Grass board and more.

db4600 · Dec 10, 2020

Not to hi-Jack the previous thread. The Upsala brain trust and I had a brief discussion about an old attachment that bolted to the sickle bar of a mower for the purpose of wind rowing grain and or hay. It was as wide as the sickle with flat straps of varying length, short to long with the short end nearest the grass board and each strap curled upward and toward the trailing wheel of the mower. We had one hanging on the shed at home and Pa said it was a windrower for grain. I’ve seen some hang on sheds over my time, and we have several at Junkshow, but I’ve never seen one in action. I know of one person that has experience with them and that was to walk behind with a pitch fork to aid it’s efforts. I’ve looked on the web, but came up fruitless. What is the correct name and does anyone have a picture of one?

old · Dec 10, 2020

Al my manual for sickle bar mowers call them swather boards and I have them on ALL my sickle bar mowers

SVcummins · Dec 10, 2020

SVcummins · Dec 10, 2020

wore out · Dec 10, 2020

.
Sickle mower windrower in action

SVcummins · Dec 10, 2020

Looks good except the gob it spits off the back every so often so you have to rake anyway

Brian G. NY · Dec 10, 2020

In the first of SV's pictures, the first paragraph says: Proper position of the "grass board" means a neater, easier to rake "swath". So.....although John Deere calls it a grass board, it is there to make a neat swath of hay.

On the other hand, Allis calls it a swathboard but still calls the stick a grass stick.

SVcummins · Dec 10, 2020

Kinda like a plow shear when it’s really a share although it
shears the furrow of dirt from the unplowed ground

Kansas4010 · Dec 11, 2020

This wouldn't happen to be the book you're posting pictures from is it?

Traditional Farmer · Dec 11, 2020

They were called different names by different companies but back in the day at a dealership it was mostly a grass board and a broom handle used to described the two pieces.

db4600 · Dec 11, 2020

BINGO! That’s exactly what I’m looking for. I would bet there are not many with experience on those.

formerly ny bill · Dec 11, 2020

wore out had a good video of one on an Allis. Dad had a McCormick model that bolted to the cutterbar on a Super C. That one had 2 sets of short-to-long straps so that the hay dumped out in the middle of the cutbar. I don't recall it ever being used after I was old enough to pay attention.

gene bender · Dec 11, 2020

Best use was mowing Clover for seed as it was done in late summer when the heads were turning dark mowed and windrwood all in one operation readoforthe combine

DR. EVIL · Dec 11, 2020

I would have to agree, that big bundle that falls off over those steel strips would not feed into the narrow feeder headers on combines of that vintage. I can understand not wanting to pull a hay rake thru ripe oats or wheat that had been mowed with a sickle mower, would knock off what little grain heads still attached to the straw. The typical "grass board" was to give a small swath right next to the uncut crop so the cut crop didn't plug the sickle. Our old Oliver sickle mower was an EXTREMELY frustating machine to try to mow hay with. ANY small handful of hay missed from the last cutting plugged the sickle. Disk mowers were still decades away from production, this was in 1965,'66. Neighbor and Us used our Brillion 6 ft rotary mowers to cut hay, They were a foot narrower, and I had to run a gear slower, 5 mph instead of 6-1/2 mph, but I NEVER had to stop from a plugged sickle bar, so got done in the same time or sooner.
Dad actually priced a 9 ft trailing IH balanced head sickle mower to replace the Oliver mower, REALLY hard to justify that cost of that new mower to mow 20 acres of hay three times a year. The right side panel on the Brillion was removable, Dad cut the right rear diagonal panel on the Brillion off, the rear center panel was kept in place, they actually formed a little windrow and didn't chop up the hay. I'd rake 2-3 swaths into one windrow to bale, worked really good.

db4600 · Dec 11, 2020

Nice manual. The one person I know that has experience with them is also one of the farms Pa did custom swathing for. One year they fertilized with ample amounts of chicken manure. With a good growing season we had 3’ oats to swath which had lodged in most areas so Pa made croplifters for the Hesston swather similar to the pea lifters your manual shows. Ironically this is the same land we grow our junkshow grain on. Two years ago we had to run Gaeterman lifters on the binders on the same land for lodged grain.

Gordy in MN · Dec 11, 2020

Dad had one years ago for cutting flax, worked very well. Had it on a number 5 John Deere mower pulled with a 47 B John Deere. Often wonder what happened to it. Gordy in Mn

SVcummins · Dec 11, 2020

I put a steel grass board on my number 8 last year and it does a lot better job of moving the hay in away from the next pass than the old board did . I sometimes rake four or five rows together to bale

wore out · Dec 11, 2020

(quoted from post at 02:40:49 12/11/20) wore out had a good video of one on an Allis. Dad had a McCormick model that bolted to the cutterbar on a Super C. That one had 2 sets of short-to-long straps so that the hay dumped out in the middle of the cutbar. I don't recall it ever being used after I was old enough to pay attention.

"That one had 2 sets of short-to-long straps so that the hay dumped out in the middle of the cutbar."

Bspauld · Dec 11, 2020

We had one and it worked a lot better then that video showed, but we were mowing clover, We found it didnt dry as fast as it would laying flat, Then the haybine came

DR. EVIL · Dec 11, 2020

Dad experimented with home-made grass boards too, including a steel one. Stopping using the sickle mower was the right solution to that problem. When your rolling up big round bales HUGE windrows to bale are fine, in fact work much better, but windrows like that cause problems with small square balers. When the neighbor had his #55 IH engine driven baler I raked up some pretty big windrows, I could slow down and stop to feed the BIG bunches in. Last 20 acres Dad and I baled using his #37 IH pto baler behind my Super H, two rake swaths, 3 mower swaths, made pefect windrows consistent in size to bale. That #37 didn't have the big throat like that #55 did.

55 50 Ron · Dec 11, 2020

It would be one of the Operator's Manuals. I have one with the designation OM-H10-(1-56) and I know of one with designation OM-H10-453 The one shown here has 351 and I think the last three digits means the date of issue, 351 is March 1951, 453 is April 1953 and (1-56) is January 1956 Does that seem reasonable? They are all for John Deere No. 5 mowers

Wheat47 · Dec 11, 2020

We had one for making a windrow at the inner end of the cutterbar.
Neighbor has one I'm supposed to pick up one of these days.
He didn't know what it was..too young!!

Brian G. NY · Dec 11, 2020

(quoted from post at 12:55:00 12/11/20) The typical "grass board" was to give a small swath right next to the uncut crop so the cut crop didn't plug the sickle.

Like you, I always felt the "swathboard's" function was to move the cut "swath" of hay away from the uncut hay to help prevent the cut bar from clogging at the inner shoe. In some cases when mowing tall hay or mowing across a side hill with the cut bar on the downhill side, that old swathboard just wasn't up to the task.
As a young kid back in the early 50s, I remember following along behind my ol' man and the Allis B with a pitchfork sweeping the cut hay away from the uncut hay so he didn't have to stop and unclog the cut bar. Later tractors with live PTO made clogging a little less of a problem.
The old sickle bar mowers were a bit of a PIA but the best they had at the time and if set up right and if the knives, guards and wear plates were maintained, they worked fairly well.

SVcummins · Dec 13, 2020

I’ve been wondering about crop lifters on a sickle mower for laid down grass

SVcummins · Dec 14, 2020

I hope I don’t have to hook the idiot cuber on again

Grass board and more.

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