Sicklebar mower draft

[Tim Harrigan]

Yes, I would do the same with that set up. I assumed they were using a bar rake/tedder or a fluffer type tedder. I raked with my steers when they were a year old with one and they handled it just fine. A motorized forecart with a rotary tedder would be fine for 2 as well.

[Tim Harrigan]

jac;18475 wrote:

Somewhere on this forum I saw a mention of sugar levels dropping in hay. Is sugar higher or lower at night ? I remember grandfather saying he was in the field by half 4 in the morning and done mowing by 10 before it got really hot…. Was the sugar down at that time in the morning ?.. Would Kevins idea of night working be a way to mow hay and still get a quality result and ease the horses also ??..
John

Here is a pdf I found about sugar in hay. Highest sugar content is in the afternoon and drops at night. Seems like starting to mow late in the day into evening would be more in line with this than starting to mow before dawn into morning.

http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/pubs/idpmstn5581.pdf

[Does’ Leap]

Tim:

Thanks for posting that. For some reason, the pdf didn’t open for me. If others have the same problem, I found a link here: http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/pubs/idpmstn5581.pdf

Interesting information. We give our goats a fresh paddock of grass every 12 hours (after milking). In addition, we have been trying to move them at around 2 or 3 pm in the afternoon, which has resulted in a 10% increase in milk production. I imagine the increase grass sugars play a role in this.

George

[jac]

Thanks guys. Great info. We’ll be cutting from bout 3 in the afternoon then…With a 1920s Albion mower with a 4′ 6″ cutter bar and turn it with a Dickie turner made just up the road about 60 years ago:cool: and cart the lot in loose…
John

[Andy Carson]

Very interesting thread. With the already substantial mechanical losses, it seems paramount that additional mechanical loses be kept to a minimum. I am curious how much draft improper bar adjustment, improper lubrication, dull blades, etc, would add. I suspect these effects could be huge. Beyond that, I am very curious about replacing the larger 32 inch steel wheels with pneumatic wheels of smaller diameter (maybe 24 inch). As Tim mentioned, the use of a pneumatic wheel might reduce the draft by 50 lbs (or 13% on a 400 lb draft) which helps by itself. The smaller diameter though, would allow for the same blade speed to be maintained at 2.25 MPH rather than 3 MPH (24/32*3MPH). This would reduce the HP required from 3.2 HP to 2.1 HP (taking into account both the draft and speed reduction), which seems very helpful. You could do the same thing by adjusting the internal gear ratios, but that seems like it would be hard and expensive. You would cut less hay per hour this way due to the slower speed, but the reduced load might allow you to cut for a longer time… I am curious why mowers were designed to work at such a fast speed on the part of the horse… Maybe I’m missing something…

[near horse]

John,

I wouldn’t worry about the difference btwn. morning cut and afternoon cut hay. I know some of the guys that did the research regarding choice by cattle and, of course, they preferred the afternoon (higher carbo hay) but readily admit that the cattle would consume the morning hay in similar amounts when they weren’t offered a choice. I would say it is probably more important to: 1) try to get it in w/o getting rained on. 2) try to get it cut before it gets old enough (over ripe) to be considered “lumber”. If you can do those 2 things, you should have plenty good hay. Grazing doesn’t present the same concerns about getting rain etc.

[jac]

Andy if you check out Sam Moores book on horse equipment he lists different draft on a 5′ cutter bar ranging from 455-478 for a knife in good condition thru to 531-718 for a cutter bar with dull knives, bent buards and rubbing ledger plates..Would smaller rubber tyred wheels not be inclined to slip more easilly ?There is a conversion for the rubber tyred wheels that allows a larger dia. steel wheel to bolt on to the spiders and increase the knife speed.. Your’re right Geoff..I think some times we try too much and should go with gut feeling and watch the team. As you say, get it in dry.. I think the hay in years gone by had a lot more Tomothy grass which modern silage cuts kills off..
John

[Tim Harrigan]

Countymouse;18490 wrote:

… With the already substantial mechanical losses, it seems paramount that additional mechanical loses be kept to a minimum. Beyond that, I am very curious about replacing the larger 32 inch steel wheels with pneumatic wheels of smaller diameter (maybe 24 inch). As … I am curious why mowers were designed to work at such a fast speed on the part of the horse…

Here is a picture of a mower with pneumatic tires. There could be a couple of things with the wheel diameter and speed. These mowers were designed well over 100 years ago. It would not be necessary to maintain a fast knife speed when clipping grain stubble or grass hay crops that were perhaps not as high yielding as is more common today. This is probably the same cutterbar that was used on some of the old reapers. So maybe the cropping and harvesting practices have changed somewhat.

