# Terra Drum Mower With Conditioner



## Felton Hay (Jul 14, 2019)

Anyone have pros/cons on the Terra drum mower with conditioner? I understand drum mowers usually windrow tight but Terra says they spread the hay out well and have built in conditioners to help with drying. I farm only orchard/Timothy hay, so generally the first cut is the one with most stems. I only farm 10 acres so the price for a new mower seems reasonable compared to a used discbine.


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## Texasmark (Dec 20, 2011)

Why bother with crimping? If you were running a Sorghum-Sudan, usually guilty of thick stems then yes. But on grass? I am on my second drum and wouldn't have any other cutter. I have a separate crimper, a 1960's NH 404 drag for when I do SS and think I need to crimp.

My new cutter, just purchased this year is a Tar River 185. Comes out of the Carolinas. I live in N. Texas and no dealers so I contacted a dealer in Kansas and got it drop shipped to my farm for $3500 tax-title-license. Sold the old one, different brand, after I knocked out a bearing...my fault, for $850.

I usually run a tedder as I seem to always be running against the weather for early season hay production. On grasses the tedder not only scatters but also acts as a crimper as when the tines hit the stalk, they hit it several times before they pass over and that gives you half a dozen openings in the stem that you otherwise would not have and might want to crimp with a crimper....necessary or not.

On the WW thing, I'm retired and currently running 20 acres. My equipment is setup for 6'. With the drum I have a WW but I like it because it does 2 things for me: 1. It moves the clippings out of the way of my tractor tires on the next round so that I don't stomp on them and 2. it gives me a clean line between cut and uncut so that I can line up the tractor for max cutting width without holidays.


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