# Stuff you find cutting fields?



## swmnhay

What you all find cutting hayfields?

Yesterday cutting a rental field found a .22 rifle laying in field.cutter took a gouge out of the stock and the bolt musta went flying.









Also ran over a couple of sawed logs 2'x2'.A tree had fallen over and got cut up for firewood and they left a couple pieces lay in field.


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## Toyes Hill Angus

I found a bicycle in some reed canary grass once, campfire pits, lawn chairs you know the usual...


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## tnwalkingred

Well this year I found a HUGE log that must have floated into the field during a flood. Damn thing was so big I had to use the front end loader to move it. Here in middle TN you ALWAYS find rocks when you cut a new field and then there are the holes. I hit one the other day that was so big and so deep that my tractor and I went air born! It was a big nice flat open field and I was really moving with the disc mower. Thank goodness I had my seat belt on or I would have been thrown off the tractor. I'm still waiting to find a bag of cash but so far that has not happened yet! LOL

Kyle


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## LeadFarmer

I never find anything interesting or funny, it's always stuff that's potentially harmful to the machine. Thousand pound chunks of cement, basketball sized rocks, etc.


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## nosliw

I hit a wild turkey with a haybine last year. feathers went FLYing.


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## Iowa hay guy

i havnt found anything like that just rocks and concrete but i hit a turkey nest with a 488 once and ran a skunk thru our old 8360 that stink followed us for days


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## barnrope

I usually process a couple skunks per season thru my 1431 NH. Just when the smell gets wore off I find another victim.


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## Iowa hay guy

i know a guy that pur a 5/8 cable off an old dozer thru his 1431 nh the first year he had it
i havnt ran a skunk thru my new mower yet but im sure my day is approaching


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## haybaler101

Iowa hay guy said:


> i know a guy that pur a 5/8 cable off an old dozer thru his 1431 nh the first year he had it
> i havnt ran a skunk thru my new mower yet but im sure my day is approaching


Dad got one of those also thru a new 1431 a couple years ago. It was off of a radio tower, they had replaced support cables and left one in the field. He didn't even know he hit it, I found it later with the baler. Cut it clean in half and only bent two blades.


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## hay king

I have found a baseball bat and baseball, dog food dish, old lawn chair, barbed wire still atached to a post that got sucked into the flail conditioner very fast, old hay bail left behind by the guy that used to do the field before me, thats all I can think of for now but I'm sure there is more.


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## Iowa hay guy

this one wrapped around a couple rotors and did $500 worth of damage to a brand new 1431
ouch.......


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## ZekeTheDog

Interesting posts! I've been more fortunate. The only thing I bailed of interest was a 4 foot snake still alive but hurt. He managed to wiggle his way out of the bale except for the last few inches and died. I went to go get the kids to show them as it was near the house. Came back out in less than 5 minutes and a red tail hawk was laboring carrrying him away.

Hey, for you guys that get skunked. There's a product that works for us and we keep one around at all times because of the dogs. It's called Ordor Mute. It's an enzyme and safe. For buildings, I just mix it with water in a CLEAN (no chemicals) garden sprayer and spray it on. By the time it dries, the smell is GONE!! I'm sure it'll work with your haybines too. I had a kennel left a mess by the previous owners that you just couldn't get the smell out of, even after taking everything out and washing it down with every detergent I could find. The odor was in the concrete and walls. I sprayed it with ordor mute, and the next day you couldn't smell a thing! Wash your dog with it when he's skunked, and when he's dry, 95% of the smell is gone. One more wash, and he's 100%. Amazing stuff.

It comes with or without perfume. Get the unscented... Unless you want your haybine to smell like a cathouse! LOL


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## barnrope

I did the same thing with with my new 1431 two years ago when it had less than 150 acres thru it. It picked up a 5/8" cable and wrapped up between the cutter and the gear box. It forced the cutter top and the vertical shaft right up out of hte gear box. It cost over $600 in parts to get her going again.


Iowa hay guy said:


> this one wrapped around a couple rotors and did $500 worth of damage to a brand new 1431
> ouch.......


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## RCF

Have hit plenty of skunks, rabbits, rocks, pieces of concrete, pipe, dead pigs, and baled up several snakes over the years. The most interesting foreign object I have ran through a mower would be a feral pig. I was cutting some forage sorghum at a dairy that was full of pigs and the Mexicans on the place where loaded up two to a four wheeler and where shooting the pigs when they ran out of the cover. Well as I was getting to the end of one run several ran out ahead of me and one turned back and went through the front mower luckily nothing hurt and one more dead pig.


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## rjmoses

Mowed up two baby deers this year. Didn't have a hunting permit, though.

