We went from an IH 1190 mower conditioner to a straight 9' disk mower in '02 and cut our mowing time in half.  This year we bought a Kuhn FC4000G 13' center pivot conditioner with the Finger Comb II conditioner and I really like it.  The Finger Comb II conditioner is alot more gentle than the other brands impeller conditioner and if your willing to take 30-40 seconds to adjust it for the conditions your in even in straight alfalfa leaf loss is almost zero and so far even under less than ideal drying conditions we haven't had any hay on the ground longer than about 55 hours, with grass hay we've been able to mow late one morning and bale the following afternoon. 

I started out looking mostly at the Hesston and Case IH machines but this Kuhn was priced right and the more I looked at it the more I liked it.  The Kuhn is 1,200lbs heavier than a comparable Hesston, Case IH or New Holland, has pressure lubricated gear boxes and has no drive belts or chains.  Total maintance on the Kuhn is six U joints, three gear boxes and the cutterbar.  I wasn't totally sold on the impeller conditioner until I used it and I'll put it up against a roller machine in alfalfa anytime.   

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This is an interesting thread. There are definite advantages to a disc type mower compared to sicle bar type. There are a couple posts above that also discuss the regrowth that seems to favor the sicle.

There are a number of different ways to look at the choice. I just wanted to comment on the regrowth issue.

I think you can liken a disc type haybine to a rotary type mower (horizontal spinning blades that cut by impact once the tip speed reaches a certain vcritical velocity).

I think you can like a sicle bar type mower to a reel type grass mower where thethe cutting action is a shear type cut between a moving blade and a stationary guard or knife.

No first class golf course would use a rotary mower on the fairways - they use reel type mowers. Rotaries are used on the roughs. A reel type (and properly maintained) sicle bar mower will both give you a cleaner cut of each grass blade and ultimately better regrowth due to shear rather than the rather ragged edge cut left by ANY brand impact/rotary/disc mower.

However this is only one part of the choice. After a weekend using a neighbors moco I think the best thing for my uneven ground conditions would be a sicle bar type with wheels or skids very close to the cutter bar, not way in the back as they are on most mower/conditioners. This is a big part of why I plugged it up - cannot hold consistent cutting height on rougher ground with the wheels that far from the cutter bar.

I don't have a lot of area to cover. I saw a demo in Kansas where a Reese mower with a vertical tedder or whatever they call it really did a nice job with fast drying. I think they are from NZ. But this is a different scale than most of you other posters.

Quality regrowth from this type Sicle bar setup would also be attractive. jmho.

Jim at Dawn

The uneven hillside pasture ground I was cutting had a lot of small dips and rises - most of which you could not really see under the heavy hay.  This is a pasture which had not had hay made in quite some time.  As a novice in the moco department, I just started along the fence and made circles around the field. This resulted in a lot of going up and down the hillside when I probably would have been better off trying to stay more on the contour, lifting and turning on the headlands as you would with a planter even though I'd end up driving over more of the end windrows.

The moco tires are a good 4 to 6 ft behind the cutterbar. With the undulations of the ground, when I came to a rise the cutterbar would cut much closer to the ground until the tires got to that spot.  Maybe there are some shoes under the cutterbar which could be adjusted which would have floated better but the double sicle did not look like it floated as on a flex platform at all.

I finally figured out I could not let the wheels down to the stops and ran it a couple inches higher. It did not plug there but also wasted a lot of  hay and left uneven stubble height.

One thing about trying something like a moco, it sure gives you an appreciation for the skills of the operators that I see in the field. A guy that can go around corners and keep a uniform width of cut and windrow size is a skilled person. We need to appreciate the skills that are required to run a farming operation.

Overall I agree that the discbine is probably much more efficient for most commercial operations if you have the acres and conditions for it.

Jim at Dawn

Have to agree with Cliff - One of the keys to disc cutters is sharp knives. If they are kept sharp they will slice just as well as a sycle. Looking at used disc mowers at dealers shows very poor maintinance of knives. I dought there would be two days regrowth difference if both cutter heads were in the same condition - same condition dull or sharp, regrowth would be simular. I've seen sycles and rock guards that are worthless due to poor maintinance and do a tearing job at the grass and alfalfa. Maintinance is key to top management