I had a flashback to 1970 when I was a kid LOL 😊

This video brings back memories of how my dad and grandpa mowed hay in the 1960s and most of the 1970s. Grandpa would run the sickle bar mower which was on the back of our 2010 John Deere. My dad would let him get two or three rounds ahead and then he would run the crimper. I think the crimper was a New Idea model. He used a John Deere B on the crimper until they bought a new IH 674 and then that tractor ran the crimper. My grandpa finally got a New Holland haybine in the late '70s and got rid of the crimper. Great video!

I knew within the first 5 feet that you had the mower set up just right. Grass was falling straight back and uniformity. Good job on the rebuild Ethan. And great freehand skills with your plasma torch. Thanks for the update. Take care. Fred.

We had an Oliver mower just like yours we pulled it with a Farmall M , we also had a Cunningham crimper that had two steel rolls we pulled the crimper with an 8N Ford! Didn’t get a mower conditioner until 1985!😊

You are a real uptown hay farmer now. Will probably make the cover of the Successful Farmer magazine 😂😊

Love the way the old tractors look with fresh paint wheels and patina tractor. Your channel is more relatable than the others. Nice work.

I love way sickle bars cut the hay and lay it down. The blades of the hay look like they were cut with a scissors. The hay definitely grows back quicker and laying it down helps it dry quicker.

Good to see older implements can still do the job with a little TLC. You made good progress other than the cast linkage issue. We have a New Idea conditioner that we sometimes follow the mower-conditioner with if drying conditions are marginal. Have to really watch the drying rate though...it can really move in a hurry on a sunny/breezy day with low humidity.

Growing up on a hay farm I’ve been really looking forward to watching you put up the hay crop this year. That was my favorite thing to do all summer and something I miss a lot.

I saw your topic of the Oliver sickle mower, and I never knew they made a crimper. Dad had an Oliver sickle mower since before I was born. First time I mowed hay was either 1963 or '64, the Oliver mower hooked to the '54 Super M-TA. About all I remember is going slow and every time the sickle plugged, stop, bach-up, raise the sickle, pull forward, drop the sickle and drive 15-20 feet forward. Lots of parts needed replacing on that mower! Dad priced a new trailing 9 ft IH mower, think a #1300, had a wobble box like a grain platform for a combine. HOWSE still makes the same mower. Next attempt mowing was with the FARMALL '39 H, pretty slow progress. The H got traded for a '54 Super H in 1968 that's still sitting out in my shop. The combination of live hyd and transmission driven pto made clearing plugs quick. The neighbor had Dad cut the right sides off his Brillion 6 ft rotary mower, next time we had hay to mow we modified Our Brillion 6 ft mower, one foot narrower cut and I ran a gear slower to cut more of the tire tracks but I got done with 20 acres an hour quicker, I NEVER had to stop. The cutter kinda conditioned the alfalfa, it dried quicker. Tough to justify much hay equipment only making 20 acres three times a summer. We shared some equipment with our neighbor we farmed 80 acres with, his baler, our 56 ft bale elevator, I think the field sprayer was his but Dad assembled the booms and plumbed it, neighbor's rotary hoe and Dad built the carrying cart from the neighbor's old anhydrous applicator. DAD Trading skills kept us from farming with horse drawn equipment. Plus he hailed livestock for one of the many livestock trucking companies back then, they're ALL gone now. Dad raised 800-900 head of hogs a year, farrow to finish, 35-40 head of feeder cattle all on 160 acres, 80 acres corn, 20 acres hay, 20 acres alfalfa hog pasture, and 40 acres oats with new alfalfa seeding, then the 80 acres in continuous corn with the neighbor. We really needed another 240 acres of corn for hog feed, all 80 acres of ear corn was ground for the cattle. We bought every bushel of shell corn for all those hogs. The farm really wasn't set up well for feeding livestock. Not NEAR enough concrete feed floors, no silos. I looked at the place on Google Earth View, well over 100 yards of concrete been poured since 1972, three Big grain bins for corn. But the BIGGEST improvement is TWO confinement hog feeding buildings, concrete pits, all manure pumped and injected into the ground, raise 12,000 head of hogs from feeder pigs to butcher weight. Semi delivers truckloads of feed as needed. Vet pays the herd a visit every week.

