Cutting Hay with a sickle bar mower never goes well.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2021
- Today we are going to cut our hay field using the New Holland 451 sickle bar mower. We have rebuilt most of the cutter bar last year. Hopefully it will cut the hay field without too many issues, but with the sickle bar there is always problems.
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We live in southeastern Illinois on a 41 acres homestead. We just finished building our log cabin overlooking our pond. We are trying to grow our own food and raise livestock. Follow us on our journey living the rural life and developing our property and becoming more self sufficient.
When you go buy your spare bearings, don't forget to buy a new Spring. Thanks for making these videos.
I bit the bullet and bought a haybine best decision I’ve ever made.
I grew up watching my old timer neighbor cut several acres with an old Massey 35 and sickle mower. They got the square bales up the old way too.....by hand. We are all beyond blessed with modern equipment.
I know its a pricey investment, but get a 8ft. disc mower and it will make your life a lot easier. Save the sickle bar for mowing around your pond and ditch lines.
@G Money Jeez buddy, pull the log out of your ass.
I've mentioned that like forever ago. Last hay season. You can pick up a good used disc mower at auction for no too much. I mean shit it would be worth the money to not have the aggravation
@@Travis-kw3mo as much as I like Evan ...but geez he makes either life difficult for himself.... or he pays over the top prices for old stuff where the repairs cost more than the actual machinery or equipment.
@G Money 1. You forget he didn't have enough HP to run a disc mower until very recently.
2. Try not to be an asshole. If you don't like him, don't watch.
@@Warthog1976 yes I hate it for the dude but I run equipment everyday at a local government. Either your gonna pay a payment and be productive or your gonna pay repairs down time and shop costs one or the other
1) Increase ground speed. The hay will "fall-back" more neater and consistent. 2) Improve your swath board. A good set-up will fold-over the hay much better leaving a wider, clear path.
Travel faster over the bound
Dead right drive as fast as you can the falling grass will land behind the knife the new Holland sickle isn't half as good as the equivalent inter mower
Experiment, practice until you find the correct forward speed for the correct PTO speed. May require different speed setting for thicker parts of th3e crop. Get a correct PTO shaft guard, length etc.,they will be available. Advise him someone please if you know where he can get one. Have seen accidents where the guard was omitted. Loose clothes will catch and drag you in, your arms, legs are not as strong as the power of the shaft.
If you drive to fast, you’re going to clog up the mower.
Making hay while the sun shines!
I admire the amount of patience you have with that sickle bar mower. Keep up the good work!
Amen, to that!
I agree, and to take the time to video it as well. Re positioning the camera for different shots must be a pain when you just want to get the job done.
I cut hay all my life and I'm 67 and if you cut long enough you will run into all kind of things . Them old mowers are the worst in tall grass the newer dics mowers are the best .
A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t. Lol. Great to see you back in the hay field Evan. I enjoy your hay field videos.
So many memories come up watching you cut hay. My family did hay my entire time I lived at home. Learned to drive by driving the hay truck
I did comment, a while ago, how it reminds me of my parents and grandparents baling hay!! Nice memories!!
Hi..... Country View Acres. Evan nice to see you love watching your videos, thank you for sharing your video homestead chicken farmer garden 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 👕🐔🐓🐥🐕🐩🐈🐖🐐🐄🐠🎥👍👍👍
A sickle bar is an engineering marvel. If everything isn't tuned right, it won't run right. When it's time to upgrade, you will still love it for around your pond, and ditches.
Cut thousands of acres with same mower in late 80's and early 90's. Put the stand assemblies back on. When mowing raise them within the frame to the highest carry point. They will then keep the mower from going too low when mowing.Heavy vibration on the frame(scabbed on metal bracing,blowing bearings,blowing drive shaft yokes) is because cutterbar blade to guard clearance is too great and blades more ripping that easily cutting.When making your turns use the right brake HARD and spin with right rear as the axis/pivot point.Or lift mower and make a wide left turn to get back into new hay to cut. Avoid all gear changes: hard on any tractor clutch. Will do a perfect 90 degree turn all day long.Mow at fastest ground speed the mower can handle: too slow causes layover problems etc.You want your bar to be slightly angled up. Level is OK but a slight 5 degree or so up angle worked well for me during my hay making days.Some people hate these mowers but if set correctly they are really pretty good to use.