Ralph


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## Chessiedog

couple of fawns a year that hate hitting , turkey last year , found a arm of of a tedder the other day . Oh yea couple telephone post last year on the edge of a field
.


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## Dill

I found 40 feet of 5/8 power cable in a field mowing last night. Luckily I only caught the end knife so it didn't get tangled. There were 4 wheeler ruts in the hay so someone must have lost it off the back of a quad after stealing it somewhere. My father and I have each done in a turkey this year, just a puff of a feather is all I saw. Last fall I found a hi lift jack, when I was raking somehow the disc mower rode right over it.


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## mlappin

Ran a car tire thru a 276 hayliner once, or should say tried to except the knife didn't quit cut all the way thru, bent the knifes.


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## Iowa hay guy

well i found part of a concrete cinder block buried half in the ground yesterday 
i think its time to flip the knives but the cinder block will never be the same again


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## lpfd778

Woven wire tin off of a barn tire still on a rim with air in it (till i hit it ) then of course the normal rocks and holes


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## mlappin

See what you guys started....

Seen a inflatable something before I ran it thru, along with a large plastic container of some kind, didn't see this last years christmas tree until it plugged the mower. All in one 18 acre field.


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## Iowa hay guy

i almost forgot i ran a sheet of corrugated roofing tin thru once too
on a disc conditioner it makes one awful noise


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## deere4430

i was cutting hay for someone and they didnt tell me that there was a well in the middle of the hay


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## Josh in WNY

After reading some of the things that made the list, I guess I've been pretty lucky! I've had my share of fawns, got a turkey once (but I think it was already dead by the smell of it) and have even nailed a couple woodchucks (was glad to see them go through) and a turtle. Other than that, my mowing experiences are pretty dull. I do make it a normal routine to walk the fields early in the spring to see if there is anything laying around before the grass gets growing. I concentrate mainly on the areas where there are trees along the edges so I can get any branches cleaned up. During these walks I have found one antler off a 6 point buck and a broken rake tine.

Most interesting thing I've ever seen anyone pull out of a field was an old hay fork like they used to move loose hay into the mow. My grandfather wraped it around a moldboard while plowing one spring.


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## TheFastMan_2

My brother and I picked up a field a mile down the road a couple years ago that butts right up against a sub-division. The first year he mowed it, there was a door frame, wheelbarrow, clumps of grass clippings, and a bunch of other junk. There is always trash in that field. The land owners finally got it surveyed and the sub-division association send out letters to everyone laying out the law. They were really pushing over the property line. I have ran over several golf balls in that field that one guy shoots out there and never collects. I have a small collection now. I may go out there and shoot them at his house with my compressed air cannon I built in high school. lol. I remember opening up a small square bale one winter and having a rake tine fall out. I thought I was kind of lucky as I recall a fiend telling me how he killed his old 14T with a tree branch once, went to the junk yard. Otherwise I haven't hit anything living or dead.


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## JimB75

Picked up a piece of angle iron with the baler Thursday and stopped it dead, also picked up some cow bones and same farm. The first time I ran my 605xl baler in the field I had a Raccoon in it and it got jammed in the upper rollers....what a mess!


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## NDVA HAYMAN

Found a double box end International wrench that must have been made for a certain pc of equipment. Mike


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## JD3430

Had a lot of close calls with fawns. Luckily none killed yet. Picked up one of my own tedder tines once. Talk about embarrassed, I couldn't get mad at anyone but myself!


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## slowzuki

Most everything I hit is with the rotary mower but I did stuff an RV canopy through the discbine last year. The aluminum made quite a racket and bent a lot of flails. It was in the edge of a field behind a campground on the backswath.


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## JD3430

Well, my luck ran out. Got a fawn on Sunday while mowing outlines for one of my hay fields. Looked like it might survive, but not sure.
I'm a bowhunter and enjoyed shooting deere in their prime, but hitting that fawn was not something I'll easily forget. Poor little guy.....
CRAP!!!


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## HWooldridge

Lots of snakes and three baby fawns over the years; all sorts of trash including steel fence posts (those hurt).


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## Will 400m

Lots of wood from trees and only one fawn but it went through so quick all you herd was a little yelp and the rollers thump back closed. The field I just picked up is 35 acres and hasnt been done in a few years and they must have had alot of dead trees fall on the outskirts but clamed they picked the field clean. Said sounds good than you shouldnt have a problem covering any repairs from stuff in the field for the first year. She says sure so I start the mower up and go maby 3 feet and fit a log not a branch but a 8 inch diamiter log. No damage but she sure looked scared and offered to look the field over I said good idea and went and mowed in another field.


