I have had it with a sickle mower conditioner

Well I am done using a sickle mower conditioner. It was giving me a fit today trying to cut lodged alfalfa and absolutely wouldn't cut some orchard grass that had a lot of thick leafy undergrowth. It was leaving a very shaggy cut in the alfalfa since it was flat on the ground but honestly I don't think a disc mower conditioner would have cut much cleaner in these conditions but I would not have had to worry about the tangled up mess catching on the guards and dragging up a big pile and could have cut much faster. The orchard grass it simply would not cut.....you would go about 5-10 feet and then the guards would be plugged and dragging up a big pile over the standing hay instead of cutting it.....after unplugging it about a dozen times and trying to cut at 1mph I finally gave up and I'm going to try to find a disc mower conditioner I can borrow or rent.

I have talked about buying a disc mower conditioner for over a year now and I really meant to buy one this past winter but I never was able to sell or trade the 499 haybine and I didn't really want to buy another mower until I got ride of this one. I never should have bought this 499 after selling my 9 foot sickle haybine last spring......I could kick myself that I didn't just make the jump to a disc mower conditioner then. My 9 footer that I sold had stub guards so I didn't have the plugging issues that I'm having now but it was still slow and the stub guards were a pain to keep shimmed where they would cut clean.

I guess I'm just going to have to pull the trigger on a disc mower conditioner because I'm not going to deal with this damned haybine all summer long. I just hope I will be able to sell the haybine and get some of what I paid back out of it.....seems to be a very unmarketable piece of equipment......just like some other stuff I have bought.

I have had it with a sickle mower conditioner