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Hi Ed:

Mower does great on tall weeds. On the continuum of things that are tough to cut, I would put tall weeds at the bottom and lodged, wet grass at the top! This modification would work well in controlling milkweed in that you can top the milkweed without cutting too much grass.

George

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Hi Brad:

Here is the contact info….

Annie-May Guthrie
Purchasing & Dispatching

annie@adf-sawmill.com

Armand Duhamel & Fils Inc.
778, Rang de l’Église Nord
St-Ignace de Stanbridge, Qc J0J 1Y0
888 283-8878 poste 22

450 542-1752 (cell)

450 296-4402 (fax)

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In my experience there is “plugged” – necessitating the abovementioned procedure – and “plugging”. I can often see the later happening when I am mowing, especially in a thick crop. When grass starts to collect on the cutter bar I will pump the foot lever, shaking the bar up and down, and this will often clear things up.

Grass is growing well here – plenty of moisture. Hoping to start second cut by the end of the month.

George

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I have been selling hemlock to a cant mill in Quebec for the last three years – good prices and scale. This winter (the time of year I work in the woods) they stopped buying logs and laid off a bunch of folks. They recently rehired their entire staff and are desperate for logs. Things looking up all around? Here’s hoping….

George

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I ended up taking 3″ off the front trace and fixed the belly band. I ground off the old rivets, drove in 20d nails, ground and peened them. I was hoping this would cure the sore shoulder issue I’ve been having during hay-making, but I was still having problems.

A friend recommended Coblentz Collar (3348 Us Route 62, Millersburg, Ohio 44654 / (330) 893-3858). I ended up sending them about 30 photos of this horse (working and at rest) with measurements of hames, collar, and pad. They suggested new hames as they thought mine were too small. Even with the new hames, we still had problems. I finally asked them to make me a custom pad that would cover the area where he was getting sore. That seemed to do the trick (see picture below)! They are great folks to work with if the need arises.

George

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I thought I would resurrect this old thread. I never did transition to steel poles, but I am revisiting the idea as my stash of wooden poles are depleted.

For those of you using steel for poles, what do you use (thickness, square/round, etc.)?

Thanks.

George

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In my experience battling milkweed, you have to knock back the milkweed while simultaneously providing a competitive advantage to the surrounding grasses. I try to accomplish this by using a scythe, especially before the milkweed sets seed. This seek-and-destroy approach, although time-consuming, has worked pretty well for me (I only have a couple of acres where milk weed is a problem).

Keep us posted.

George

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Hi Mark, thanks for the info on sharpening the guards. We just finished mowing the last of our first cut and I will give the guards a touch-up in preparation for second cut.

Jelmer, I would be interested to see some more detailed pictures of how that cutting system is set up and how it functions. Any chance you can post some more?

Thanks.

George

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Hi Jesse:

My wife and run a goat dairy and manage 4 horses on pasture. Our goats get a fresh paddock of grass every 12 hours, set up with mainly net fence but also a combination of net and 6 strand high tensile. Horses follow the goats and “clean up” so to speak. They are on pasture only at night. If you have other grazing animals, I highly recommend this system. Aside from the labor efficiency (i.e. one paddock for two groups of animals), I have found better pasture utilization and improved parasite control as well. I am a strong believer in high density, short duration grazing with adequate rest periods.

The bottom line is that managing horses responsibly on pasture takes time. If you are just grazing horses, here are some suggestions to improve labor efficiency:
1. Consider high tensile perimeter fencing. One strand of high tensile wire that utilizes trees for corner posts (with J hooks and bullnose insulators) is a very good investment. This makes subdividing a pasture – with polywire and step-in posts – very efficient. High tensile is not generally recommended for horses, but as long as you stick with one strand and the horses know where it is (flag it with ribbons initially and walk the perimeter with your animals), you should be fine. I have never had a problem with horses inclosed in 6 strands of high tensile.
2. Fence the perimeter of your pasture (if you do not have high-tensile) with polywire and subdivide within it making sure you back-fence to prevent over grazing. Imagine a grid-type system.
3. Set-up an effective system of transmitting power from you fencer to your paddocks (that is if you are not using a solar fencer). Again, high tensile is the way to go. Think of it as a power transmission line. You can then tap into that line to power your paddocks. I do this via 500′ rolls of 18 gauge, single conductor, insulated, stranded copper wire on an extension cord reel and heavy-duty alligator clips (see link: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nf32JF8v5_o/U6tJyZ3FA4I/AAAAAAAABxc/UHIIlUvqLh4/w989-h742-no/IMG_0964.JPG ). I clip the wire at the end of the reel to the high tensile, spool the wire out on the ground (beats polywire and posts!), and clip to my fence with the double clips (the other end of the wire is bare – poking out of the extension cord reel).
4. If you don’t have them already, invest in some pigtail posts (see link: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-aI5T7Q-pVj4/U6tJ0fADTuI/AAAAAAAABxk/OL-mPgKlPKI/w557-h742-no/IMG_0965.JPG). The biggest advantage of these posts is that you can hold 25 in one hand and your polywire in the other. The are also double pronged for easy installation.
5. Three quarter inch black plastic pipe is a cheap, efficient way to get water to horses on pasture. I get 55 gallon teat dip barrels, cut them in half, and use them as waterers with a float valve (see Gallagher fence supplies). My four horses will often drink 40 gallons of water at night, sometimes more if it is hot and have been working.