32 inch wheel diameter with 3 inch knife sections and 50 cutting strokes per wheel revolution allows the mower to advance 100 inches while loading the knives 2 inches for each cutting stroke. By not having the knives fully loaded the knives can accelerate before they begin to cut. This would reduce plugging and maybe helps to clean the bar. And, a faster knife speed would not be free in terms of mechanical resistance (which would increase, along with R&M).

It would be interesting to make some modifications to these mowers and see if there is room for improvement under current conditions, but I can assure you the design parameters that you see in these mowers was neither the result of luck nor by accident.

[Andy Carson]

Hmmm… Interesting points. Although there might be some advantages to not having the knives fully loaded before cutting, I would think this might put undue stress and wear on the tips of the knives instead of distributing the wear across the entire knife surface. One could prevent that by using a different shape/size of knife, but that seems like alot of trouble. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it more, I’m not sure what would be gained by wheel/knife speed mods over simply taking a smaller swath when the going gets tough. Also, this practice requires no modifications. What about taking a “half swath” on uphills and in thick material and “full swath” on downhills or in thin spots? Is this the standard practice already?

[Carl Russell]

My New Idea mower has a 5 foot bar. I thought many times about replacing it with a longer bar…..you know size matters and all that….but my animals mowed with such ease that I thought that the extra pass around the field that I would save was easily made up by the energy saved by using the shorter bar.

I know a lot of guys who think they need to have a 21″ bar on their chainsaw, but the saw is so much more efficient and easy to handle with 18″ that I just figured the same would be true with the sickle bar.

With a 5 footer there is less weight, less side sweep, and less cutting surface the drag through the heavy grass, so my animals were able to work at a comfortable walk and could mow for hours.

I also preferred to mow in the pm. Laying down grass as the sun is waning is a fantastic enterprise. That way the grass was already partly wilted by the time the sun hit it the next day, and I could ted afternoon, then mow more if i wanted. Then ted and rake the next day. This way I often only needed 2 drying days to get it in.

I never made huge amounts of hay anyway, but could feed 1/2 a winter for 2 horses, 2 oxen, and a milk cow.

Carl

[Tim Harrigan]

Half-swaths with a sicklebar mower are not a good idea. You will spend most of the day unplugging the cutterbar. The best thing about the haybines and rotary disc mowers is that they greatly reduced (haybines) or eliminated (rotary disc) plugging of the bar.

[Andy Carson]

Given all this it is probably most practical to either reduce the bar size or increase the number or size of animals if the work is challenging. Probably kinda obvious, but there doesn’t seem to be any “easy tricks” here… Fun to think about modifications though…

[Andy Carson]

A trick I’ve used before combine driving… Sometimes it is helpful to lay out a cut such that most of the cut is a mild easy downhill (say three sides of a square). The fourth side would be a steeper uphill to get back to the start, so you don’t cut at all going uphill. With the horses, it might be easiest to even shut off the mechanism. When you come back to the top of the hill, you go back into the cut for the other three sides. This works pretty well, but leaves you with some stange shapes on the edges of the field that have to be cleaned up later, but if you are clever in how you lay out the field they are often small. Just ideas…

[near horse]

Another adjustment to consider on the HD mower is the angle (tilt) on the cutter bar. It’s easy to “get greedy” and tilt it with the tips so far down you’re giving earthworm haircuts. Not necessary and not good.

[Tim Harrigan]

Countymouse;18522 wrote:

Sometimes it is helpful to lay out a cut such that most of the cut is a mild easy downhill (say three sides of a square). The fourth side would be a steeper uphill to get back to the start, so you don’t cut at all going uphill.

That’s a good idea. I have one field though where is is uphill on all 4 sides.

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