high mowing

[wild millers]

I’m wondering about the high mowing settings on the #9 mowing machines. I just recently learned how to adjust the shoes to gain you a few inches and I was wondering if anyone has tried modifying these adjustments by welding longer tabs with more holes drilled in it to make an even higher mowing option? Or if any of you can think of a reason this wouldn’t work, or other considerations involved? This would mainly be used for clipping cover crops in the market garden and I would like to get up to 8-10 inches if possible. It seems as though 4-5 inches is the best I can do with the current adjustments and I think a much quicker re-growth could be had by a higher clip.

[Ed Thayer]

I read an interesting article about mowing crops the other day, it basically said a 3-4 inch clip was ideal because any longer of a stem would leave lower blades that would be old growth and not as productive converting sun to energy. It stated that the crop would recover faster from a shorter clip as the energy produced by the stem would develop the regrowth at a faster rate.

I have no experience really either way,I just thought it made sense and was interesting.

Ed

[j.l.holt]

I have seen high cutting to aid in garden plot plow down.. then seen the high wire used and would never change the mower for a plow down again.

[wild millers]

J.l holt, I’m not familiar with the high wire..would you mind explaining?

Ed, I believe that idea. Just wondering if they were speaking of grass/legume crops or small grain cover crops? With this high mowing idea i’m trying to deal with rye and vetch, oats, sorghum sudan grass, annual rye and such. Trying to keep them young and vegetative to get a couple clippings off of them before plow down.

[j.l.holt]

The need to mow down a cover crop is to get it all under the ground. When it does well it gets to tall and is hard to cover. thus cutting first or using a wire,,,
this wire goes from the front of a plow, at the hitch or even the double tree. And the end is pushed into the dead furrow. As you plow it pulls tight from the friction of the new ground laying on it. It will pull tight and ”cloths line” and crop, pushing it forward and to the ground so it rolls under nearly 100%.

[wild millers]

Oh, neat, thanks for sharing. I guess I have seen this idea described a little differently in Lynn Miller’s book on horesdrawn plows, but he talked about a chain hitched right behind the furrow horses evener and back to the beam to work the same effect. He also talks about how this puts lots of carbon into the soil at one time and the need to let the soil digest for a while before trying to plant a crop into that for the sake of nitrogen robbery by all the carbon. I guess that’s why I’m aiming to keep the cover short and vegetative and leaving all the clippings to start the decomposition process before plow down time.

[j.l.holt]

the problem I had with that hook up was it got caught on the plow shins some. wore the wire down fast You have to hit a happy spot that does not tip the tops to far forward and work like a snow plow. This puts them over on the plowing and a chance they do not cover. Tall corn stocks are the only real problem.

[daniel grover]

I have heard about mowing cover crop like that in transport mode–will your mower mow when lifted?

I specifically heard about it with Rye and Vetch–mow the rye in transport mode once it starts to produce pollen, then disk or crimp the vetch once it is in full bloom a couple of weeks later.

[wild millers]

Thanks for the thoughts daniel, your timing sounds right on with rye and vetch management. I have clipped crops in transport mode before, the problems I found were, an un-even cut of course. The inner shoe clipping low and the outer shoe floating way up there, it does get the job done but I also noticed that doing that seemed to destroy the first hold down clip on the bar. It was wearing hard on the two knives that run under it, gouging them out and basically wearing the end of the hold down to nothing. It just feels like its hard on the machine when mowing in transport. Can anybody add to that and let me know if we should be able to mow in transport mode without being hard on the machine?

[Does’ Leap]

Do you have L Miller’s mower book? The book has a picture of an adjustable wheel that is attached somewhere near the grass board. I loaned out my book so I can’t give you the page number, but it is worth a look. I plan on clipping a rough pasture (lot of stones) this year for the first time and would like to get my cutter bar as far from the debris as possible. Let us know what you come up with.

George

[bendube]

Steven Leslie, in his new book, suggests attaching the gauge wheel from a walking plow to the cutter bar.
I don’t know if he’s actually done this, or if its 2nd hand, or how it would be attached.

I’m interested in this for clipping pasture, because when using rotational grazing, I’m worried about clipping regrowth from grazed plants if I don’t get to it within a few days.
Then, the mower would violate “the law of the 2nd bite” and severely stunt regrowth

[bendube]

I was just out tinkering with the mower getting it ready, and I’m pretty sure that the gauge wheel could be attached where the shoe attaches. Later this summer, we’ll probably try attaching the wheel. If no one else tries before, I’ll let you know how it works.

Also, our mower (a Deere #4) can’t mow in transport, because the pitman arm runs into another piece of the mower. I don’t know if this was an intentional safety feature or an oversight in the design.

[wild millers]

Ben, Heres a photo from The Mower Book by Lynn Miller. Page 66. -thanks george
Looks like it could be very simply rigged up with any sort of steel wheel, I thought that I may try the gauge wheel idea also, I think it could bolt right onto the shoe to keep the forward support that the shoe provides. Like it shows in the picture. I spoke with Macknair and he says hes never even seen one of the these adapters before. In the books, but not in real life.

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[wild millers]

The book goes on to say that with this adaptation you could clip anywhere from 3-13″ It also speaks of a hooked bolt that would hold up the inner shoe even with your outer shoe. The bolt would go through the tongue and the push/drag bar would be held up by the hook on the bottom of the bolt. Doesn’t give a very clear picture of that part though

[Author]

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