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## mlappin

JD3430 said:


> Well, my luck ran out. Got a fawn on Sunday while mowing outlines for one of my hay fields. Looked like it might survive, but not sure.
> I'm a bowhunter and enjoyed shooting deere in their prime, but hitting that fawn was not something I'll easily forget. Poor little guy.....
> CRAP!!!


HUH?? Every fawn I've ever hit their was no way it was gonna survive. Haven't got one with the discbine yet but the last two I got with the haybine popped em right out of their hides like a banana. Nasty mess to get out not to mention the haybine stunk like goat for months.


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## Iowa hay guy

i almost hit the same deer twice this year
once during the backswath and the next time he was hiding in a hole in a ditch and i about cut him in half but i got stopped in time so he lived for another day poor little guy i bet he just about scared the spots off of him


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## NDVA HAYMAN

Chased a fawn out while baling straw and it just ran all over the field for 2o minutes. Ran out and stood next to the highway. Semi comes along and I thought the worst but it had enough sense t turn around and finally run for the woods. The day before, our combine ran out a momma bear and two cubs out of the wheat into the field where I was baling straw. They didn't waste any time getting outta there.


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## Vol

Mike, sounds like a gamey area you reside in... we too have deer and alot of bear but the deer are small in stature....nothing like the mid-west giants. Sometimes our bears will be over 500 pounds which is pretty remarkable for this far south in their range. The last 2 archery Kansas whtetail bucks I have taken have weighed over 300 pounds each. I occasionally hunt archery bear here but just generally hold out for the giants....besides, it is awfully expensive to do bear rugs these days....still enjoy a good big game hunt out West on occasion.

Regards, Mike


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## Nitram

Testing moisture today stuck my hand in windrow and coiled snake. 3 inches away...no head! LOVIN THIS DISCBINE! !!! Martin


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## Iowa hay guy

oh yes the disc mower is a mouse gettin snake chasin skunk smashin rabbit peelin machine
most times you dont even know they went thru of course unless its a skunk then you can smell it for days and the underside of the conditioner stinks for weeks


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## slowzuki

Friend of my fil fired up his combine... there was a family of skunks inside the cylinder I think? Anyways, they got stuck in side in pieces. He parked it at the far end of the property and borrowed the neighbours for the season.


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## Iowa hay guy

the far end might not even be far enough away if the wind is right

i got a whole family of skunks last year mowin hay and i didnt know it until the guy i baled for said i made a stinky bale so i asked him what he meant and he said he has a bale on the far side of the field cuz it smelled like skunk so bad he could barely stand to haul it but i guess it sold with the rest cuz it wasnt there this year


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## KLEINHAYING

This year i found all a guys fencing supplies in his alfalfa field that he forgot to finish fencing around. 4 rolls of electic wire, pile of t post, fence stretcher, woven wire stretcher, pail of staple and clips ect.


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## ETXhayman

I mostly run over t-posts, wood posts, I have sucked up barb wire a couple times, and unfortunately I have mowed over a couple fawns. Poor things got scared and I didn't see them laying down in the grass.


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## CockrellHillFarms

Started mowing a new 120 acre place I rented for the first time this year. Asked the guy if there was anything I needed to look out for that I couldn't see. He said no. Pulled the mower in the first field, turn it on. I literally sat my mower conditioner down on a ladder! Whats the chance of that happening on 120 acres! Picked it up quickly and thought oh well. Went 20 foot and hit a drainage ditch and pipe. Almost blow out my front tires and I was going SLOW. lol. Got really lucky.


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## Starvation Plantaton

About 4 to 5 yrs ago a tornado hit Liberty Mo. in the spring. Come time to cut hay we had picked up 5 pickup truck loads of shingles, tar paper, tin and insulation. No telling how much got baled up. Dad's farm was about 20 miles from the damage. Would'nt have belived it would carry that far!


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## Blue Duck

Yesterday while cutting some double crop sudan grass I hit a bag of gravel. Apparently the seismograph crew left it for me.


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## Riot

[sharedmedia=gallery:albums:117]

lovely damage for the day, seems to be a water pipe. just let me toss a $700 check into the air.
lost three pod hats, which split one shock hubs and all misc crap. Just need to field a clean field...


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## Itsalwayssomething

Ran a kid's bike through the discbine once. That'll teach him to leave his bike out in the field. His parents made him pay for some new blades. Good parents. I always hear about people mowing fawns and I never, EVER want to do that so I stand when I'm in suspect areas. The tractor is pretty tall so I get a pretty good view.


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## swmnhay

Itsalwayssomething said:


> always hear about people mowing fawns and I never, EVER want to do that so I stand when I'm in suspect areas. The tractor is pretty tall so I get a pretty good view.


When the fawns are new born they tend to hide and next to impossible to see.Unfortunatly I get 1 or 2 per yr.


