Demise of the sickle mower

After last night, I can see why.

After upgrading from the Ford 501 to a JD 350, I thought - What could be better - a few adjustments and the 350 was cutting a lot better - not super great - but OK in most crops -

Then the crop - second cutting - alfalfa/orchardgrass mix - should have been cut about July 5 - was knee high then - then it rained for basically 10 days - now the alfalfa is in full bloom - and a small haying window appeared - I knew it wouldn't be easy going

Boy that was an understatement - I waited until the driest part of the day - started at 4pm - once I knew we weren't getting any more rain yesterday..... crop was laying every direction - everything anywhere near the ground was still damp - first round had to stop a couple of times....

then it only got worse - you couldn't even see where u had mowed and where you hadn't - I found that if you went at a crawling snail's pace it would sneak under the tangled mess - clip it off and not drag it along - but finding out what was cut and what wasn't was virtually impossible - I also swear the crop actually got taller AFTER it was mowed - but I struggled through - and the chunk is done -

the piece i have left isn't quite blooming yet - so will wait until this eve for it - hoping for a little more drying

Can you imagine what it would be like to cut that with a team of horses and a mower? I have more respect for the farmers of old every day.

exactly - there was a time or two I thought I could have cut it with a machete faster -

We had a similar experience with Coastal/Cheyenne Bermuda last year because of unseasonable rain.

We did the best we could with what we had under the circumstances.

Ended up with the highest production ever off the hay meadow, but it was a challenge at times.

Totally agree with [b:654c4848f0]Animal[/b:654c4848f0] about respecting folks that make their living baling hay.

If I tried to make a living baling hay, I would starve to death.

Those old time farmers thought the horse drawn mower was the berries. It replaced the sythe! Same with the reaper. They must have thought they had died and gone to heaven when they didn't have to cut wheat with a sythe and cradle anymore.

THINGS CHANGE; I like the idea of the old machinery being kept alive.......and it works as a hobby. Very few folks are using machines of 'that' era to actually make a living. Consider the computer you used to make your post; I dare say it's less than 10 (probably less than 5) years old. Just in my lifetime.....on this farm, we've gone from mule powered sickle mower/dump rake/hay press thru tractor mounted/pitman drive/belt drive sickle mower/pto hay baler; sickle mower/conditioner/early model Vermeer BRB; 3 different brands of disc mowers/later model BRB; disc mower/flail conditioner, etc. We hauled our first cattle to market in the back of a '48 International pickup truck......50 miles to Dixie National Stockyards in the heart of Memphis; Dixie National's been gone for 40 years, the other stockyard, South Memphis Stockyard has been closed for at least 20; later used 'bob' trucks with cattle racks that fit over the top of the grain sideboards; later had 16 ft bumper pull trailer/18 and 20 ft goosenecks; my last cattle trailer was a 32 ft gooseneck. That's where I was when I hung it up 4 years ago, but the technology is still evolving. THINGS CHANGE.

Thurlowe, I agree with you completely. A lot of the old stuff still lingers in the tall grass on this farm, but would I use it to make a living? I'll retire from farming first! So many days of my youth were spent going round and round a big field with a seven foot Deere#5 sickle mower on a '35 A. After five or six hours in the hot sun boredom sets in, we forget to watch the mower and we go a half round with a plugged cutter bar. Then we turn around and try to cut the pushed-over hay before dad spots it!

On the positive side, we who are my age or older have a better appreciation for the newer machinery.Jim

You know it's funny to hear people talk about how folks just knew how to get things done in the old days, they didn't need X, Y & Z, they just used the land and were happy not needing anything else.

The truth is what they were using was Hi-Tech at the time and they probably were all happy that they upgraded from something that they considered "old fashion". That same farmer that used horses back in the day would be using a tractor and all the new goodies today.

The same thing goes for organic farmers today. While I respect what they're doing, and can understand where they're coming from when one tells me that farmers didn't need fertilizers or what have you back in the day when in fact it really is they didn't have accesses to them. You can't tell me that a farmer in 1801 wouldn't have loved a bag of 10-10-10. :wink:

Anyway, sorry to go off topic, I use a sickle bar mower as well!

K

I just stopped using my 501 sickle bar and bought a Stoll 3 point mounted disc mower. I have a wet area that gets badly lodged almost every year and the disc mower cut right through it no matter what direction the grass was laying. The mower was pricey, but its worth every penny - and its new!

when i first started mowing hay, i was using an old MF31 sickle mower. i found out quickly that any dew, moisture, dampness on the grass and the mower will clog unbearably and constantly and especially in high thick grass like bahia. i started waiting until the hottest dryest part of the day and mowed up a bit higher and moved a bit faster and it did alright. i still got clogs, but not as bad. sometimes ya just gotta play with it some until ya get it figgered out how to work best. i know many folks still mowing with them.

What do you mean old time farmers . When I was about 12 I started cutting my Grandfarthers hay with a Mcormech Dearing 4' horse drawn mower raked with IH 9' dump rake & hauled to barn lose on a horse drawn Sled. put up in barn with a pitch fork. When the day was done nobody had to rock you to sleep.

I was too young to help.......my folks had a rack (for want of a better word) that sat on the mule wagon.....essentially a platform which made the wagon about 3 times as large......which was used to haul loose hay to the barn. It was also stacked around poles........right in the hay field; can't recall, they must'a been about 10 or 12 ft tall. Temporary fence was put around each one. I would try to help, but always tried to pick up the hay I was standing on. "Boy, you better watch that pitchfork."

I"ve been cutting hay with an old MF 41 sickle mower for about 10 years, it"s ALL I"ve got! Recently I was mowing some alfalfa with a "light" rain and was buzzing right through it. Make sure you have a "swathboard" on the end of the mower, make one if you have to, it makes seeing where you need to be a lot easier, even if it"s getting dark. I use an old telephone support bar to roll the hay back so I can see where to mow next. Yes, I would MUCH rather have a drum mower... but I can"t afford it! You make do with what you have or quit!

I cut everyyhing for years with an old IH F28 sicle bar that I bought for $5 at auction. Gave it new double guarda and new knife though. Use old 478 and 479 NH haybines now in any kind hay nomatter how heavy or tangled. Have 2 disc mowers too-like them better in short grass, esp. when have lot of dead trash underneath. You can pick NH haybines up pretty reasonable at auctions (here anyway) happy mowing OS Versailles, KY

Well I went backwards last week. Been using a sickle bar haybine for years, just upgraded to a discbine last year. Picked up a new piece of hay ground this year, never had my equipment in that field before, you think I'm going to put my one year old discbine in a strange field????? NOSIREE!!!!! Out came the 504 and 1300 sickle bar mower.

And the board makes a path for the tractor wheels.

The two 'Lost Arts' in farming these days is mowing with a sickle bar mower and how to properly cultivate.

The are a lot of old blades in my shed loft.They are very narrow,worn by constant sharpening.They mowed in gangs one coming along be hind the other.My mother in law said her grand dad mowed for 75 cents per day.I still cant understand how they cleared the large fields here with just men and oxen.Large stones lay at the edges of fields.These stones would give a bulldozer a hard time.I can mow with a scythe around the garden but could never last all day.I have put up plenty of loose hay and built hay stacks.My old international mower has been worn out for 43 years but it keeps going.The sickle bar mower came into use around 1850.Ive watched horses mow hay.They do go faster than my JD H can mow.I raked hay with a horse over 45 years ago.

Sounds like some of you guys are so old that when you were a kid all you have to play with was dirt.