Good luck.

George

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Hey Donn:

Yes, lots of mowing for a team. We mowed with two teams one year and it was great. My daughter took over the Canadian I purchased a few years back and is riding competitively with him. My wife and daughter have conspired against me driving him! So we are down to 3 working horses. It is a good fit for our farm except during haying when we all get worn down a bit.

What do you think about removing the inner grass stick? Unlike “the” grass stick, it doesn’t sweep cut hay to make a path. It has never bothered until this last round, but I think it played a factor is clogging.

How about touching up the guards? Any tips/advice?

We are baling the last of what we have down today and then hopefully finishing up first cut later this week.

George

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Yes Marc, nitrogen contributes to lodging! We applied 1.5 – 2 tons composted poultry manure to our hay fields this year. With all the moisture we’ve had, we have a forest of lodged, thick green forage. We baled Tuesday just before the rain and have been mowing since Wednesday night. We will finish up this morning with 11-12 acres down. It has been very challenging, but things have been going pretty well. I switched over to my 5′ mower with haybine guards b/c we have been mowing some hilly fields. My knives have the bevel and serrations on the top side of the knife section, but the flat side (bottom) has indentations (not quite serrated). Are these over-serrated? Both the haybine guard mower and the EZ cut have been performing well with very little clogging despite the tough conditions. I also carry a couple of wrenches to adjust the hold-downs while mowing.

I played around with mower height and pitch on Wednesday and I believe that low and tight, at least in my conditions, is the way to go. Setting the cutter bar up only increases the likelihood of rolling over your crop. Another key factor which Donn mentioned is ground speed. I was actually asking my horses to trot through especially thick sections, otherwise mowing is done at a brisk walk. On the edges where it is thinner we slow down. I vary the pace to both get the job done and conserve energy as we are mainly cutting with one team and a green sub thrown in to lighten the load.

Marc, I agree that sharpening is also very important. I have gone from sharpening with a grinder and cut-off wheel to using a variable speed Dremel with a cut-off wheel. Both work well, but I prefer the Dremel. This year I started using a 120 grit flapper wheel on my grinder and lapped the back side of the knife to get rid of the burr. It worked slick. The key is not to overheat the steel. I have never sharpened my guards though. How do you go about this?

How about what I call the “inner grass stick” right above the shoe? What is its purpose? Is it supposed to brush grass away so you you can see the path for you inner shoe? In these conditions I felt like it was collecting cut grass and contributing to clogging so I bent it off to the side. I’d love to learn it’s purpose before I remove altogether.

Donn, I agree that mowing technique and experience is key. We struggled mightily in the early days of mowing and have learned a lot and continue to learn/refine. A stout team of well conditioned, experienced horses also helps.

George

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Hi Donn, Kristan ended up mowing b/c I was selling our wares at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. She used the 6′ MD with the “Easy Cut” system. Everything but the lodged hay went well. We set it low and tight to try to get under it. When she mowed against the prevailing winds (i.e. north to south) it went OK. South to North, the cutter bar would just roll over the lodged hay. Baling today and expecting 300+ and cutting 6 acres tomorrow.

Happy haying!

George

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We mowed 4 acres on Saturday – wet and heavy with some lodged hay. We were hoping to bale today, but tomorrow looks more like it provided it doesn’t rain on Monday night (30% chance).

George

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We are going to start cutting in the rain today and probably finish mowing tomorrow. It is a narrow window, but the further the season progresses without optimal weather, the more chances I am willing to take. I have tedded as much as 3x daily in conditions like this and have done OK. We have Sat-Mon looking good with 40% chance of rain Monday night.

George

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