Mowing hay

[Shale]

I see some farmers mow perhaps 6 to 8 passes around the oerimeter of a field, and then back snd forth to finish it off. A few others seem to continue the perimeter cut around and around until the field is done. What method is best?
 

[RayP(MI)]

Depends on a lot of factors, some having to do with the fields in question.
A consideration is how well you can turn your rig, mower, and baler. I try to bale and load wagon behind baler, if I have an extra hand to load wagon. Tractor, baler and wagon can be a handful to turn in tight corners. I have several fields with corners of more than 90 degrees.
 

[RayP(MI)]

Depends on a lot of factors, some having to do with the fields in question.
A consideration is how well you can turn your rig, mower, and baler. I try to bale and load wagon behind baler, if I have an extra hand to load wagon. Tractor, baler and wagon can be a handful to turn in tight corners. I have several fields with corners of more than 90 degrees.
 

[rankrank1]

[JMS./MN]

Years ago it was common to mow the field entirely, round and round. Then rake and bale the same way , if using a square baler. AC Roto-Baler, we raked windrows differently, always the length of the field, because the windrows need to be doubled up to make a decent roto bale. When I started chopping haylage in the 70s, 3 times around with the 9 foot Haybine, then split the field into long sections, usually changing wagons at the near end of the field. Chopper head picks up fine in either direction. Later, with 14 foot JD 800 swather, 3 rounds, then back and forth. NI 9 foot 5209 Discbine, 3 rounds, then make splits about every 7 acres on a square 40, and run the long way. Some fields were a half mile long, so 14 acres on a land. Same as moldboard plowing, 10 rounds was a comfortable split, no matter the size of the machine. 3 swaths gives plenty of room to turn in my fields. 6-8 rounds in a small patch might be the majority of the field. End rows are always very time consuming, compared to cutting the rest of the field.
 

[Dave Sherburne NY]

Fella I work for made 6 trips around the field this fall in real light hay. Each trip cuts 2 ten foot swaths. This makes 12 windrows which get raked into 2 windrows in 4 passes by the rake which takes 3 swaths at a time. one clock-wise and one counter-clock-wise. The two windrows get picked up by the tractor chopper dumpwagon which needs a lot of room to turn around on the ends. No pictures of the tractor and Pottinger mowers I can't catch up with him. If the hay is thicker there are less mower trips around the fields. It's quite variable. The owner on the mower makes the decision. That rake is gone now replaced by a big 2 rotor Pottinger. The last picture is my office



 

[Larry NEIL]

Also has a lot to do with the shape/obstructions in the field being cut. My main field has one straight side and is surrounded with swamp on three sides with irregular borders. On most, I cut rounds till the skinniest pieces meet. The rest is divided, as I like to alternate turns at each cut to avoid beating the hay to death with the turn arounds. Sometimes up and down, alternatly rounds down to the nub.
Larry NEIL
 

[Too Far Gone]

I was taught to get enough rounds around it to turn at the ends freely and then begin laying off lands IN STRAIGHT LINES,get one done and lay off a new land.
 

[willie in mn]

It has been a long time since I cut hay, left farming when Dad died in 59. Methods & equipment have changed a lot since then. Practice in the old days was to cut round & round, rake & bale the same. Cutting round & round eliminated driving on the cut end rows so much, & no wasted time driving dead across the end. Also claimed that driving dead across the end packed the ground more. Old timers would scream at you if you drove over any more standing crop than absolutely necessary by layingout lands. With practice could cut perfectly square corners. Cut the backswath next to fence last, usually poorer stand there, so didn't hurt much driving over it.
Raking went round & round opposite direction of cutting. Old timers said picking it up from the cut end did cleaner job & didn't knock off as many leaves. Baling the same, pick it up from the end of stem at bottom, top end just rode along into baler. Us youngsters just did what we were told. Finish up by raking the corners, 2 windrows wide, making a big X. Baled the X first, that left a gap between side & end windrows for easy turns, even pulling a rack behind baler. Rarely dropped a bale while turning, rack would follow chute going down the next row before bale came out.
Times have changed, but that is what we used to do.
Willie
 

[Leroy]

Unless you have a selfpropelled unit or a pulltype that you can swing from the tractor seat while you are turning at each end and cut all the field from same side then the only sencible way is round and round as without that you would be spending a lot of time and fuel wasted to travel across the ends and unless you waited to mow the rest of the field till you had the outside rounds baled they would be ruined from driving on them and even if you did that then you would be doing damage to the crop for later cuttings. This is all with a mower that only cuts on one side and unless you are a big time operator you usually will not have that hydraswing or selfpropeled unit.
 

[Tx Jim]

[tbish]

alot of people that mow up and down will lay a field of in lands mow small sectioms at a time just prefrence really gets boring going around and around
 

[JRSutton]

call me crazy, but I drive into the middle and row around and around spriraling outwards in a big narrow oval.

I've never seen anybody else do it that way - but for me it just seems so much easier.

(it's a very odd shaped field)

I use a rear mounted sickle mower.
 

[Leroy]

Usually if you try to make that kind of a turn thenyou will have trouble as that makes the cutter bar work twice as hard as straight going and way harder than turning the other way. Then how do you get started in exactly the right spot to finnish without a lot of backtracking around the outside?
 

[Richard Hare]

with a haybine, discbine or sickle mower, 'round and 'round is the way I go.
When I use a swather and crimper, I do a headland then back and forth.