Get someone to build you a big shovel.
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I do see free hay listed periodically. That’s probably not a bad option vs the cost of equipment and the added effort.
At ~24 horsepower I imagine a flail mower is out of the cards but a side discharge mower might work out if I can figure something out. There’s always buying a dedicated mower in the future. I don’t think my 13" electric ryobi is going to cut it on 7 acres.
That seems like a great system they have in that video.
My dump bucket is the big shovel! I could weld one myself from the scrap pile at work too…
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You can get a pretty small flail mower
Thats like a transplanter too
Used flail mowers are rare in my area so we bought a new one. Cheap Chinese import but after 7 years it still works great. We pull a 5 foot flail with hammer blades with a 35 HP tractor but it’s not side discharge. We flail all prunings except for the large branches with the flail mower. Much faster than push or rake and burn with no concerns about the fire from burning brush getting out of control. We took the acre we had set aside for the burn pile and put it into production so it generates revenue.
We use our zero turn side discharge mower more than we expected. Mow the yard around the house and Blue/Black/Apples/Peaches during the growing season and shoot the clippings into the rows.
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We were able to find a Ford/New Holland 930A finish mower in very good condition. It has the extra set of wheels on the front. We were familiar with this unit and had used it on a 1960 Ford 641 Workmaster. This is what I mow the orchard with. We just obtained a second one that may be used as a parts machine. The only thing I don’t like about it is the blade speed is a little slower than current PTO finish mowers. I’ve thought of changing out the spindle pulleys for something larger to increase blade speed, but if I keep the blades sharp it cuts well. Woods still produces a blade that fits it. This came in 48, 60 and 72", both of ours are 72". I see them frequently on marketplace.
CaseNH has been discontinuing parts for these Ford/New Holland 80’s implements so make sure you find a solid unit if you go in this direction. I think we paid $900 for ours and the parts machine was free. It cuts well with our 25HP L2501. Be careful with those old Fords and Massey’s, their non-live pto’s will push you forward until you’re able to disengage the pto, so plan your stops in advance.
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BCS two wheeled tractors have a small round baler attachment that fits
May work better for between rows than implements that fit on riding tractors.
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That is a cool little piece of equipment and would be fantastic for tight rows.
Last night I discovered a gadget exists called an over running coupler aka over running clutch. It appears to be the safety solution for eliminating extended stops while mowing with the Ferguson te20 I bought.
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I gotta check that out. We don’t mow with our 1960 Ford 641 any longer (it needs a top end rebuild) but I’d like to know how this over running coupler works, Thanks Ryan.
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I looked them up and it seems like they are designed to freewheel whenever the PTO attachment is trying to move faster than the tractor. So that should remove the pushing force.
Hopefully I was looking at the right thing. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/speeco-over-running-clutch-adapter-male-spline-1-3-8-in-x-6-27114899--1
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Yes, that’s what I was looking at. Much less expensive at other places and apparently there are two pto shaft diameters which are common, so anyone interested make sure you find the one appropriate for your setup!
I feeling like this kind of stuff should be taught in school. Obviously lots of people know it exists but clearly there is no manual for how to be a farmer, just like nobody teaches us how to do taxes!
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why there isnt much new farms starting up. unless you were born into it, there’s a huge learning curve.
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I think there is more to learn as a farmer than what I learned in college courses about my field of study, by a large margin. Then again, most of what I’ve learned about my field of study was learned in the field, not in the classroom.
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Has anyone purchased or had experience with a PTO driven generator? I’ve seen them listed locally and thought it might be an interesting option.
I could see powering a welder or various other equipment for repairs or working in the field with corded power tools possibly being helpful.
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I was excited by the idea for a few years. I wanted something to connect to the house when the power goes out.
It wasn’t a good idea for me. For one, my tractor is low horsepower and I don’t trust it to maintain steady RPM. Also, I think its nice to have the tractor available in a storm for doing tractor stuff.
Portable generators are inexpensive. PTO generators are very expensive. You can buy pallet forks and keep a portable generator on a pallet. You can pick it up with your tractor and take it where you want to use it.
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Larger spindle pulleys would make it slower
Smaller pullys would make it faster
Larger spindle pulleys would make it slower
Smaller pullys would make it faster…
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