I really enjoyed this video. The sound of the 6 cylinder Oliver is just purrfect. Like a 🐈. I rember breaking a mower in the some place. The root done the damage by weakening the cast. At ieast that was my experience. I had no plasma cutter. My friend however welded the cast until I could find a new part. . Thanks for helping me sparking those memories. Niall in Ireland

Yes, you have to crimp in the direction you mowed the hay. We used the neighbor's Oliver crimper on the first cutting of hay back in the sixties.Then when I got back from my two years of active duty with the Navy in the early seventies I got a New Holland 401 crimper. I had the dealer's mech out trying to figure out why the second/ third cutting alfalfa hay would roll up like a BIG cigar on one of the rollers. Oliver used a solid roll and New Holland used hollow rolls. We lowered the crimper down till we could just slide the of our shoe under it. Some said that the large flat rollers would spit the stems but we had no trouble with crimped hay for the dairy cows or the sheep. It would be easy to rig a cable lift to work off of your three point hitch to raise the mower. And your hay will be ready in three days. Eastern Iowa is about the same northernly position as you are. Tom.

My first time sycle bar mowing was Saturday, got a 501 ford mower, and, like you, I noticed the same stuff, lots of technique to learn for sure, but cutting in a straight line is a thing of beauty. The hay is looking great.

Great video. I like seeing the old equipment at work. Brings me back to my younger days and my dads old sickle bar mower. It goes to show they still work and work well. Thanks for taking us along. Have a great day!

Nice to see that older machinery working well for you. I remember, years ago, I conditioned alphalfa with an IHC Ptp conditioner . Deep safe

Anothe great video!!! All your hard work on the hay equipment is paying off! Thank you for sharing!!!

I’m impressed more and more each time I see one of your videos. Great ride down memory lane even if I was running farmalls, classic equipment is classic equipment. Keep kickin butt young man 🇺🇸💪🏻🇺🇸

I have a #2 rake here in SE Minnesota with the smaller rims n tires on it. I will never use it... Nice job with older equipment.

Your good on the fly excellent fix on the sickle mower

Great footage and Nice work making the replacement part - a lot stronger than the cast original one. No Computers and Software updates -- Got to Love that.

Ethan nice job on repairs on the sickle mower and the crimper. Thanks Michael

That was very satisfying to watch. Something about a sicke bar just laying the hay right down like butter. Both hay tools worked well. Great job on both.

You are ago getter. Love the old equipment.

That mower did a really good job.

Very cool, I never doubted it would cut and crimp. It just proves a guy can still make the old stuff do work and it's paid for.

awesome camera angles really show the machinery in action plus explaining the whys and wherefores of what you are doing,makes it very absorbing! thank you.

I had no doubts the mower was going to work, and it did good! The minor repair you did has to be expected on older stuff, great video!

Very cool video!!! A+. Thank you for filming and sharing. I had a sickle that came with my 3020, got rid of it, guy bought it for mowing his ditches. Again great vid

I LOVE THE SMELL OF OLD TRACTORS

Your tools worked well. Remember, all the tools always follow the mower. You'll know by the look and feel of the hay when its ready to rake. You'll do well, you do well at all your projects. Take care.

I have a picture of my Dad and uncle mowing hay with a 77 and a 550. The 77 had a sickle mower similar to the one you were using, and the 550 had an Oliver sickle mower that mounted on the 3 point hitch. The picture was taken in the late 50’s -early 60’s.

Same thing when you swath wheat and oats. When you use a attachment on a combine you drive with the heads in first 😊

We had an Allis Chalmers conditioner and it was loud too. The sickle bar mower mounted to the side of the tractor and the conditioner was pulled behind the tractor. The tractor was a WD45.

You made and excellent copy.

