# mower conditioners vs disc mowers



## mtcross21 (Jan 17, 2011)

Ok, 
We cut round 300 acres each year and are using two Vicon disc mowers. With the humid temps each year and having to have long dry times we are starting to wonder if a moco would not work for us. I really dont know alot about them as VERY VERY few people have them. Does anyone have any thoughts. I personally think we should be looking at them but trying to convince the others in the family. What I dont know is weither or not to look at a self propelled model or look at moco and tractor. (as right now we dont have a tractor to pull a moco) Thoughts or suggestion would be appreciated.


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## greengrow (May 23, 2011)

For 300 acres I would say that self propelled is not going to pay, unless you like working on an older machine. A 100hp tractor should work a 10ft moco. Depends on your ground and how fast you can work etc.

You can get conditioners for disc mowers that would just replace what you have now with out needing to trade up too much in the HP dept.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Where are you located? I have a Vicon and found that it works real good with grasses, but I added a NH 7230 Moco because I am switching to alfalfa and alfalfa/grass mixes. IMO, a moco works better for alfalfa, a disc mower works better for grasses.BTW: my Vicon, a KM3200 10'6 pull type is for sale.

Ralph


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## mtcross21 (Jan 17, 2011)

After doing some asking around and reading some threads and the responses, I think the best way to go is a moco. I am just having trouble now as to what to look for. We have mixed grass hay and are prob gonna plant round 25 acres of bermuda either this year or next. I would need something that can easily travel up narrow roads and not cause a major headache. I like the New Hollands and Krones, any thoughts or suggestions?


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

mtcross21 said:


> I like the New Hollands and Krones, any thoughts or suggestions?


Both make good equipment, as do many other manufacturers. I assume that you are looking for used equipment and would suggest that you look at what dealer support you have available locally. I've got some NH equipment and a NH dealer about 5 miles away, they are totally incapable of ordering a correct part, so I end up going to a dealer 50 miles away or using Messick's and getting it shipped. One of the JD dealers I use also sells/supports Krone. I'm currently fixing some minor issues on my Krone round baler and I couldn't get them to call me back with part prices/availability. They like to sell them but they don't want to mess with them. I ended up using another JD dealer about 50 miles in a different direction who has turned out to be great to work with. I even tried to find a M&W dealer (many parts are interchangable), but they are even more rare.

The fact that there are very few moco's in your area indicates that you will pretty much be on your own when it comes to maintaining whatever you buy. So before you buy something, make sure you can get a manual/parts list and make sure you have a dealer who you can work with to get parts. I can almost guarantee that when something breaks, you'll be out in the middle of a field with storms on the way and the last thing you'll want to hear when you call your dealer is "What's a moco".


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## bluefarmer (Oct 10, 2010)

A tedder would be your best investment,especially since you said you plan on putting out some bermuda.Unless you have a lot of real stemy grass a conditioner just uses up horsepower/diesel,I have done it both ways.


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## cattleranch (Dec 17, 2010)

Hmm...We run a 12 foot Agco on a 95 hp tractor and it does fine but you may want to go a 100 for that extra foot with the 13 ft width. If you are cutting 300 acres each crop you need a 12/13 foot swather; if that is your total acres cut in all crops I would say look at a 9/10 ft swather. You could run one of those easy on a 75-85 pto hp tractor. I think it would be a good idea for you to get a moco. We put up some extremely thick meadow grass hay in 24 hours once. If you have any legume crops you want rolls. If you are all grass go with flails. I have used both steel on steel and rubber on rubber and love the steel set a lot more. They do a lot more through job of conditioning.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

My 10 ft disc mower conditioner is all my MF5455 wants on any sort of hill. Its a flail type conditioner. The tractor is the early type with 85 pto hp.


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