCM drum mowers will mow any hay crop in any conditions.

 

[RPW]

I'll look into that drum mower Thanks.

 

[ddivinia]

I'm just about to close on 38ac here in Central Texas and would like a recommendation. I plan on putting about 15ac in grass hay and was wondering which type of mower should I be looking at. I've got a JD5103 (45hp) and originally was looking at a sickle mower because of it's low hp requirment. Keeping in mind that I'm doing this more for my own horses and not as a business. I'll also be retiring in a few years so this will be my play time on the tractor. I've also heard that disc mowers are better but may require more hp than my tractor has. Please educate me.

Thanks, Richard.

Where are you in Central Texas? I didn't think you had any grass down there!

What kind of grass are you looking at planting? I am looking at putting sungrazer down.

I ended up with a disc mower. One thing about a disc mower - if you have rocks in your pasture you can catch you place on fire in a hurry and it will throw a bunch of stuff at you.

15 ac - you might consider going used and cheap to see how it goes, etc. Get a used sickle and go from there. I picked up a used Krone mower, but I am doing 100 acres of hay.

What kind of bales are you planning on baling?

D.

 

[Mike120]

I bale 37 acres (one field is Tifton 85, one is Bahia) using a NH 456 sickle mower with no problems at all (its easy to hook up, and I'm lazy). Unless you get a flail moco, roller moco's are not that useful on grass hay...you're just hauling something heaver around. My last cutting was: cut Day 1, rake/windrow Day 2, bale Day 3. Very simular to what we did where I grew up in South Texas. With high humidity I may have to leave it on the ground an extra day, but that's rare in the summer. I prefer the sickle because it doesn't stir up any dust when cutting and the grass recovers faster from the cleaner cut. I've used my neighbors disc mower and I think it saved me about a half an hour in the field and it was a PITA to hook up. As long as you keep your fields clean you shouldn't have any problems with a sickle binding up on you.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

I'd prefer round but not sure how many bales I'll get out of 15ac at a time.

we got 29 (5x5) bales off my 10.5 ac of brome this year - but we also only do one cutting.
3 years ago it gave us ~820 60# sm sqares.
2 years ago I got ~380 50# sm squares and 22 4x5 rounds.
not sure what last year's output was, leased it for a flat rate and the guy didn't give me a count.