Spot on there I've cut thousands of acres with a sickle bar mower and never had a lot of problems get them set up is the biggest portion
Need to operate at least 2500 rpm s increase ground speed to make it fall over keep sickle sharp ! For a PTO guard I use a peace of pipe about 6 " shorter that the PTO. When hooked up just separate PTO slide pipe over PTO reassemble . be safe. Good luck
I guess it’s like my quilting, when you have done it for a while, you learn how it’s done. You are smart to know how to do all this!!
Evan knows a lot about a LOT!
Get a Short piece of field tile and put over your PTO shaft that would be a cheap cover
I attach an old mudflap with wire and bungees from the drawbar mount out along the lift arms, keeps grass from wrapping up.
Get the right PTO guard on that PTO shaft, Google ‘PTO accidents’ and you’ll see why.
‘it’s old’ is not an excuse for not having one, it had one at one time half of it is still there.
Very impressive. I always thought it would be fun to have a farm. Definitely, more fun to watch.
The work of farming does not seem like something that would be harmful to me, were I a younger man: it is more the joys of being farm mechanic that would send me towards the nearest cliff!
It's just peaceful to watch you....I grew up on a farm in the blistering GA sun...picking cotton.pulling corn, pulling weeds, loading watermelons..I want a farm with barns for a lot of rescue pets, but if there are crop fields, I will lease it out. .lol
You're a better man than I cause if I had to cut hay with a sickle bar mower or haybine again ... I wouldn't farm.
glad to see you get some up grades around your place nice new building great new tractor it all comes in time lot of work hope to see more to make it more comfortable a little easyier on the body thanks for sharing your video and have a great day god bless
"crappy looking welds about like mine" LOL my welding skills are about the same but they sure do hold and thats what matters
I had a guy on my Instagram crying over welds too, bottom line is both pieces of metal are held together, I don't really care what they look like as long as it functional & if the weld does break then I weld it together again, other than that as I told this person who was crying on my Instagram page, I really don't care what they look like as long as it finctuonal...
@@MrBigblueford im a race car welder. folks pay big money for pretty welds. when i build stuff for myself...you should see the atrocity. youd think id never welded before in my life, and i honestly couldnt care less. lol. If you didnt pay, you got no say! :D
"Welds are crappy-looking....kinda like mine...."---LOL
U have the wrong end board on that mower. Try a wooden one with a broom handle. That always worked for us on our farm
Try mowing in straight lines instead of making circles around the field. I always go down the middle of the field and work my way toward the edges going straight down and straight back. With a sickle bar it's almost impossible to cut while making a turn without getting clogged up.
That's pretty much the way way we used to mow/bale. Make one pass around the edge of the field, turn around and make another pass around, going the opposite way...then straight passes from one end to the other. When it came time to rake, your two passes around the edge became a double windrow, with the straight stretches usually being singles. Bale your double windrow first, then you've got plenty of room to turn around and get lined up for the straight sections, without running over any other rows, or having to go back and clean up spots you've missed.
If you do it that way your always cutting where the tires flatten the hay, round and round is better with an offset sickle bar
@@Rightwinger1982 two passes driving on the uncut hay then go the opposite direction and you’ll never be on uncut hay
When clogged mower don’t lift up, backup to remove hay by about 4 ft and then lift up and run the mower
You need a tarp or an old mudflap on your liftarms or drawbar under the pto shaft so that way you wont bind up gras an distroy it again
At least the Tractor wasn’t a factor. Sitting in the A/C I bet was nice. I hate changing U-joints! What a pain. Glad you had the bearing on hand. You got er done!
