Walk behind Tractor for making hay ?

Anyone have one of these ?
any recommendations ?
could I use one for baling hay ?
I have a scythe so cutting the grass is not an issue but moving hay about ? More easy if I could have a small baler .

David

http://www.earthtoolsbcs.com/html/bcs_implements.html

They are made, seen videos.

I know the sickle mowers work WELL. But I would buy the disc mower--they cut much faster in tougher conditions (like wet grass).

They are EXPENSIVE (at least here in the states). For the price of a baler you can get an almost new full size round baler.

I have worked with small round bales (the old allis chalmers ones). They were a PITA--lots of twine for the amount of hay (expensive bales) and very hard to feed less than whole bales (not like feeding a flake from a square bale).

Don't forget a rake!

I just got a Czech one with a scythe bar mower. Now I'm just waiting for the sky to clear and grass to dry to try it out and I'll let you know. For right now I'm not buying the hay rake and the baler is just a dream for now.
http://www.vari.cz/en/product-catalogue/vari-modular-system/dsk-316/accessories/lse-120-bar-mower/cp:20507/

As far as the CAEB baler, I saw older photos as well, so you might find a used one somewhere.

We have a Grillo with a sickle bar mower. It takes my DH about 3 hours to mow an acre while dodging around 200 young fruit trees and through irrigation ditches. It's a workout. The other acres that are still in pasture go faster, but they are easier to rotationally graze with our goats and geese.

I have been thinking about how one could buy the baler, and probably the rake as well, and throw all the implements on a landscaper's trailer. Hire a kid for the summer to go make hay for people with 1-5 acre parcels. It's almost impossible here to find someone willing to hay these smaller parcels, mostly because of the long distances to move the equipment at 10 mph down the highway. The brilliance of the two wheel tractor is you can move it in a small trailer at highway speeds.

I would think seriously about doing it, but for the cash outlay and the fact that hiring the labor around here is next to impossible due to kids in sports and inertial laziness, and I'm not she-ra enough to do the work myself. For the right person, it could pay.

It isn't just the time, it is the fuel. My son bailed for friends last year, 5 miles away. Spent more money on gas for the truck driving there than in the tractor.

You need to line them all up so you can canvas a neighborhood in one shot like the landscape companies do or it will never pay.

It is a cool idea, and a needed service. But tough to actually make money at.

I mowed with mine today. Faster than a scythe, though the particular model I have goes at a top speed of 2.2 km/h, which is like a slow walk.

Now I just noticed the original question of the OP.

How much land are you cutting David? What are your storage facilities for hay like?

So far this year we've cut about 0.45 hectares (1.1 acres) of hay, excluding what I cut today, some of it with scythes, some a neighbour did with his tractor and drum mower. All of that we then raked by hand, stacked, and then another neighbor came with a tractor and wagon and we hauled it to the barn. The whole fork-onto-trailer then fork-off-of-trailer-into-barn thing isn't so quick, but it isn't so bad either.

To make our cob / cordwood house we got the straw using the above method in Czech... so that interesting to hear as that's how people do it here and works well in a team of 4/5 at least if bigger than a larger garden. Anyway welcome to come and experience it if around Europe! You can see many around here doing it all day - so plenty of opportunity in the summer so let me know if interested, also to visit our place and other similar techniques (I hope).

Click any links from my signature below for example of what I mean...