haybine-discbine

[BrianDurga]

I want to buy hay equipment. I thought the
best place to start is getting advice on whats
the best to buy, so I need your help. Im a
small farmer with 10 acres of land to put into
hay. I dont need the best but dont want junk.
So what do u suggest. Pto vs hydralics for
drive, haybine vs disc bine. Name brand for
parts. Any help would b appreciate.

 

[rabbit-1]

For ten acres, that seems like overkill. You might look at drum mowers, or perhaps a good, used sickle bar mower.

 

[Don-Wi]

Haybines can be gotten for relatively little money for something that would handle 10 acres. I would strongly advise against just a sickle mower simply because there are better options out there.

Can't say anything about a drum or plain disk mower, or even a discbine, but the crimper rolls in a haybine really help.

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[BrianDurga]

thanks for the suggestions so far. I forgot to add that my tractor has 100 hp. and I would keep this hay cutter for many years, so I figure 3 cuts a year for many years. Id want something more than a sickle mower

 

[BrianDurga]

I just checked into the drum mowers. Are drum mowers better then the old methods?

 

[Bret4207]

I'd find a decent haybine. NH, Deere, whatever floats your boat. I'd also get a tedder. Discbines are fine on smooth fields, but they are still expensive. For 10 acres it's kind of overkill. Drum mowers are an option is speed mowing is one of your goals.

 

[NEBeef]

Location?

 

[BrianDurga]

I'm in michigan. I'm not looking to buy today.Right now, I am trying to find the right style of hay cutter. Can the drum mowers cut tall hay? Also, with the drum mowers, would I need to do anything else to the hay before raking? I know with older methods most haybines crimp or break up the hay.One thing I like about the drum mowers is that they are smaller and would fit in a smaller area of the barn.

 

[NEBeef]

(quoted from post at 17:12:06 06/13/13) I'm in michigan. I'm not looking to buy today.Right now, I am trying to find the right style of hay cutter. Can the drum mowers cut tall hay? Also, with the drum mowers, would I need to do anything else to the hay before raking? I know with older methods most haybines crimp or break up the hay.One thing I like about the drum mowers is that they are smaller and would fit in a smaller area of the barn.

Conditioning (by haybine/disbine, rollers/flails) will generally shorten your drying time by least a day of drying time, where as the drum mower/disc mower/sickle bar won't do any conditioning.

Around here, you won't see much hay being cut without being conditioned, some condition with their mower it and then run it through another conditioner.

Someone from MI can tell you better than I if conditioning is critical in your area, or you can watch/talk to people in your area about what they are using.

 

[Longmeadow farm]

If you are patient and search around you can usually find a 7 ft. haybine that's seen moderate to little use. Most farmers 30 years ago bought the 9ft and wider models. I suspect these smaller machines were purchased for smaller acreage operations, and most went out of business along the way. I know in this neck of the woods(eastern New York) these 7ft models pop up quite frequently and most are mechanically decent vs the larger models, which are mostly junk. However, I'd be rather hesitant to hook up a 7ft haybine/MoCo to a 100 HP tractor.

 

[MI AC Parsons]

Grew up in MI using a sickle mower. Left farm and dad got a hesston haybine. I've never used one, but 10 yrs ago, I drove 100miles to old farm and brought it down to cut our little 14 acre patch. Can't believe the difference in drying time....and drying time is crucial now

 

[BrIONwoshMunky]

Our drying time for hay went from 3 work days with just a mower conditioner, down to a little over one with the addition of a tedder.

Dad's still using his old 9ft Hesston 1091 mower conditioner. He's had a 95 hp JD 4020, a 95hp JD 2955, and now a cabbed 95hp Ford 7710. The newer models make changing drive belts a breeze. We ALWAYS put in new sickle sections every year. hay field ends up looking a like a scalped lawn after the mower goes through. No missed stripes.

 

[Roy in UK]

Drum mowers are indeed a BIG step up from a sickle mower although here they seem to have all but died out in favour of the disc mower or disc mower conditioner. I remember when we first got our drum mower in the late 1960"s( a 5 foot 6 inch Fahr )it caused a lot of "jaw dropping" from our nieghbours when they could see how much we were cutting in a day with it compared to ye olde sickle mower.
For only 10 acres you could get away with a disc mower and a tedder. Cut it in the morning and turn it after dinner. We had a 8 foot disc mower, (Later replaced by an 8 foot disc mower / conditioner) and I could easily cut one 60 acre field we had in 2 and a half days.

 

[Texasmark1]

I used to run JD 1209 swathers (sickle bar cutter and crimper). I retired and downsized to a 6' drum mower. Love it and it solves lots of sickle bar problems which I hated but it doesn't crimp and I'm planting large stem crops so I found a couple of old crimpers....what used to be used behind a conventional sickle bar only cutter, before the advent of the combo swather. A new chain and a little lube and ready to go.

This year will be my first year with the crimper and I plan to cut and crimp as soon as I feel like getting back in the field. Then probably a tedder round for sure and within 2 or 3 days from cutting expect to roll.

Mark