# Drum mowers



## s302940

I am thinking of buying a new mower for my hay operation. I have approximately 12 acres of mixed hay (Orchard grass/alfalfa, some birdsfoot trefoil). I've had it with my NH sickle bar mower. Was considering a rotary disc mower but started reading about drum mowers which seem to be used quite a bit in Europe, but not too much here in the U.S.

The drum mowers seem to be much simplier and less expensive than the rotary disc mowers.

Any experience with drum mowers? I am located in east central Ohio (rolling hills).


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## rrch129

Not trying to talk you out of it but whats wrong with your sickle mower? With only 12 acres you should be able to knock that down easy within a day, I do about 400 acres of hay and just now got a discbine this past year, was using a jd 1209 moco. If anything I would direct you toward a 7 ft maybe 9 ft ,depending on tractor size, nh moco. Just my suggestion, i have heard of parts availability problems with the drum mowers and cutting height problems, just what ive heard dont know if its true or not.


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## nwfarmer

All equipment requires maintenance. Seems like I am working on my equipment all the time. Not sure buying different equipment is going to solve all of the problems.


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## mlappin

Fill me in here. What exactly are you calling a drum mower? For some reason a flail chopper keeps coming to mind.

NVM, googled it. The ones I seen have no conditioning rolls, without the rolls, even though you may be able to mow faster ,its gonna take longer to dry out. I suppose a seperate conditioner could be run over the field after mowing, but will you really save any time then?


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## swmnhay

20 yrs ago rented a Duetz drum type disc mower to cut lowland grass.It had 2 drums with 4 blades each 6' cut.Was 3 pt.Made a windrow.Worked a lot better than a sickle mower.This was before disc mowers came on the market here.Was built pretty simple.Rented it for 2.00 ac.There was a couple left around here a few yrs ago but I think they went to the Iron pile.


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## hay wilson in TX

I have one drum, one 4 ft disk, and one 9 ft mower conditioner, each use different reasons. I like the drum mower for several reasons, but it is heavy. A 35 hp tractor can run it no problem but will pick up the left tire when raising the three point and the mower stays on the ground. I pull mine with a 55 hp tractor that has no problem running at 44 mph on smooth ground. Do not do it though as 7 mph is about the maximum design working speed.

Used correctly a simple mower, sickle or disk, will cure hay as fast or faster than a Mower Conditioner used incorrectly.


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## swmnhay

[QUOTE . I pull mine with a 55 hp tractor that has no problem running at 44 mph on smooth ground. 
.[/QUOTE]

I'd like to see that LOL


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## fxrupr

There are a couple of very interesting videos on UTube to check out. I have seen only one drum mower down here in Texas and it was a basket case that I could not get parts for. 
From the video and what I noticed with the one I saw was that the discs which the mower rides on are mounted on a bearing which is underneath the cutter head. Both the disc and the bearing take a lot of abuse as the mower slides over the ground. I would guess if you had nice flat ground and a lot of soft grass with no abrasive material like rocks or gravel the discs might wear OK. In disney land. 
They work pretty much like a disc mower except the power is transmitted from above instead of under the turtles.
YouTube - Reese Drum mowers for cutting hay, silage, and pastures
Just an example... I have no connection to these guys. I have a NH 617 disc myself.

John


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## Hay DR

The advantages of a drum mower over a sicklebar is they will mow any crop in any condition. This means you do not have to wait until noon for the dew to burn off. You can mow at any time and not have to miss a day of work. You will have production of 3-5 acres per hour. The drum mowers will mow as fast as you ride in the seat of the tractor. Drum mowers mow just like a disc mower and cut grass off clean not chewing the grass off like a sicklebar mower. You will find the New drum mower prices from $2,800 and up. Also these mowers can be run on a tractor without rear hydraulic SCV couplers. The design you see pictured is the PZ originated in the 1960's. This mower is basically the same drum mower that was sold here in the USA in the 70's & 80's under the PZ brand.


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## justsoso

I've known two people that ran drum type mowers. I've watched them run and they will cut as fast as you can stand to ride the tractor. They do leave a heavy windrow and that usually makes fluffing (tedding) necessary. Both ran 6' mowers on 3000 ford diesels. One guy ran his one season and then bought a 8' disc mower for his larger tractor. His comment was that he could cover the same amount of ground but the bumps didnt hurt so much at a lower speed.


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## gording01

I'd say the cutting quality of a drum mower is probably the same as a disc mower. What I don't like about the drum mowers is that they are more sensitive than a disc mower. The reason is that the drums on a drum mover is "top-suspended" meaning that any shock load on the drums is transfered up to the main frame, through the gearbox and the distance between the main frame and the ground creates a bending torque. So if a rock etc. is struck at relative high speed, this may overload the gearbox and bend it. This is why it is not recommended to drive as fast with a drum mower as you can with a disk mower. Having the large rotating drums also enables rocks, bits of logs etc. to get wedged in between the drums and actually bend both drums/gears.

Of cause this is not the "every day" driving conditions, but you never knows what hides in the grass...

All of this is the reason why you see the sales of drum mowers in drum mower country No. 1: Germany, are going down, and you see an equivalent raise in sales of disc mowers.

