sickle bar length?

James Howell! I was looking at the pictures of your JD sickle bar mower, and the bar looked longer than I remember them being, especially when in the transport position.How long is that bar? We had an article in the farm newspaper, 2 weeks ago, where an agronimist(sp) was recomending for us western washington farmers to go back to using a sickle bar mower, and cut no lower than 4", so there would be some tall stubble to hold the hay up for better drying. I was telling my hay supplier about this, and scott, said that sickle bars were too short, and he didn't have the time to mess with one. OH WELL.

I used a 5 foot sickle bar for 40 years.I found that a 7 foot bar put too much side draft on my JD H.Mower shoes were set high.Mowing is the best part of haying.

I used a 7ft. IHC #27V mower attached to my JD H for 20 years. It was a good combination in alfalfa and would run all day on 2qts. of gas an hour. There used to be an after-market attachment to hold the cutter bar off the ground for clipping weeds in pastures. It was made with a couple of lawn mower wheels and clamped to the back side of the cutter bar, but I haven't seen one in many years. Setting the cutter bar up a bit would work fine if your hay was standing good, but if it has been blown over, not so much. And I would think you'd need something in the center of the bar to compensate for sagging.

The cutter bar on that sickle mower is 7 feet long.

We have two other No. 5 sickle mowers with 7ft cutter bars and one No. 5 sickle mower with a 6ft cutter bar.

When we first started making hay in 2007, we used a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnH8n4KOYoU&feature=share&list=FL4gFuJx6qHbiK0FRREh2lDw">No. 5 sickle mower</a>.

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A <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLND2DifdD0&feature=share&list=FL4gFuJx6qHbiK0FRREh2lDw">JD No. 39N sickle mower</a> has also been <a href="http://youtu.be/kJNe6cd183k">used to cut hay</a>.

We "upgraded" to a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS9J7EouBhI&feature=share&list=FL4gFuJx6qHbiK0FRREh2lDw">JD 350 sickle mower</a> with a 9ft cutter bar in 2009.

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We have two other <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CJbfqofbUE&feature=share&list=FL4gFuJx6qHbiK0FRREh2lDw">JD 350 sickle mowers with a 7ft cutter bar</a>.

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All of the mowers are set with the inner shoe and outer shoe at maximum height.

This usually <a href="http://youtu.be/l7iUmB_EZQ0">leaves the grass about 4-6 inches tall</a>.

We do not "scalp" the field which allows the grass to recover quicker; this quick recovery was confirmed by our local county agricultural agent.

The sickle mowers suit our needs for our hay production and property maintenance.

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Hope this helps.

When we used to cut with the JD B initially we used a 9ft JD sickle but had it cut down to 7ft.

How are you going to cut hay 4" tall using a sickle bar mower? You can do it with a disk mower but I don't see how you'd ever do with a sickle mower.


Most mowers I've seen had bars 5', 6',7' and 9'. After running a 7' a 9' seems huge.

Sounds good in theory, but he's obviously never cut hay in western Washington. We had some good weather early this year, so it might have worked- but most years, we have early rain and can't cut until late June or even July- and that rain has knocked the grass flat. Sickle bar mowers are a nightmare in that situation- that's why most everyone went to disc or drum mowers years ago around here.

The cutting height can be adjusted using the inner and outer shoes. We have ours set at the highest setting which leaves 4 to 6 inches of stubble.

My IH 1000 has those but at the highest setting it may raise it about 3" max. Then the bar sags in the middle losing about an 1".

I have mine set at the second highest setting now and most of the stubble is mostly 1" - 1.5" tall.

All of our JD 350 sickle mowers have a large float spring that supports the inner shoe and allows it to "float" across the ground.

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The Operator's Manual explains how to adjust the inner shoe float using a defined number of chain links.

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Once the float spring is installed correctly, the right hand lift link can be adjusted for height if necessary.

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There is just enough space between the inner shoe and the ground for my fingers.

The inner shoe "floating" close to the ground helps eliminate the "sag" in the middle of the bar.

Hope this helps.

Get the manual. Then adjust that 1000 so that you can pick up the end and it feels like it weighs 60 pounds, That will cure the sag. Also reset lead (the end of the bar is ahead of the inner part, and angle of teeth.
Then using the guard bending tool adjust all the guards so you have .030 clearance between guard plates and sections. Getting a sickle mower isn't rocket science but it's damn close. When you get it right it will cut forever without plugging and without throwing a section. That is unless you hit the only tree in the hayfield. Right James? LOL

Now that's a good one; <a href="http://youtu.be/WjbQ54j8HuY">y'all will never let me live that one down</a>.

Solved that problem by putting a "sight" on the mower and removing the "bullseye" from the only tree in the hayfield.