# First time cutting since June



## Frantz (Feb 18, 2018)

Got to cut some mulch hay yesterday that has been waiting since June! All was well until I found a previous owners clay pigeon launcher with my mower. Only bent a few teeth, but it zapped the day by the time I got everything back together. I get so torn between buying redundant equipment for what I already have so I can keep going and getting some of the other equipment I feel would help my operation out.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

Was this your first time across the field? My first full year of baling and tree limbs concern me. Try to keep eye out for them as I spray the grass. Last baling tooth from rake broke, it was not picked up by baler and was found on the ground. To me that would not have been good for the (square) baler. So much I have no idea on.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I just got started 2nd cutting and broke 2 disc mower blades and lost 2 shear pins on Saturday afternoon. Dealer left parts outside the door after hours. Old or new, it breaks. That will never stop happening.


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## Frantz (Feb 18, 2018)

I'm still on my first cutting for two fields. The one I knew to be mulch, the other I was hoping to get some good Timothy out of. Both were offered to me in late June and due to the weather and my work schedule and repairs I haven't had a single period where cutting would work. I have off on Wednesdays and Sundays, which works out well for drying hay... but soooo much rain this summer here in PA.

The repairs are what I'd like to eliminate with redundancy. I bought my 1494 last year and finally started to get to work on it (PTO doesn't work is the big issue). My Farmall 460 has been a great runner for me. I really need another haybine or discbine. I pay my father in law to round bale for me, and would like to get my own round baler so he can be my backup rather than main go to... as I have to work around his schedule too. Ah well, each year I get things more in line.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

I only start a new field in the spring, when I have a chance to walk through and around the entire field while the grass is short to scope it out. Not that I'm starting a lot of new fields, but it's not worth it to me to mow it if I don't know what's in there.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Hayjosh said:


> I only start a new field in the spring, when I have a chance to walk through and around the entire field while the grass is short to scope it out. Not that I'm starting a lot of new fields, but it's not worth it to me to mow it if I don't know what's in there.


 pretty good plan but not 100 percent idiot-proof, (but noting is). I have been cutting a specific field for @5 years...no problems. Last year, first cut; hit a tomato cage built from a cattle panel. Didn't do much good for my sickle conditioner. That was the beginning-of-the-end of me doing his field.

Mark

...made mad enough to poop in my hands and rub it in my hair!!!!


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## Aaroncboo (Sep 21, 2014)

A neighbor here takes his zero turn and mows a path around his fields just to kind of open them up. I guess it also let's him outline them and check for limbs... On a side note I was mowing a field and broke two sickles off hitting a coconut of all things... In illinois... A FREAKING COCONUT!!! I was upset at the down time but impressed at the same time.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

glasswrongsize said:


> ...made mad enough to poop in my hands and rub it in my hair!!!!


Natural hair color, or only your hair dresser know?   

Larry


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## Dr Dean (Nov 4, 2013)

I run a disc mower normally but for new fields, ditch banks and questionable areas I keep an old sickle mower running. The sickle bar is a lot cheaper to fix so it gets the ugly stuff.


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## Frantz (Feb 18, 2018)

Yes, I'll be keeping the old 469 even if I get the upgrade. It'll do well for my custom garbage cutting niche I have!


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

I'm all about redundant equipment as money and upgrades allow.

I started out with a NH56 rake and upgraded/added a 258 rake to the mix. The 55 has never let me down, but the 258 has before and I still had the 55 to fall back on.

Have a 10-wheel (homemade) V-rake; I used it regular, but didn't like it (I screwed the pooch on the mechanics of it and it didn't fold up high enough). It serviced until I came across a Vermeer WR20 8 wheel rake for $700...now the homemade one is the backup.

I started out with a Gehl 880 (paid $500) sickle conditioner and added a Gehl 1062 disc mower. Either was a "backup" as I used either depending on the crop. I upgraded to a New Idea 5209 disc conditioner; then I sold the Gehl 880 for almost1/2 what I paid for the 5209 (which was $2100). That left me with a disc mower and a disc conditioner. Fast forward to this past Saturday, the 5209 shucked a gearbox about a round and a half into the first field; after only ½ hour of down-time, I was back to going with another tractor and the Gehl 1062 disc mower. Admittedly, I lost the conditioning, but I got the mowing done and on its way to drying in a short window that I had.

I run a NH 269 as my square baler and my uncle has a "community" backup baler; it's an old IH47 (IIRC). I keep it going and I can go get it if I need it. I also have a round baler that is also an insurance policy against my square baler. TODAY, I ran across a "barn find" of a NH 276 baler that hadn't been used in years. The dang yaller warning stickers are all still bright and in-tact. I tried to talk the seller down from his price, but I finally gave in and paid the full-asking price of $700. Hopefully, it will move the 269 to the backup position as it's getting a little long-in-the-tooth.

Got 5 rakes, 4 balers, 4 tractors, 2 mowers. Excluding the Kubota, quick math in my head puts me at under 14K in everything.

I run older equipment that I keep in good shape. Buy-in is less than new, but reliability suffers over new I reckon. I hedge my old equipment's downfalls by having multiples. For me, it's cheaper to own/maintain two vintage pieces than to own 1 new one that can ALSO break down.

Last year, I started into a field with the 880 sickle mower. I had mowed the field many times and the owner is also one that mows around the WHOLE 10 acre field with his lawnbinder. I wasn't 10' into the field when I hit one of his tomato cages that was made from a cattle panel. I had to go back and trade mowers/tractors that time too. Having multiples has gotten me out of a bind or two over the years. Also, for what it's worth, I only do @100 acres of hay and have had redundant equipment since the time I was only doing @50 acres.

One more benefit of having multiples; I am usually a "one-man" operation with dad helping rake or move wagons or whatever. Earlier in the year, I had help from uncles when I was in a weather-induced bind. Had 3 tractors and truck going all at once...I felt like a BTO there for a minute or two.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I need to get more equipment redundancy, too!!!
About 1/4 of the hay I cut is flood plain. The good part about flood plain is it never seems to suffer from drought and nobody wants it. The downside is every 3-4 years we have a flood and either the hay on the ground washes away or my bales get flooded AND when it floods, large chunks of wood find their way into the field in the tall grass, can't be seen. Friday, I was cutting and I hoovered-up a huge chunk into my tine conditioners 
Before I could turn the PTO off, I smoked $120 worth of belts. 
I will say one thing, this Pottinger mower comes with a multi purpose wrench that fixes almost everything on the mower and I had the new belts on in 5 minutes.
Why does everything break when dealers are closed???? 

Would really like to have another used round baler, maybe an old center pivot discbine..


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