hay mowers

Good afternoon, early this year I bought a small 22 acre farm. A neighbor mowed / baled the hay and left some for me this past summer to sell to some people I know who have horses. If I wanted to start mowing my field what type of mower should I get? I see alot of old sickle mowers for sale cheap. But then there are the more expensive conditioner / mowers. Now I know that w/ the conditioner you can bale sooner but is the hay quality not as good if I sickle mow it and let it sit to dry a few days? Should I wait a few years and save for a conditioner / mower? Also all I have is an H (which I always wanted, same as my grandpa) so I only have a draw bar. I welcome and thank any suggestions.

Phil, this is one of those areas I could go on about for ever. Your choices with an H are going to be limited in terms of the mower. There are many good sickle mowers around but they are generally old and difficult. I do NOT recommend 22 acres of hay with an older sickle mower. I would go with a newer belt driven sickle mower. The hay will be different and the horse people (at least the eastern horse people) will frown on the stems in grass hay that has not been conditioned. The longer dry time can mean some sunburn and this also will make them rip on your hay. Truth is, the hay is pretty darn good and horses do well on it. If you want to go with a conditioner behind a sickle, these are around but are mostly older as far as I know. A mower/conditioner like a haybine (NH) or a MoCo (JD) is going to set you back some $$ and they are expensive to maintain as they get older. You would probably need an older one as your HP will limit the available models in the newer mowers. I have heard of a small discbine for smaller tractors but I suspect it would be expensive. Another issue might be hydraulics for raising and lowering on an H. A lot of people will tell you they do a lot of acres with an old sickle and it is true. But it is also true that it is a long hard process. If it were me, I would go slow and see how I liked doing a small amount before I bought a lot of equipment.

Sickle mowers work fine. I cut alot of hay with the side mower on my cub with no problem. Relaxing to hear that clackclackclack as you'r goin around. I have a model 1000(I think)ballanced head, that pins on the drawbar of my m that works like a champ. Cut about 100 acres with it last summer, and will put it back to work this year. Good, inexpensive used haying equipment is easy to find if you are patient. Check the local Ag paper, and watch the farm auctions. I got all my equipment for about $4000.

Good luck,

Ben

If you are sticking with the H, you could run a sickle type 7ft mower conditioner. New Holland made a bunch of 400 series that you have the horsepower for and the hydraulics will lift. John Deere 1207, 1217 would be something else to consider.
Don't know about your area but they can be bought inexpensive here. 9 out of 10 years around here you need the conditioner feature to get hay fit to bale without being rained on or over bleached.
I have not scoured the market lately but I don't believe there is a disc type mower conditioner you could handle with the H. You may want to consider upgrading on the horsepower (would allow you to get something with more features such as live PTO, live hydraulics).

HEY PHIL,
Where in pa are you located.

Washington County

Don't forget you will also need a rake if you mow, and most swather/conditioners or haybines will windrow it. Also there are 9' mowers to be found, and no problem for an H to handle.

I have a NH 276 baler that I run behind my H. First time last year. It did a good job. Just keep the windrows a little small and watch the turns.
But, I'm using a 6' sickle mower. Very slow, takes forever and if the hay is thick, 1st cutting, it's hard to get it to dry. If there's something else the H will run it would be worth spending more. If you maintain it well you can always get some or most of you money back when you sell it.

You mean there is mowers out there bigger than the 5 ft I use on my Super A? It depends on if your doing it for fun or for profit. Yea, I chuckled at that too. Small acerage and a few bales is fine with a sickle. Serious production to be a hay producer is going to require a mower/conditioner just for the time saving alone. Sounds like in your case a sickle will be fine if you hit the weather right.

As mentioned below a 1000 series (or so) balanced head with a trailing wheel will be perfect for your H. They normally have 7' or 9' (never seen them otherwise) cutting bars.

This thread has a picture of one bolted to an H.
http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/trforum/viewtopic.php?p=1839886&sid=b0e671821e0680daa74be3045abf5383

I've seen them priced on dealers lots for $600 to $1200. I seen them sell at auction for as little as $200 and as much as $1200.

With a good 5 bar rake (that's what will cost you) you can make some really nice hay.

You can get a smimount for you H for a JD#5 mower. It does work and mows fine. I will tell you though its no fun if its your only tractor. If you can put the mower on in the spring and leave it on. Thats fine. But puting it on and taking it off to rake and bale is a real pain in the butt.
A New Idea trailing mower or a New Holland trailing mower would be better. As you can just unhook it when you want to switch.

To put up 22 acres of hay(75 Ton?) You will need the following:
45 HP tractor with live PTO...$5000
9 foot sickle mower, belt dr $700
5 bar rake $600
Sm Sg Baler ( NH 275?) $1300
5 bales of twine $140
some way to fertilize eac year $400
Haywagon $700
Barn for storage $5000
Fuel $80
Hired help $80
Annual maint repairs on equip $400

Get the picture? Sure you want to get into this for an annual gross of $4000?

Gordo

Can't speak much about modern hay farming. Did a lot of it the old way in the 40s, so here's a short comment on mowers. The 7' sickle-bar made to fit in place of the H drawbar is a snap to mount: loosen four toggle bolts, remove the drawbar (any guy can lift it), put the mower in its place. The mower has to be left on blocks to keep it at the level it was when you took it off--otherwise you may have to do some prying and shoving to get it up on the mounts where the toggle bolts are. There is another mower that worked just fine. My father had bought a 1938 F-12 with a 7' mounted mower. It fit the early H perfectly (small PTO shaft), and we ran it for years with no problems. The short-coupled drawbar-mounted mower makes for a very easy square turn, with a little braking on the tractor maybe needed at times. I even used the thing to trim the old zig-zag rail fences! Drive in, raise mower (by hand, ooof!), back out, turn left, back into other side of the zig-zag, drop mower, cut, repeat, repeat, repeat. Sounds kinda dumb now, but in the "old days" (notice I did NOT say "good old days"), farmers were judged by how clean their fences were. My father didn't seem to care, but I did and appointed myself the Keeper-of-the-Fences, until my right shoulder developed muscles as big as my head and made me look funny in front of all the pretty little things in high school. Without a power lift, it was a chore, so eventually I got smart and quit.
I suppose nowadays, anybody with zig-zag fences would take a trimmer to them.