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## mlappin

Didn't get any this year or last..darn it. Less fawns men less deer eating my $8 corn and $16 beans.


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## slowzuki

I watch really carefully but its no use, the hay is very thick and I don't see them until about 10 ft before the discbine goes over them. June is the worst as they are so small. We've hit them with the haybine too, worst thing is that doesn't usually kill them.



Itsalwayssomething said:


> I always hear about people mowing fawns and I never, EVER want to do that so I stand when I'm in suspect areas. The tractor is pretty tall so I get a pretty good view.


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## Nitram

Solution: mount a rifle on the tractor...There always somewhere else when I have one at the ready. ;-}


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## Vol

slowzuki said:


> I watch really carefully but its no use, the hay is very thick and I don't see them until about 10 ft before the discbine goes over them. June is the worst as they are so small. We've hit them with the haybine too, worst thing is that doesn't usually kill them.


No rifle....then you need to pickup the implement and dispatch them with a tractor tire as one never wants to leave something to suffer.....unless its a politician







.

Regards, Mike


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## kidbalehook

Brother skinned a baby fawn once... hide pulled thru the NH489 haybine, the body stayed on the tractor side! Weirdest thing I ever found was a stolen purse from trailer park across the road.


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## Grazer

My first post! My favorite hitting things in the fields story! My stepson had a Chesapeake Retriever dog. This dog loved to naw/chew/carry around most anything he could put his mouth on. I had a knee deep field of hybrid bermuda grass field that I was cutting, I started cutting in the middle of the field working outwards to the edges. First pass, I hit a something with the cutter. I shut everything down go back and find a aprox. size of a softball chunk of concrete. I pick it up and throw it to the edge of the field/fence line. Get back on tractor and continue. On return of the next cutting swath I again hit something in same area as before. I shut everything down and go back to find the same looking chunk of concrete. I look over and see stepson's dog standing there wagging his tail looking for me to throw the chunk of concrete. Needless to say I had to go to the barn and swap out cutter blades and properly dispose of chunk of concrete.


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## askinner

Grazer said:


> My first post! My favorite hitting things in the fields story! My stepson had a Chesapeake Retriever dog.


When I started reading about the dog, I thought "Uh Oh". Welcome to HayTalk!


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## JD3430

CockrellHillFarms said:


> Started mowing a new 120 acre place I rented for the first time this year. Asked the guy if there was anything I needed to look out for that I couldn't see. He said no. Pulled the mower in the first field, turn it on. I literally sat my mower conditioner down on a ladder! Whats the chance of that happening on 120 acres! Picked it up quickly and thought oh well. Went 20 foot and hit a drainage ditch and pipe. Almost blow out my front tires and I was going SLOW. lol. Got really lucky.


Had a guy call me to mow his pastures. Never did the place before. Grass is waist high. I asked him if there was anything in the fields I need to watch out for like well heads, stumps, rock outcroppings, etc. he showed me where the well was and said there was "nothing else, i mowed the place 100 times myself!!!" I drop the bush hog, go about 6 feet and hit a stump about 3' in diameter. My mower started jumping up & down like a kid on a trampoline. Luckily, no damage. I go another 20' and hit an old tarp and a pile of boards with nails in them!!!


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## mlappin

JD3430 said:


> I drop the bush hog, go about 6 feet and hit a stump about 3' in diameter. My mower started jumping up & down like a kid on a trampoline. Luckily, no damage. I go another 20' and hit an old tarp and a pile of boards with nails in them!!!


Thats when I'd leave.


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## mlappin

kidbalehook said:


> Brother skinned a baby fawn once... hide pulled thru the NH489 haybine, the body stayed on the tractor side!


I've done that twice, worst part is the mower smells like goat forever.


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## JD3430

It would be great if someone could invent something to get the fawns up and out of the field, but when they're young, their natural instinct in to lay down. Maybe when pigs fly...


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## Tim/South

JD3430 said:


> It would be great if someone could invent something to get the fawns up and out of the field, but when they're young, their natural instinct in to lay down. Maybe when pigs fly...


A few years ago I read an article where some farmers had put extensions on the front of their haybines and Mo/Co's. They were light weight frames that stuck out a few feet and had pieces of weighted rope or dog chain hanging down that would spook the fawns.


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## Itsalwayssomething

Got a bike almost through the haybine years ago. I get a lot less damage now with the discbine. Of course, every year there's a few unfortunate rabbits and smaller critters but, with the discbine, I'll hear something going through it and really cringe. But when I take a look, I'm always pleasantly surprised at the lack of damage. I never EVER want to hit a fawn. If it's really thick and/or I see flattened, fawn lay-down spots, I stand up for a better view and go slow.

