[Donn Hewes]

Hi George, I think you are right about trying things. But I am skeptical of putting stub guards on the outer bar. They really serve to run through grass that you already mowed. On the outer bar they won’t in my opinion mow well enough. I once built a center cut mower with all stub guards. For a variety of reasons, it didn’t mow very well, but one was the stub guards. As you said they don’t mow as clean as a regular guard.

How high are your cutter bars set. I like mine high all the time. On the inside I use the third out of four bolt holes for the sole plate. On the outer end you usually have two holes plus the sliding slot. I use the high hole and slide the bolt down as far as I can with it still securely fastened.

If the outer shoe point is grabbing “rats nests” or clumps of dry dead grass, shortening it won’t stop it from plugging. I am surprised there is this much difficulty with this particular problem, on second cutting hay. It is more something I would expect from over grown first cutting that was never mowed until August. How clean was the raking and baling? Leaving a bunch behind would be causing plugging next time around.

Mowing short, wet green, heavy, grass is the hardest thing to mow. Are you sure you weren’t having wheel slip issues? These can be hard to detect and a great cause of irritation. Wheel slip is worse when working in slightly soft ground. a really good mower will work great under many conditions and then suffer from wheel slip, just when the going gets really tough. Just a thought.

[Donn Hewes]

Unless you need hay from those areas, you might never need to hay them. You could just work those areas that are too steep to hay with grazing. just a thought. Not really sure what “too steep” to hay is.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi all, Glad to see someone other than me starting the mower thread for a change. George, do you have good ledger plates in the outer shoe itself? Sometimes these are overlooked as all the rest are repaired or changed. Someone else recently mentioned pointing, or polishing and painting the the outer shoe. Instead of tipping the points down to get under stuff, you could also try leveling them or tipping them up to get the shoe point of the ground. Do you change the height of the bar (adjusting the bolts – inner and outer shoe) from first cutting to second?

I have never had a great plugging problem on that point, but often had trouble because the grass board is holding too much before it lets go of big clumps. This seems to be a common problem in the really heavy cutting. Someone recently mentioned a “rolling” grass board in Lynn Miller’s book. As soon as I get a chance I will look that up.

Second cutting cutting should just be a matter of making sure everything is sharp and running good. Green grass is always harder to cut than the tall stem.

[Donn Hewes]

I am not sure if it was made for just this, but I would build one row of planks (1″ or 1 1/4″) across the bottom, and then add a 3″ wide or 4″ wide piece on each side. This hole looks like it might fit in that top piece? I wish I had a boat front like that. I made one out of a big piece of pipe. But these have a much better radius. D

[Donn Hewes]

Knowing nothing about hunting and riding my animals less than Carl, just proves I like to see my own words in print! I would think the hardest part of the hunt would be training an animal to gun fire if that was part of the plan and loading / working around fresh carcasses. With out knowing for sure I would expect some horses to react to these things. D

[Donn Hewes]

I had a friend saw some tongues (poles!) out of ash. Adjusting the mill wasn’t too difficult. when we started a 5″ thickness on one end we lowered the other end 2 1/2 ” to make a tapered plank. Put the log up level and make another plank. Once we had I think three or four we set them on edge and did the same thing. Unfortunately most of them didn’t stay very straight. maybe better stickering would have helped. Most only bent in one direction so I could turn the curve down and still use them. I have quite a few small iron wood trees, and really like these for my quick round poles. Funny how some implements just need a quick round pole and other require chamfered edges and maybe a little paint. i can’t explain which is which! Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Paulk, I am glad to hear you are making a little progress. Yes, patience and the time you put in will pay off. Bringing any animal home can be tricky, especially a mule, as they might take a while to get to know us. These methods don’t really delay putting the mule to work, just ask us to read the animal well as we work with it. How comfortable is it with what I am asking of it now? can I add to the challenge at this point or just wait a moment until the energy level comes down again. With a new animal we might need to watch more closely because we are learning their body language as well as them learning about us. Keep up the good work. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Paulk, There are a lot of possibilities here. This mule doesn’t trust you at all. In my opinion not trusting you is the same as not being trained. We get too wrapped up in “this guy must know this”. the things we teach them – go, stop, left, right; they could learn in five minutes. The things we are really trying to “teach” when we are starting an animal is, “follow our lead”.