Your farming now , when you get the hay off you may want to fertilize 50 lb acre N and 1 lb boron also leaf hopper will be in field soon if you thought weevil was bad you haven’t seen anything yet. I got rid of my hay wagons 4 , too much time loading and unloading up keep etc
I use a dump trailer 6 x10 low to ground stack 50 from ground ,picking up bales from ground ,never climb up take to barn and dump .
Brings back memories of long ago. We didn't have a air conditioned cab though on the farmall H.
Yeh , bad memories with the old sickle bar .
Surprised you got anything at all done with the h Farmall under powered and extremely weak pto had one one time pto went out trying to run a uh square baler had it fixed at the shop and tried it again and it didn't make two rounds of the twenty acre field and went out again after that I never used anything else but the g JOHN Deere for the baler used a A on the sickle bar mower and the B on the rake and the H just pulled bale wagons to and from the field
Man, this sure is a great demo of "oh, so this is why everyone went to disk mowers." xD
That thing is a LOT of work to keep working!
Howdy Evan, great explanation and details on mowing with a cycle bar. The drone footage was excellent showing the swathboard rolling back the hay. Have A Day! ;~)
I once had a 456 NH trail type mower and pulled a hay conditioner behind it.
I thought the 456/451 was the " Cadillac of mowers" but when I bought the 489 haybine it was the difference of day and night.
The reel teeth kept the sickle bar clear and made a HUGE difference.
I’ve seen people use a piece of mill belting or a mud flap from a semi under the bottom of the PTO, bolted to the underside of the tractor to keep the grass from coming up and wrapping around the shaft. That way you won’t need a PTO guard for each implement or take it off ever. It’s usually about 4-6” that drag on the ground.
You should watch that more carefully on the grass build up on PTO. It did build up on the first pass in the tall grass, you can see it in the video. That little bit of grass on that PTO shaft can cost thousands of dollars in a short amount of time! It throws the balance out and will knock the pilot shaft seals out real quick so you lucked up with just the u-joint.
Hay, it's looking good
Any work on a PTO and I would have the engine switched off. Chap I was at school with had his hand mangled by an Ag machine. Not good!!!
So, don't forget to buy new parts!
Or even a new mower...? 😉
Thanks a lot for the video! 😊👍🏻
van time for a mower update i know you don't want to spend the money now but your time is worth something.
Skip the haybine and head straight for the drum mower cost-effective and bulletproof system. Great video non the less.
Evan,use some used motor oil on the blades,will last longer than WD-40,helps prevent rust.
A lot of critical comments; not everyone can afford better equiptment and you use what you got. There are always better and more efficient ways of doing jobs. As long as you get the job done, that's what counts. I enjoy watching the old sickle bar mower, thanks for recording it.
I grew up on a farm. I must admit that I like looking at you farm more than me farming. I couldn't wait to get away. But looking back I really miss it sometimes.I always recover when I remember the work and all the things that could and did go wrong. I now watch you with my feet up and with a cold brew .
We put a piece of corrugated pipe on our sickle to prevent the wrapping. Worked great!
I have used a piece of PVC or abs pipe to shield the PTO shaft...
@@teamfun4u the corrugated had a little more give and is what he had on hand. not a bad choice doing pvc.
@@ReevesCattleCo yep it was on hand... I do that a lot.. stay safe
I like your outfit works well . I do a small amount of hay work on our old farms in Northern Ontario Canada with a 1972-73 2120 John Deere tractor and a 7 foot Swedish made mower that I used when I was 14 years old now I am 70 . So I know about old broken stuff . I find nothing is harder on equipment than haying , the only other thing is logging or clearing fence lines . Really enjoyed the video . Be safe
You did great, Evan.
Wow you’ve got some patience. Hats off to you
That is a really nice tractor.
I have cut hundreds of acres with a. IH mower like that. And we had it working pretty good
Get you an old mud flap mount it on the draw bar or in that area. I use IH 1300 I run fast it . You need to lower the heel out on the end of the bar. You want the back swath to dragging on the ground it hold the hay so it can flap it
Great job , truly enjoyed it.