After reading all the stuff you all have processed, I'm feeling pretty blessed. This year I'm getting asked to do custom, s. s. baling. Not jumping at it. How do you guys handle it if the field owner left their bike, or other hazards, in the field for you to mow? Something like that could turn it into a non-profit deal real quick.

I keep thinking I need to invent a 'cow-catcher' type of thing that hangs out in front of the mower to shoo critters. But I only think of it when I start mowing... and right now.


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## swmnhay

Itsalwayssomething said:


> I keep thinking I need to invent a 'cow-catcher' type of thing that hangs out in front of the mower to shoo critters. But I only think of it when I start mowing... and right now.


The animals instinct is to hide so your "cow catcher" thing would be a waste of time.

Baby pheasants are the worst they keep running back into the uncut hay.


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## JD3430

Got a fawn yesterday with discbine....seems to happen at least once a year.


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## Hayguy

So you you hit something while cutting a field ( not your own), and do major damage to your machine. Who pays for repairs- you, landowner, insurance? Unless the landowner has marked or at least warned you of the possibility of some obstruction in his field , it seems to me its only fair that he should bear the cost. Comments?


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## JD3430

Morally, yeah he probably should, but good luck collecting one dollar from him unless he misled you to the point of personal injury maybe.


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## mlappin

I just don't hardly do any custom mowing at all anymore unless it's one I've done before. Had two different people wanting me to mow, then bale theirs, they would ted and rake. Nothing can make baling hay more miserable than when somebody else does the raking. Think I'm off the hook when I finally gave in with the caveat of I'll do yours when mine is all done including starting on my second cut if it should be ready when I finally get done with my first, haven't heard a peep since.


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## Lostin55

Interesting reading in this post. My least favorite thing in the spring..... I have dispatched a couple of families of skunks. When you get mama you get the kids too. You can still smell it a hundred acres later. I have nailed one bicylcle in a custom field that was " perfectly clean." If you have ever wondered, a racoon is just about as solid as a critter can be also. I will never know why that big old boar **** was in the middle of an alfalfa field instead of a tree somewhere.


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## barnrope

Last week I cut a 17 acre milo/soybean field for silage bales. When I got to the last pass I saw the plants rustling and moving beside the tractor. I slowed down to 6 mph to the speed of the animal. When I got the end not 1 , but 9 fully grow raccoons ran out and scattered everywhere. Never seen that one before. Also when we baled, I noticed 4 in the windrow that are now **** silage.


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## Circle MC Farms LLC

Well with the disc mower I never find anything other than some wire occasionally, main reason for this is I make a point of shredding every field I have once a year, weeds out all the interesting things with the 5/8" thick blades and stump jumpers I've only ever killed one fawn, all I found was a leg and it made me want to cry. My dad's killed a bicycle with it, and he chewed up a V8 race car engine block once. No damage to the mower except a 3" diameter half moon chunk missing out of one of the blades. I've also ruined my fair share of t-posts lying around, and dad killed a whole family of beavers once that was trekking across one of our pastures.


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## hickey farms

I have a scaper that drives by the hay field all the time must be he lost his engine block it ended up in my brand new at the time 1441. I hit it at 12 mph destroyed the mower boy I was pissed that day.


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## Bgriffin856

swmnhay said:


> The animals instinct is to hide so your "cow catcher" thing would be a waste of time.
> 
> Baby pheasants are the worst they keep running back into the uncut hay.


Used to get the Furrow magazine and there was an article in there where a guy built a boom off the front end loader of his tractor to scare off animals while mowing. I was like 8 when i read it and thought it was neat. Just remember it being like a pipe with chains dangling off of it. Might not work well with a discbine due to higher speeds but would work with a haybine


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## Bgriffin856

Run many woodchucks through the NH 499 haybine and the JD 1327 discbine we used to have. Never run a turkey or fawn through yet...Amish keep the population in check. Not sure if i have run rabbits through always see them and there were alot of them this year. Seems they run back into uncut hay one field i was making the last pass down the middle and about 12 of them ran out scattering everywhere at the end if the field. Put a mean old feral barn cat through the 499 mowing oats last summer. It killed one of my pet barn cats and was beating up on the other ones i was looking to get some revenge anyhow just wasn't expecting it to be that big slip and bang of the rolls. Like they say karma is a b!tch

Nothing much exciting usual tree limbs rocks and such.

Have put a coyote pup through the tedder about ten years ago. I felt bad as it looked like someone's puppy till i looked it over good.


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## AndyL

Got a armadillo in a custom field. But the most shocking in same field, (first time cutting) was a hole big enough to bury the tractor. Straight down. Stopped with a bit of front wheel over the edge. Paused for a moment of prayer.