Working with a lung line or rope halter or round pen, would be good ways to safely get this animal to recognize you intentions and directions. To get it to start “listening” to you. With each of these tools some extra skill or experience is needed on your part in order for the animal to get the intended messages.

I personally would drive this mule single (I never expect that they already know how to work alone – and working alone is a big challenge for the animal). But working alone is the best way to develop the trust between the two of you. In order to avoid those runaways you need to know when he is ready to be hooked to something. Anticipate his reactions to any change in the noise things make (gravel) and the change in draft. Use caution in what you choose to hook to. Nothing too light, nothing to heavy, nothing too noisy. Then work your way up.

Perhaps I shouldn’t ask this and please don’t take offense; but is this a mule you want to keep? I only say this because I do believe if you keep it you will be training it. Is that something you have the time, interest for? Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Billy, I am constantly thinking about the horse farmers of 100 years ago. Most had no vet (besides them selves), few spare horses if one was sick or died. No one to call and buy feed from if your crop didn’t come in as you hoped. I also think they incorporated resilience in their systems as an obvious way of protecting themselves.

Keeping livestock that might be smaller or lower producing with worse forage would have been an asset, not a weakness. Making hay in July would have been time and weather efficient. Therefore develop the stock that thrive on that hay. I think about these kinds of things all the time. I know how easy it is for me to run to town if I break something, or use my welder to fix it.

I also realize that often they were born into families and communities that innately understood animals as part of the fabric of their lives. I certainly wasn’t raised in that tradition. Sorry I got so carried away, but it is something I think about while I am out there going around and around! Glad the haybine guards worked. I had acustomer show up today looking for a knife I was supposed to sharpen. Only last week I took all the knife sections off and sold it to someone that wanted to build a new knife. Now one of my mowers will get a new knife come spring! Donn

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Eli, I like driving three abreast and think it is a pretty easy thing to set up for animals that are already working well. As plowing requires some precision, and slow pace, and our attention to be in several places; I would recommend starting your three on something simple where you can pretty much focus on how they are working. Some slight adjustments to the lines once you get started will set it up perfectly.

There is more than one way to set up lines for three, but the one I like uses regular team lines. These are the same lines I use to drive a team of two with out changing anything. The line on the left goes to the left side of the left two, with the longer stub line going to the center horse, just as if they were a team of two (using the hames ring on the outside horse just as you normally would). Other other line does the same thing on the other side. Now each out side horse has one line attached and the center horse has two. I use a short “check strap” that is about 36″ long. It has a snap on one end that goes to the hames ring of the center horse and a buckle or snap (I prefer a buckle) that goes to the outside horses bit.

The 36″ is not universal and will vary with the spacing on your evener and size of horses etc. Once you get them driving, and preferably pulling something, look and see if the three heads seem pointed forward; inline with the rest of the body. That is the goal of any set of lines, and in this case you can adjust that by lengthening or shortening the “check strap”. Most of mine have conway buckles in the middle so it is easy to make them what ever length I want. I use them with different lines to drive three, four, or five abreast. They live on the harness and I use them all the time. Good luck with the three abreast. Donn

[Donn Hewes]

That is a nice looking plow. How hard it is to pull will depend so much on soil types and conditions. I have several friends that plow with Haflingers or other smaller animals, but that is usually not in shod. Some soils will make that very difficult, and not really appropriate, just depends. That plow might well accommodate three horses. My favorite way to plow.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi all, I have struggled with my baler all summer. Unless I come up with a better idea I will buy two new knotters this winter. The last three days we made 800 bales while not tieing 1 in 10 or twenty. Ugh. The last two days I sped things up alot by not stopping when the broke, but just having an extra person (usually me) pulling them out and spreading them back in the next windrow. Today we unloaded the last wagon at 4pm, and it was a brief rain shower as we were throwing the bales off! Boy, is that one of the best feelings in life.