- Peter


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## Hay DR

Listen we are in Upper East TN where we grow rocks. We have many customers that are using their 1980 model PZ mowers today. You will be hard pressed to find a 1980 disc mower running today. These drum mowers are simple and durable and cost effective. They are designed for the 30-70 HP tractors. If you put them on a 100+ tractor then you will likely wrap them around something solid. The key to any equipment is matching the size of the equipment to the size of the tractor. We have sold thousands of these drum mowers and have 29 years experience with them.


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## gording01

Hi Hay DR.

To be honest with you and who ever is looking, I haven't got any experience with drum mowers - my post was based upon the information that I have from service people, dealers etc. that has the experience that I lack in this area, and I have no reason to doubt this.

Happy to hear that you have good experience with the machines - don't get me wrong







but the declining sales of these machines is a fact - here in Europe anyway.

I visited your website and saw that you sell both disc and drum mowers - I'd like to know what features you as a salesman would highlight on each type machine, when trying to make a sale.

What should the customer buy and why?

Best regards, Peter


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## kickinbull

we have sickle mowers, a haybine and recently added an old drum mower. That thing is slick. It has 2 drums with 3 blades on each. It take less than 3 minutes to change all 6. We have rocks. They pop up everywhere. We used 3 sets of blades for this year to cut 70 plus acres. The blades can be switched from side to side to extend the life of blade. We have put it to the test. It will mow in the rain. If you have smooth fields, go as fast as you can hang on. Another thing, you can't plug it. so theres no backing up like the sickles. wish we had another one, someday? Good luck.


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## Hay DR

gording01 said:


> Hi Hay DR.
> 
> To be honest with you and who ever is looking, I haven't got any experience with drum mowers - my post was based upon the information that I have from service people, dealers etc. that has the experience that I lack in this area, and I have no reason to doubt this.
> 
> Happy to hear that you have good experience with the machines - don't get me wrong
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> but the declining sales of these machines is a fact - here in Europe anyway.
> 
> I visited your website and saw that you sell both disc and drum mowers - I'd like to know what features you as a salesman would highlight on each type machine, when trying to make a sale.
> 
> What should the customer buy and why?
> 
> Best regards, Peter


 Some statistics about who owns cattle will fool most people. The average heard size in Alabama for 2007 was 8. Of the 98 million cattle in the USA 55% of them are in herds of less that 100. You have many operators that have cow/calf operations with 20-40 cows. If an operator has 20 acres of hay that he mows twice a year then how can he justify a $60,000 tractor, $30,000 round baler, $25k on a disc mower conditioner, etc.. What sells the CCM drum mowers is they are affordable and give the smaller operator the cutting technology of a disc mower at that lower price. If a customer needs above 5 acres an hour production then a disc mower is the better choice for that person. A 7' drum mower is heavy and will take a larger tractor in the 8,000 Lbs. range where a 7' disc mower needs 30-40 PTO HP and minimum of a 3500 Lbs tractor.

Matching a implement to your tractor and matching your operational needs is being both safety conscience and makes business sense. Both drum & disc mowers will mow any crop in any condition. It is very similar to the difference in a 1/2 ton pickup and a ton truck.


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## gording01

That is some amazing statistics you posted there - are the small farms run by full time farmers?? In that case: WOW!!!

If you want to be a full time farmer here in Denmark you'll need at least 100-120 milk cows and 75-100Ha/185-250 ac. But the last few years have given quite big farms with 400-600 milk cows (up to 1.000 milk cows!) - I'd say the average farm here is about 220 milk cows and 200 Ha/500 ac.

Thanks for clarifying the drum/disc different in your sales operation - much appreciated









- Peter


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## UpNorth

Most of the those small farmers have something else to bring some cash.

Speaking the Dutch dairymen, we're seeing more of them here in WI. And they can sure crank out milk when there's no quota to worry about.

There's some operations out west that are well over 20,000 head of cattle. The biggest herd that I know of in WI has about 8,000 with 1500-2000 cows being the average big herd. That being said the state average numbers here at still at 100 cows per farm.

I think it really comes down to what you want to manage...cows or people. When you start getting over a couple hundred head of cattle it's becomes more of managing information and advice than the animals.

You a dairy farmer Peter? If you are, do you use a robot to milk? Even though immigrant labor is cheap I think more dairyman will start using the robots in the next 5-10 years, but change is slow and a lot guys don't want to wait the 10 years to pay off the robot-or their bankers don't want to take the risk.


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## gording01

Farmer? Not really









I worked on different farms, then became an ag. machine mechanic, then worked at some contractors and now I'm a mechanical engineering student, so no I'm not a farmer, but I'm definitely farm nerd









About the milking robots: They are getting pretty common here - majority is still manual but more and more newly build stables are getting milking robots. Can't say the right percentage though. But they are not uncommon any more and the myths about the cows not being able to understand or get used to them, have all been thrown to the ground - cows seem to love getting milked when they want to and not when the farmer is good and ready. Off cause there is start up issues but it's been years since I heard of anybody going back to manual milking...

- Peter


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## Najumade

I have a 5' drum cutter that I use in the spring and fall if the fire ant mounds are wet. During other times I use a 9' sickle bar cutter it is faster to lay down my 12 ac. The drum cutter is good but a little heavy for my tractor. I use a 35 MF to cut and if the grass is wet the cutter pushes my tractor around. My drum cutter will cut whatever I run over. I am very pleased with it, Just wish it was longer than 5'. would recommend it to everyone.


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