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## Tim/South

AndyL said:


> Got a armadillo in a custom field. But the most shocking in same field, (first time cutting) was a hole big enough to bury the tractor. Straight down. Stopped with a bit of front wheel over the edge. Paused for a moment of prayer.


Was it a sink hole or a wash out?

The one field I cut on shares is terraced. It had been in pasture, then hay for decades. The cow paths caused the terraces to wash out in places. The first time I cut the place I found one like you described.

I began repenting and asking forgiveness for things I had never done.


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## AndyL

Tim/South said:


> I began repenting and asking forgiveness for things I had never done.


I know where you coming from.

Nope, wasn't a sink hole. I asked the guy who had the lease if knew about it. I was gonna let him have it. He knew nothing about it. Then the owner stopped by, and she said that hole was dug to put the culvert at the entrance. Go figure. Could of flagged it off or told somebody. I asked her if she told the guy leasing the place. She didn't. I just told her it would of been nice to know about it before hand.


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## Grateful11

Late FIL always said make your first cut going clockwise around the field, mower on the right. He said the first 8-10' will have the most crap in it and most of the time the worst quality hay, then go back and make your last cut the outer perimeter swath. He said he usually spotted junk from the tractor seat in that first 8-10' and was able to get it out of the way before mowing over it or through it.


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## JD3430

Grateful11 said:


> Late FIL always said make your first cut going clockwise around the field, mower on the right. He said the first 8-10' will have the most crap in it and most of the time the worst quality hay, then go back and make your last cut the outer perimeter swath. He said he usually spotted junk from the tractor seat in that first 8-10' and was able to get it out of the way before mowing over it or through it.


I've been doing that, too. Lots of fallen branches.


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## cornshucker

With the above average snow and ice gonna be a lot of tree limbs around the edges of fields this year. Sometimes better to go around field one time with rotary cutter before first mowing. Even small stuff can be bad on a square baler needle if it hits it just right.


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## slowzuki

Re holes in the field, here if you sell a piece under 5 acres it has to have a 6 ft deep septic test pit dug before its allowed to change hands. The hole has to be there before you can call the inspector so the backhoe is never there later to fill it in. Never fails you find it when bushhogging for the seller when the front end dives in. Oh yeah we forgot, didn't you see the markers? Oh yeah, those 12" tall weathered stakes in 3 ft tall grass and brush? If I didn't see the 6 ft deep hole I probably didn't see the little stakes! When you're lucky you hit the spoils pile on the pass around before the hole.


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## JMT

Copperheads. Saw one in field when mowing (alive), one in a window while raking, and pulled one out of a bale. All in the same field last July. Only found one other carcass in the 15 years prior.

All were good size too.


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## RockmartGA

JMT said:


> Copperheads. Saw one in field when mowing (alive), one in a window while raking, and pulled one out of a bale. All in the same field last July. Only found one other carcass in the 15 years prior.
> 
> All were good size too.


Yep. I know the feeling. Reached down to pick up a bale, felt something strange, looked down and saw the remains of a timber rattler in the bale.

Threw the bale about 50 feet [not true, more like 8 feet], screamed like a six year old girl [true, I found a whole new vocal range], and high stepped it like that River Dance guy [not exactly, it was more like running in place].

Great fun for the wife - she didn't stop laughing for two days.


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## urednecku

Haven't found anything much unexpected while mowing, but yesterday I *did *find something unusual while raking. First one I've seen in the middle of a field. I had already been raking for a while, and when I came to the up-hill side of the field I saw this feller laying beside the perimeter windrow. He took off when the tractor got close, I followed him into the edge of a small bay-head to get this proof.


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## Tim/South

urednecku said:


> Haven't found anything much unexpected while mowing, but yesterday I *did *find something unusual while raking. First one I've seen in the middle of a field. I had already been raking for a while, and when I came to the up-hill side of the field I saw this feller laying beside the perimeter windrow. He took off when the tractor got close, I followed him into the edge of a small bay-head to get this proof.


You win.


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## Vol

Best one yet....by a landslide!

Regards, Mike


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## Nitram

Picturing him walking across the field inside of a square bale and lmao!!!

Yes I know it's not possibe


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## Josh in WNY

I'll take the gator over the copperhead or rattlesnake. Gators are a lot easier to see!


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## urednecku

Josh in WNY said:


> I'll take the gator over the copperhead or rattlesnake. Gators are a lot easier to see!


Me, too. But I found this fellow 2 days later, not in the field, but only about 40 or 50 feet from it. (He didn't get away.)


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## somedevildawg

Cottonmouth, aggressive beasts, lots of dogs bit by them...


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## swmnhay

I knew there was a reason I liked Mn!!!


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## Josh in WNY

swmnhay said:


> I knew there was a reason I liked Mn!!!


