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VA | I am considering buying a front mounted mower to mow alfalfa with while pulling my NH 1431. I have a Fendt with a front hitch and pto on it already. What is the best one to buy and is anyone using one with a pull type behind it instead of a 3 pt version? I am not too excited about a flail because of the alfalfa, but wonder if I really need conditioning rolls. I am chopping the hay for silage. |
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Sparta, WI | I assume no one uses a pull behind because the side shift would be a nightmare. Are your fields all straight? We use Kuhn triple mowers and have had ok luck. Pottinger makes a good mower. |
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Woodham, Ontario | Last 2 years I did what you are thinking of. Ran a Claas 3100FRC (roller conditioner) and a JD 946 with rolls on the back. Its a pretty good match for the 7930 for power. I have ran some pottinger triples on 7930s with conditioners and they were always short on power.
It worked pretty good. The center pivot moves a little too much side to side on hills to be able to use GPS, but it is a cost effective way to increase mowing capacity by 80%.
I have done some testing on our farm for flails vs rolls vs none. Flails are not good for alfalfa. You are always going to lose more leaves than with rolls or nothing. With rolls you will gain a little drying time, even for silage, but we are talking a few hours at most. The problem with roller conditioners on front mowers is that they are heavy and the mowers were not really designed for them in the first place. They're all made for grass and flail conditioners, but they sell them with rolls because we ask them to. I have owned pottinger and claas mowers with rolls and I have been dissapointed with both of them. Too heavy, excessive wear, especially when trying to cut low. The Claas mower is made for grass to cut at 3 or 4" not alfalfa at 2".
For 2013 I am getting a pottinger triple without conditioners. We have more acres to cover and I feel that the extra capacity more than offsets the few hours of drying time. Once we get going we try to mow and chop at the same time anyway. I would buy a front mower without conditioners. The float system on the pottingers is very good.
Edited by Gerard 1/1/2013 21:47
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Alma NE | Trucker1 - 1/1/2013 20:42I assume no one uses a pull behind because the side shift would be a nightmare. Are your fields all straight? We use Kuhn triple mowers and have had ok luck. Pottinger makes a good mower. Lots of front mounted / trailed combos run in Europe small fields hills no problem at all |
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Sparta, WI | Never seen that combo before. I guess maybe thats because there aren't even many triple mowers around here. Lots of hills and small fields. |
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Sunnyside, WA | Have you ever thought of going self propelled triple mower? Or just two self propelled swathers? Just wondering. I like the idea of a triple mower, but I also like having two machines in the event that one goes down. I know operators are one deciding factor, but just wondering. |
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Woodham, Ontario | I'd rather have an extra tractor with front hitch and PTO than having a self-propelled unit. The only self-propelled triple mower out there is a Krone and I have heard mixed reviews about those. A few people around here have gone to swathers with disc heads, but I feel we need wider windrows. When we went to a 16' center pivot mower in 2005 drying slowed down significantly. I now aim for a swath width of 70% of cutting width.
The 7930 has been really good for us, and the dealer sells enough tractors with front hitch and PTO that they usually have a used one or a demo kicking around if needed. |
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VA | We don't have enough acres to justify a SP machine, but enough to feel like it takes too long to cut what we have. I'm only running 60 or so acres of alfalfa, and around 125 ac. of small grain silage, and dad and I do most of the work, so adding operators is not ideal. And I thought I could save some $ by just adding a front mounted machine to what I have instead of going with a new triple mount.
Edited by apbeery 1/2/2013 09:17
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Clinton, ON | I've been running something like you want to go to for the last 3 seasons. I run a 11'4" Pottinger up front with the tine conditioner and a 11'4" pull type on the back also with tine conditioner. I also do have the merger belt on the rear mower to merge in lighter crops. I run all this with a Fendt 820. For first cut it is all it can handle. Other cuts are good. Hills are a little bit of pain but doable. But GPS is not advicable. Cutting at 20 acres/hour is easily attainable with this set up. One thing to watch out for on the Pottinger front mowers with the older style "Alpha motion" front suspension is in one of the hinge points right in front of the center gearbox. I've been told that some of them have cracked. Pottinger does make an updated arm for it. The only difference is to where the grease zerk is positioned as that is where it cracked. |
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Front mount mower
