Mower Type Pros & Cons?

GAM

Member
Mixed Farmer
Whats the Pros and Cons of using a mower conditioner against a straight disc mower for making hay & haylage?
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
Despite the extra fuel and horsepower, I think that the conditioner is worth it, certainly until July.

The conditioner sets up the swath speeds the drying, the tractor wheels don't run over it and the tedder picks it up better.

If there is rain then the swath is narrower than with a plain mower and less grass gets rained on.

With stemmy grass the conditioner does make it 'crinkle' so that it doesn't lie about in slabs.
 

v8willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Conditioner takes power, so men wind them back to go quicker/save diesel & then complain that they are no better than a plain mower...pointless.
I have raked grass & left bits on the floor, customer then mentions it but when you look it's still as it came from the plain mower & he's been over it twice with the tedder & never touched it either.
Yes you can screw the rake down & lift it better but then you are scraping the soil to get it, not a good idea in a wet year.
The row from a plain mower would take less water in to it if it gets soaked on the deck.

Prefer a conditioner myself, a lot easier on the following machinery on rough ground too.
 

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
We cut river meadows and I worry that a large piece of wood going through the conditioner would mangle it, would a conditioner be shearbolt protected?
 
We cut river meadows and I worry that a large piece of wood going through the conditioner would mangle it, would a conditioner be shearbolt protected?
My fella mowers got a shearbolt on the conditioner I didn’t find out until a tyre went threw it :eek: Nothing else broke so it did a good job
 

tinsheet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Somerset
Going against the grain here, run a disc mower only here, if I'm in a hurry for hay just ted it soon as it mown, it's better for arable silage etc, cheap to run, can use a 80hp tractor on a 12ft mower:D.
 
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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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