Western New York doesn't have any poisonous snakes, either.


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## Vol

Josh in WNY said:


> Western New York doesn't have any poisonous snakes, either.


Do you want some? Timber rattlers?, copperheads?, coral snakes? or water moccassins?......were running a special on them this spring....take one specie and get 3 more free. And if you take advantage of this offer in the next hour we will throw in 5 gallons of fire ants at no charge! 

Regards, Mike


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## swmnhay

Do the snakes eat Pocket Gophers?


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## somedevildawg

swmnhay said:


> Do the snakes eat Pocket Gophers?


You bet and anything else that is warm blooded and moves, will probably take over their homes as well.....

Ifn you take Mike up on that there "special" u get them 5 gallons of fire aints, they don't care whether its a warm blooded creature or not.....they attack everything


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## slowzuki

I read a few years ago of someone who ran over a good sized gator with a bushhog, seems it was pretty pissed off coming out the back.


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## urednecku

slowzuki said:


> I read a few years ago of someone who ran over a good sized gator with a bushhog, seems it was pretty pissed off coming out the back.


he must have been cutting high. Most of the time here on my place he'd have been "cubed gator" ready for the grill.


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## Nitram

slowzuki said:


> I read a few years ago of someone who ran over a good sized gator with a bushhog, seems it was pretty pissed off coming out the back.


The next round must have been interesting!


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## Tim/South

Vol said:


> And if you take advantage of this offer in the next hour we will throw in 5 gallons of fire ants at no charge!


The only way we are ever going to get rid of fire ants is for someone to smuggle a mess of them up north and raise them in a green house. Eventually some will develop a northern adaptation and escape. Once they invade Washington DC then congress will get busy and find a cure for the little beasts.

Since green up this spring I have been poisoning ant hills at least once a day. I declared war on them last year and keep a gallon of poison in the gator. If I get them now before they multiply then it is easier.


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## Lewis Ranch

Tim/South said:


> Since green up this spring I have been poisoning ant hills at least once a day. I declared war on them last year and keep a gallon of poison in the gator. If I get them now before they multiply then it is easier.


Curious as to what your spraying on them?


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## rajela

Around here spraying or poisoning just relocates them to another location


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## somedevildawg

Lewis Ranch said:


> Curious as to what your spraying on them?


I use mustang, spray one ring around the bed then poke it into the bed and it's lights out for that bed....


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## Tim/South

Lewis Ranch said:


> Curious as to what your spraying on them?


I run over them with the Gator then sprinkle ant poison granules on the hills. I do not recall which product I use. I will have to look at the bag.

It does work but takes about two weeks to kill the queen ant or makes her sterile or something. I started this last spring and could tell a difference. This year there are not nearly as many mounds as in the past.

The State has also released the flies that eat ants. I believe that has helped as well.


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## PackMan2170

Second cut this year I found a chocolate Lab with the swather...... that was not a good afternoon.....

Especially since I have a Lab that looks just like her.....


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## IHCman

I try to avoid it but I've hit plenty of wildlife with the sickle mower. Fawns, nesting ducks, skunks, *****, and porcupines. Used to hay a quarter on shares that had about 70 acres of alfalfa on it. It was right on the edge of the Sandhills. Porcupines were nuts for the alfalfa. My best year I hit or shot 9 of em just in the first cutting. I'd pick em up when I was done cutting so I wouldn't have em in the hay and I'd always dump em in the ditch across the road. I had quite the collection of dead porcupines in that ditch. Have hit quite a few deer antlers and the occasional antlered skull with the sickle mower. Bigger ones will knock some plates off but have had some bigger ones actually stop the sickle and be wedged in there pretty darn tight.

Not much junk in our fields, but do find the occasional broken rake tooth, lost wrench or knife, or other various things. I do try to pick up any broken rake teeth I see when I'm baling or hiking bales off the field.

Our township road ditches stay pretty clean. Mainly bottles and cans. But we used to hay some CRP out by Hwy 2 and would clean out the ditches there. Amazing the stuff you'd find and even more amazing was the stuff you didn't see cutting, raking, or baling but would find when you put the bale through the bale processor. Baled up an almost complete 15inch car tire. That one just kinda made a loud noise as it went through the processer. First time dad shredded hay he found a 4 foot aluminum truck step that got baled up in one of those ditches. Scared the hell outta him when he heard all the noise but it shot it out before he could shut it down. The last time I baled those ditches (last time for a reason) something cut one of the belts on my baler. Didn't know what it was but marked the bale. Ended up being what looked like a homemade skid plate made out of 1/4 plate. Was wore so thin on one end it must have fell off whatever it was on. and that wore side was sharp as a knife. have had 4 ft chunks of rusted off steel t posts in bales. Some of those go through the processer and have had one lay just right across the slug bars so the flails beat the hell out of it till you get it stopped.

