Mowing Hay

[near horse]

I got out and started cutting hay yesterday after tuning up the mower (all new guards etc). Weather was upper 60s and windy – nice. As I was harnessing I stepped and twisted funny and popped something in my right calf muscle. Not to be deterred I hobbled back and forth to finish. Ground driving was really interesting.

Originally I was only going to make one pass around the field to test things out but since things were working out pretty well, I continued to make more trips around. Dumb. On the second pass I found that pasture harrow I’d been looking for 🙁 wham. Ended up breaking 3 of the guard bolts but at least not a guard! At this point I would often say enough for today but no. Unhitched and repaired the mower and off we went again. A couple of hours of good work!

My struggle was to not plug on the corners. My field has only one 90 degree corner the rest are tighter than that. But with my hay crop (heavy) it’s difficult to drop the cutter in at the right moment w/o snagging a bit of the previously cut material – plug. ANY POINTERS?

Also – my hat’s off to Carl regarding his “behind the lines” video ability! I’m definitely not ready for that one!

[Tim Harrigan]

Geoff, I do not have a good suggestion for that. I would probably just do the best I could without plugging and then come back after the hay was off and clean those corners up with the mower.

[Carl Russell]

@near horse 27911 wrote:

… it’s difficult to drop the cutter in at the right moment w/o snagging a bit of the previously cut material – plug. ANY POINTERS?…

I’ll ride the foot pedal and taper the cut back down, keeping the cutterbar just high enough so as not to catch the cut grass. You may find that if you raise the tips of the guards for that entry cut it won’t be as likely to snag.

Carl

[Ed Thayer]

I hope your ankle feels better. Glad to hear you were able to get the horses out to mow.

[Does’ Leap]

Geoff:

When I turn the corner, I leave my cutterbar down instead of lifting it. This helps sweep the hay away. Then I feather like Carl mentioned.

George

[near horse]

Thanks everyone –

I tried the sweeping method George and found it does work pretty nicely. I’ll try and get some a picture or two off the camera.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi George and Goeff, I like to lift the bar a little as it rolls back, for a sharp 90 degree corner. Leaving ti on the ground is a little hard on the equipment and it is harder to back. Sometime the foot lever is not adjusted to do all that it should, (lifting both ends of the bar several inches). with out this it is hard to operate. If your lift is working right, just try to make the horses work slowly through these tight corners. because I clip so much I have about four different styles of corner that use for different situations. I save the perfect, full stop 90 for opening hay fields. Then I truly stop, before turning and going again. That makes it easier to make those clean corners. Once a field is opened up and maybe 500′ to 1000′ feet long and 100′ to 150′ feet wide I stop mowing the ends and just roll in a half circle with out ever stopping. I just lift as I leave the hay and drop it as I enter. It seems like you are wasting time, but from the horses perspective it is faster and easier. When I am clipping I often practice a rolling corner that is nearly perfect with out really stopping. The trick is to slow just enough with out plugging the mower that you can make the tight controlled corner. I am lucky to be working in nice big open fields. The hardest part is deciding were to cut it at.

[near horse]

Thanks Donn,

One thing that is the real challenge for me is my one field is almost a right triangle – some of those corners are tough. But now I have a new question regarding raking with a side rake – when you turn, since the front wheels are fixed and the rears pivot, there seems to be a lot of side draft on the front wheels. One of my neighbors suggested instead of doing the right turns as normal, you actually turn to the left and loop around to make the corner. Any thoughts?

[Rivendell Farm]

It’s been a while since I’ve used the type of rake you ride on with horses hitched directly to the rake, but it does seem there was a lot of stress on the big wheels, though not enough to damage them. It made nice corners. If you turn left, won’t you mess up the windrow you raked on the last round? Bob

[Donn Hewes]

I have an old New Idea rake like the one you describe. I used it for years before retiring it because I was tired of trying to fix it. I never felt they put pressure on the wheels per se. When used on a side hill they would put pressure on the tongue. I used a wide evener and neck yoke to keep the tongue from pushing on the left hand horse. They tend to steer out of the corners, by that I mean turn right and your rake swings a little to the left. You never want to hit a fence with one, not that you really want to hit the fence with anything. I never made extra loops. Like bob said that would just mess up the windrows you already have. There is no easy way to mow those triangles. Just get good at easing the bar up as you come out of the hay, and easing it down as you go in.

[Carl Russell]

@near horse 27988 wrote:

Thanks Donn,

One thing that is the real challenge for me is my one field is almost a right triangle – some of those corners are tough. But now I have a new question regarding raking with a side rake – when you turn, since the front wheels are fixed and the rears pivot, there seems to be a lot of side draft on the front wheels. One of my neighbors suggested instead of doing the right turns as normal, you actually turn to the left and loop around to make the corner. Any thoughts?

Geoff, this is the turn I was going to suggest to you. I found it much smoother than stopping forward motion and stepping to the right. When done right, I would just mow through the triangle corner, step on the pedal, swing to the left, and drop the bar back into the grass.

I also used the same turn with the rake. I found it very easy to realign the windrows. You usually just end up with dead-end windrows… really not a big deal, and smoother all around.

Carl

[Mark Cowdrey]

When I am cutting the corner of a triangle, after I make my turn (sometimes swing right, sometimes loop left) and start the next swath, I do not drop my cutter bar in until I am cutting all uncut grass. The “trimmed” grass that results at the beginning of the swath gets cut the next pass around as you are finishing your swath rather than starting it. If the cut grass the cutter bar encounters wants to plug it, you are stopping anyway (right hand swing) or shaking it off as you go around (left hand loop).

I do not worry too much about perfect corners or even leaving a “widow” now and then. I don’t see that it serves a purpose other than pride. I’m satisfied and thankful if I get reasonably well made hay into the barn.

When raking those corners, especially if I have help, I swing short leaving hay to be raked by hand. This leaves me a more reasonable turn for the baler. When I get tight near the center I wing it.

Mark

[near horse]

Herein lies the “art” part of making hay – and farming in general.

[Author]

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