Hays looking good this year! I was starting to wonder when you would be doing a first cut!
That was a lot of work....another project finished except for bailing. I love the music you played just before the end. It always tells me you’re getting after it.👍🏻
Evan I wish I could help you set your 451 up but that's not possible. There is an art to setting and using a sycle mower you have one of the best ever made . Use a old valve spring on the grass board compress it in a vice tie it with wire to hold it compressed that way you can use a shorter bolt and washer to hold it in place .cut a peace of heavy rubber belting 8 inches wide and as long as possible bolted under your draw bar bolt head underneath let the draw bar out as long as possible hope you get the idea of what I'm talking about
Nice job! My turn tomorrow, I hope 🤞 always some struggles with the sickle bar😀
Glad to see you back in the hay field... I was waiting to see how your new tractor did! Hopefully the weather holds off enough to get your first cut bailed! Have a good night brother! 🤙
That was a helluva fix today, and great video content for watching you cutting with the new tractor well done....👍
Recommend "Just a few acres farm." Pete has several on just sickle bar mowers, how to adjust, run, tune ect...
Love watching the new tractor working good for you great to have it !♡♡♡♡
Great job Evan and much more calm tempored than I. For me the colorful explitives spew out when things go wrong. 👍
In the mid 50s with a Fregie 28 tractor, I would think, looking back, that the sickle bar mower was a 6-footer. It could also be mounted in such a way that it cut the barberry hedges very neatly which was just as well because barberry has case-hardened spines!
Started out with a MF 32 mower in the 60's went to a haybine in the 70's and a disc cutter in 2000 and never look back.
Nice content
very relaxing
happy to see the HayfielIt look so healthy
Good start Evan, I like that smile ,glad things are going pretty good, I’m sure the AC.felt good in your new tractor . God bless
Glad you got through your cutting finally. Hope it all dries good so you can get it bailed and in the barn. . Thanks for sharing with us.🙏🏻🙏🏻👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👋👋
Love the video, I could smell the fresh cut hay😊☀️
Cutter bar has excessive play. Needs guides tightened.
Put the stands back on and raise them up.
Pick up before backing up
Cut the grass before it's too tall
That thing you keep calling a bearing is a universal joint. Commonly referred to as a u-joint.
Evan! It's such "fun" watching your videos in reverse....From ebullince to despair in one video sequence. Welcome to the wonderful world of farmin'
When you cut your grass in always soothe me also if I live close to you I will cut it for free just to look at the blade cutting the grass it's a relaxing
Evan. Please be careful lowering that bar the knife can drop and take a finger off. Be careful
ok im not a farmer i don't even own a tractor all i have is about 2 acers but i do enjoy watching your video's and i learn a lot from your video's like how to change a u joint bearing heck i did not even know what a sickle bar was until today but your videos' do relax me lol keep up the good work
Enjoyed the video. Keep up the good work!
Started with a sickle mower a couple of years ago. Nothing but trouble for me. Now I have an 8 foot Kuhn disc mower and can run circles around the old 9 foot sickle. Personally, I could never go back.
I agree a disc or drum mower is far far superior
yes lovely and quick what happens to tall crops to much to handle sickle bar on ly cuts a bit dont matter if 3 inchs tall or 6 foot
thing is every machine is suited to a job
also dont condemn one because you are useing out of the work area it was meant for after all it is a machine.
@@raypitts4880 I have found that sickle bar mowers are better than rotary when cutting oats
Man, you were quite lucky to have a universal joint on hand. Nice job. 👍🏽🙂
Nice job Looks good.
I always carried an old wooden handled linoleum knife with me for when grass wraps on the PTO.
Just finished watching your sickle bar tune up video from the prior year and hopped over to watch this one. Great to learn from you. I just bought a NH 450 from a farm auction and have yet to dive into it for planned hay cutting uses this year.
A beter way to remove riveted section is to put the sickle bar action in a vice with the bar resting on the top of the vice jaw and tighten the cutter section in the vice jaw. Hammer on the back of the section to shear the rivets. You will be amazed how easy it work.
