Sickle bar mowing a hay field?

Hi all, I have a trailer type sickle bar mower that I've only used once to cut our Hayfield and I forget what is the best way to drive it? (Bar sticks off to the right when sitting on the tractor) I feel like I made the first cut with the bar out to the furthest most point going around our hay field next to our fence first.? But I'm not even sure on that, it's been a couple years. Do you drive on the cut row of hay with the tractor on each pass, so after the first pass I would turn the tractor around and cut driving on the freshly cut hay or driving in the field the whole way around that hasn't been cut yet? I guess either way will work but I feel like there was a topic on this that it was answered to me but I can't find it... Thanks Matt

Edited by Hunt4Allis - 01 Jun 2021 at 5:15am

After your first pass, stay on cut hay. If you choose not to do this, you will play hell getting it dry as it is hard to cut mashed down hay from tire marks. I always do the back cut last, most chances of tree branches, garbage etc... around the perimeter and gives a little time for it to stand back up.

Thanks for info!

It's about 300' wide by 600' long I think

No Tedder, just will cut let dry a couple days, rake, let dry some more, most likely round bale but I may just small square bale it depending on farmers availability ( I have sickle bar, and just bought a international harvester hay rake- old but seams to operate ok- was barn stored-

When I first read this post I laughed (I'm sure I was not the only one) but I have mowing hay for 50+ years and sometimes if you don't know it's best to just ask. Then I started thinking about all the different ways people around here mow a field. Some will mow in sections or "lands" as my dad called it and raise mower up across ends. I know 1 guy who mows in circles then goes back and mows the corners out. I like to start with tractor against the fence and mow about 6 rounds and then mow the back swath(against fence) to give it max curing time because it will probably be raked first. Then mow the rest of the field going around entire field making "square" corners. In other words the mower is always cutting with no lost time driving across the ends. I'm not saying it's the best method it's just how my dad taught me. It's like about anything else on a farm---There's many ways to do it but the end result is the same.     

Ky.Allis wrote: When I first read this post I laughed (I'm sure I was not the only one) but I have mowing hay for 50+ years and sometimes if you don't know it's best to just ask. Then I started thinking about all the different ways people around here mow a field. Some will mow in sections or "lands" as my dad called it and raise mower up across ends. I know 1 guy who mows in circles then goes back and mows the corners out. I like to start with tractor against the fence and mow about 6 rounds and then mow the back swath(against fence) to give it max curing time because it will probably be raked first. Then mow the rest of the field going around entire field making "square" corners. In other words the mower is always cutting with no lost time driving across the ends. I'm not saying it's the best method it's just how my dad taught me. It's like about anything else on a farm---There's many ways to do it but the end result is the same.