When I was about 16 and just learning how to bale with our J baler I baled up about an 8"x8" block of wood in a slough on the end of some farmground where dad had worked on his swather the year before and must have forgot his block there. That block ended up twisting and kinda bent the starter roller on that baler. When I seen that bent roller I was scared to go home and tell Dad because I didn't know what the hell I did to screw it up that bad. Well we rolled out the last bale I had made and found that block, then dad admitted that he might have left it there the year before. lol

The magnets on the feedwagon and grinder mixer also accumulate quite a bit of stuff. For that reason we've started giving all our replacement heifers and any yearling bulls we buy magnets. Started that about 6 years ago so eventually all our cattle will have a magnet in em.


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## ARD Farm

No trash to speak of in my fields, other than an ocassional fawn or game bird, my issues are tree branches and tractor cabs.


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## IH 1586

Have run multiple turkey and fawns and 1 deer thru discbine. Not as interesting as hitting deer with the motorcycle. My personal fields are kept nice always worry when doing custom work. They don't pick rock like I do. I do a lot of work for amish and they don't have the weight to punch the rocks in. Found a scooter in one field. Went thru discbine, no ill effects.


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## Bgriffin856

Amish don't pick rock it seems and their fields a rougher than hell. Started farming the neighbors farm in 09 that was farmed by amish for years. I can't wait to get the last two fields plowed and smoothed out. I hate raking and tedding those fields and its hard on the front ends of the two wheel drive tractors. The other field half was seeded and the other half was in corn. Total of eight acres or so. Picked an ungodly amount of rock out of that field


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## AaronQ

man. i would love to see a gator end up in a small bale, but not nearly as much as seeing you dance and holler like a little girl finding that snake. gosh what your wife would have payed to have that one on video eh haha.

We havent done much damage with trash but found some neat stuff, i found a 8 foot crow bar with the bale wagon, dad found an abandoned well on some rented land that pushed its way up with the frost, must have been buried. been farming it for 4 years now never seen it before.
hired guy who runs the SP discbine doesnt usually get any fawns but he says he's really close a few times a year tho.

worst i seen was a neighbor this fall was combining in a field and picked up a 6 or 7 foot piece of 1/4" wall 1 and a half inch diameter drill stem pipe. it was a mess. 45000 dollars later kind of a mess.

oh and i found a burnt out stolen car in a field one time that must have got dumped right after we applied fert in the spring and then the crop grew up around it. got the old 946 stopped inches before it started knawing on it, i was just a kid and called dad but i couldnt look at the car, was to scared there was gonna be a body or something in there.


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## Bonfire

PackMan2170 said:


> Second cut this year I found a chocolate Lab with the swather...... that was not a good afternoon.....
> 
> Especially since I have a Lab that looks just like her.....


My buddy accidentlly caught his beloved Lab in his discbine. It was awful.


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## Summitvdo

I put my cowboy hat on a fence post one day when i was moving pipes and forgot about it. The wind came up that night and it was gone. I found it in a windrow after the next cutting. The front two inches were cut off and it was all smashed up, but I can still wear it!


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## slowzuki

Luckily it didn't end up in my discbine but a customer brought back 30 ft of speaker wire that got rolled into a round bale. No clue how it got in there, the field isn't near garbage sources.


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## central va farmer

Several years ago a friend of ours helped us cut hay one summer. A rented farm we had was pretty clean except for a couple rocks sticking up. I showed stanley where they were and he started cutting with his nh 1431. About 5 min later he came walking back to where we were greasing eq and said he had hit a stump. I said there are no stumps in that field and he said he knew #$#[email protected]× well that it was. He completely knocked his cutter bar off of discbine. The whole thing was laying on the ground. I've cut that field a whole bunch of times and I swear that stump has not been there. If it had been I would have hit it.
Another time in a 4 acre field I saw I bet 100 snakes. I'm not exaggerating on that #. They were all different colors shapes etc. Looked like the movie "snakes on a plane' I actually got the willys riding tractor. Then after we baled hay was moving hay out field and saw 2 black snakes sticking out the ground like a periscope on a submarine. I rode over to them and they shot back in ground, few minutes later there they were again, straight out the ground 2-3 feet high, looking around.
Another time saw a black snake I am estimating was about the size of a softball and I know was at least as long as 2 920 moco swaths. I told my father about it and he said I was full of $hit, until he was pasture clipping a field across the road and saw the same snake. That same summer my uncle worked for us and swears he saw a big black snake crossing a gravel road about 3 miles from home and said it was as long as road was wide we all figured it had to be the same snake. That had to be the grandaddy of black snakes.


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