Been there ! Done that ! Cutting grass/hay off the PTO shaft.
Hi Evan 👋🏻 good job on that maintenance
great save on that bearing, glad you had the spare and good idea to get two spares. one for each end if needed. It's hard cutting when the hay gets that high and folds down on you. also leaves a lot uncut but you "Gott er dun" good show. ECF
Beautiful hay!
Used a sickle mower on a farmall A that my dad bout in early 40's when I was a kid in 70's, it was and an amazing machine,. sitting in the open allows you to hear issues happening more quickly and sometimes prevents serious issues.
I'm sure a few "barn words" were said, but I love the way you just deal with the issues and smile!
I smell a contest coming up... guess how many bales off the 3 acre field without going over. My guess 164 80 pound bales.
I'll use the "Price Is Right" gambit and bit 0 bales. (That also wins if all machinery breaks down.)
My old man used to tie an old seed bag under the pto shaft to stop the grass wrapping
When you update to a haybine, consider retaining the sickle bar mower. You will be able to trim weeds, briars, etc. under branches of trees in perimeter of fields halting the loss of ground to sapplings creeping out. Glad i kept mine for that purpose. Also, plugging due to very high lush grass, ground speed needed reduced & swather bar should be at 30 degree angle to guide cut grass tire width away form uncut hay. I have been doing this since 1959 with New Idea 7' pull type, so ihave been where you are. You have a VERY good channel, too bad we can not advise you before as apposed to after the fact on your situations.
The first year I made my own hay, I ran into about the same issues as you. Worst, I blew up the joint of the baler while baling. Good luck! 😀
Run ur finger around the cap with grease to hold the bearings, sockets and urvise will save pounding and fight needles
Needing to cut mine as well. Wanted to earlier this week when it was supposed to be dry and the rain has just kept coming, and I’m going to be out of town next week when it’s supposed to be perfect weather for making hay.
I made a pto guard out of a piece of 4in black drain pipe for underground gutters. Get the 10 ft piece that has the flared end. Cut pipe to length. Put flared end at tractor and use a piece of wire on each side to hold in place . Pto is shielded from tall grass. Did this on mower and bush hog
Pickup a rearview camera with screen. You can mount the camera up on the cab looking down at the PTO area with the screen in the cab so you can see what is going on without stopping or getting out. Yes not the best image but then you just need to be able to see what is happening and not 1080 video of it.
Sure is nice having the right tools to fix things. You never know when you will need to weld something 👍👍👍. You got lucky with the bearing. You might want to get a spare.
Back years ago when we mowed with a sickle bar rule 1 was wait till the due was off , Find a mower condishener the sickle bar ones are cheaper
Have a blessed day🇺🇸❤
I'am using a sickle bar this yr ,my haybine pitman arm broke. But I'll get the 10 act ok I believe. Like you i'am couple wks behind ,but to rain.
Welcome to the joys of farming. We had a statement about tools where I used to work. " if you're not breaking tools it means you're not using them" Same thing with farming in general.
Looks like WAY too much fun.
Looks like a good stand of hay. Using a bar mower can be a pain no matter how well you prepare to use it sometimes. I've got a IH 1190 hay mower conditioner you might be interested in. Keep up the good work there. Take care.
Looks like you could use an adult beverage about now!!! Way to swing your way through it!!! Thanks...Peace!!!
Bill
Wonder if you sprayed the mower with silicone spray before you start, if that would help the hay slid off better ?
AWESOME VIDEO
I'm not sure if this would help much with the plugging up or not, but when I used to use a sickle bar I would put the shoe on the outside end of the bar down a little to hold it a bit more off the ground. It seemed to help and it left a little more stubble for the hay to lay on and allow a little more air circulation.
That was impressive.... to have a breakdown like that and still be able to get all of the field cut. We used a sickle bar for years and would follow it up with a crusher that crushed the stems to allow it to dry quicker. now we have a haybine and tedder. Tedder is great as long as you don't get too close the electric fence. (guilty). :-(