Interestingly, The baler with a wagon is way different than with out. The wagon is a little bit of a sea anchor. When I stop for any length of time I usually shut of the motor, but my horses could stand with the baler running. Today I had an intern doing the driving almost all day. Driving four abreast on a baler and a wagon is pretty advanced driving. We baled some HUGE windrows in some of the edges and corners near wet spots and the like. In one particular spot I told him the horses would need to creep along to not over flow the baler. Slight down hill, and sure enough, the more I said slow the faster they walked. After We got it unplugged and replaced the shear bolt I drove them through the worst of it. Just like in plowing, it is hard to make horses go slow when pulling hard. Sometimes we are trying to get them to speed up while baling, and other times they need to slow down. Often times when I want a momentary slowing for a big wad in the windrow, (or the place were some one has throw a half a bale from the time before!), I just ask for a little left and a little right. They follow the directions from the lines, but when they hear my voice “Polly come gee, George come haw” it gives them a real step sideways with out killing all my forward momentum. Horses and mules and Scott and Daniel, did a great job this week, and it has helped me put my mishap behind me – even though my leg is still sore.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Billy, If you get a chance before you put your new guards on; put each one in a vice. Heal in the vice, front pointing to the ceiling, top facing you. heat each side and and use a cold chisel to bend the top up just alittle. They start out with less than a 1/4″ opening – maybe 3/16″. Increase it to about 3/8″ or just under a half. These will plug less for trapping fraz(chewed up grass) on top of the knife. You need oxy -acetylene to heat these easily. Best to heat it just above the joint – heat it until it is red, but don’t melt it! That way you are heating a little thicker piece of metal, and not heating the working part so much. Some 218’s I bent with out heat, but then I started breaking them. Heat makes it much easier. Do you have any stub guards for your mower? Not so urgent with the second cutting but you will want them for the first cutting and heavy clipping.

[Donn Hewes]

Billy, I have mowed many pastures at 3″ tall. I basically keep my mower set up hi and mow all my hay and clip pastures at the same height. Moving the inner and out shoes is too much work for me. I am pretty sure most JD have an adjustable shoe (or wheel) on both ends of the mower. if you are clipping a pasture that has been grazed at all the heavy grasses that you mow will shrink down and not stop your regrowth. I do most of my clipping in May or June when I will get the most bang for my buck. Early in the year you will get fast regrowth and you can kill a lot of weeds before they seed.

One word of caution for McD owners (and probably other makes as well), The latch pawl (on the handle for raising the bar and holding it up) has two positions. For regular hay mowing you should not be locked in either of these, as the mower bar is meant to rest lightly on the ground. If you lock it in the first notch it may hold your bar up a little depending on how your lifting parts are adjusted. For some mowers this will give a little higher clip and for some it might not. The second notch should hold the cutter bar well of the ground. You can use this to clip a little bit of cover crop or something, but for general field use, being up in the air like this is hard on the mower, and if it is rough ground at all it will risk breaking or bending the latch pawl bolt.

hey George, did you do any damage when you hit the stump? I once caught a stump right at the end of the bar and before I knew it I had cracked the mower body from pitman shaft to rear axle. Really nice mower too. I pretty much won’t mow in a field with stumps, but were there were one or two I have used a “dirt” chain on the chain saw to lower them and round off the edges right to the dirt. Now they are safe for the mower.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Mink, I have never worked with the smooth section, but I believe they would work good with the old style guards with good ledger plates. I have knives with more than one section on them and I am hard pressed to say one is better than the other. Two are most popular with my Amish customers. The one you mentioned, the underserrated is sharpenable, and probably just over 50 % of all the I sell. These are all hardened steel and don’t get sharpened with each use, but if they are really worn or dinged up an angle grinder with a thin cutting wheel can put a new edge on it. Working quickly with the grinder to not heat the section.

The over serrated section is good, but over shadowed by a top serrated section with larger teeth called the “super seven”. These are good and make up most of the the rest of the sections sold. I think any serrated section works good with the haybine guard that is popular today. That haybine guard usually has a 218 or 218 rs on it. Watch otu for a guard marked 270 or such as it has the same problems as a old stlye “700” Not really made for these machines , or called universal. They don’t fit right and leave cutting surfaces too low or tilted.

Personally I don’t think the haybine guard works better than the old style 2041 with good ledger plates. Just need a good work setup to change ledger plates. For heavy mowing it might be every three or four years to change them.

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