I'm glad the mower worked out. Really nice to be able to make the lifting part. I agree with the hydraulic cylinder, that has to be ruff after a few times. I was watching you level the field a few times, lol. Really glad the gopro survived. I just guessing the guy talking about the conditioner hasn't done much hay. I think it looks great. It's really awesome watching the old machines working. See you in the next one.

Been looking forward to seeing that mower cut hay. You did a great job running it.

That field looks so much better than the first time you showed it to us!

Cutting like a dream , looks like you have adjusted perfectly. Just a few acres farm channel he's really good at the fickle sickle bar adjustment lol

Dam nice stand of hay there

This is awesome, going to show this to my Dad since he grew up around sickle mowers as a teenager and now we've sprawled all the way to running 2 Agco Discbines. Different seeing hay on your channel but cool using old equipment.

Well done!

Love it Ethan I enjoy seeing the old equipment

When you backed up over the camera, my heart sunk a little. I thought , uh oh!!

You Will Figure all that out as time goes by.

The oatmeal cream pie will always make the difference!!

All things considered that went pretty well. Looking forward to see how the rake and baler do.

That worked like a God Darn

Overall that was a good success 👍It was fun watching the old school technology. My discbine has tine conditioning.

Awesome to see it all work!

With some of those dust clouds you put up I would say you crimped the hell out of the gofer holes

Great farm channel !! I had to unsubscribe to farm all fanatic he has fell into the product review bull shit. your true to being just a farmer that’s awesome

Great job thanks for another video.👍

You did a real nice job on that link

That mower and conditioner works slick.

Hey buddy, maybe get you some SOUND CANCELLING Headphones 🎧🎧 when your running that CREMPER😁🤣😂🤣🚜🚜💲💲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 Save you from headaches ✌️👍😎

Looking good buddy be safe out there your buddy from Nebraska

I would run that cutter any day over anything else you got it working like a champ

Pretty neat to see it work.Seen the equipment,never in use though.

Looks good Ethan👍👍👍👍

Man oh man is that road busy.

Probably herbicide carryover under tower from tordon or another brush control herbicide

That "squeak" when the tire runs over the GoPro ....

The noise is the reason I run a steel and rubber roller crimper it's quiet no clanking and clunking

Ahh the cut of new knives...

Awesome to see ol mowers a conditioners .

Is it just me or is watching the older hay equipment run just fascinating? Sickle bar mowers, conditioners, side delivery rakes, square balers, etc. Disc mowers, v-rakes, and round balers just don't have the same "coolness factor" in my opinion (although all equipment is cool in its own right). I say this as someone who runs disc mowers, v-rakes and round balers lol.

Always heard the lines on those big towers give off some crazy electromagnetic fields, maybe inside the tower it's magnified and maybe alfalfa is more sensitive to it? Who knows

Boy you keep er locked up tight

It cuts better than anything made today

Nothing smells as good as fresh cut alfalfa. My neighbor used to do the outside round without the conditioner then hook up the conditioner and mow the and condition there after.

Hybrid Bermuda Grass has Very small stems and fine leaves so not much is to be gained by running any type of condtioner...... I learned something abut alfafa...........Blister Beetles....... Deadly to horses

Probably the nicest hay in Michigan lol boy is it dry.

I never like plowing something up and putting hay in if it hasn’t had corn on it. That field looks really really good tho

Hay might be the crop this year

Love it

Looks good !

That's what I'm going to be doing tomorrow is mowing hay

Welcome to the world of sickle bar mowers where plugs are inevitable and the going is slow. My dad says back when he was a kid his great uncle used to mow with our Farmall C and a Kosch side mount sickle bar. Then they’d follow with the Super C and the John Deere crimper if the hay was thick. If the hay was light enough they’d just hook the crimper to the back of the C and run all in one pass. At some point the C got retired from cutting hay due to a haybine and then was later retired from its sickle bar all together after the family bought a #50 Deere side mount for our 2510. At some point that crimper got sold unfortunately. Sure would like to find a #22 crimper or a #32 crusher to go with the 2510 and the mower so we could run that alongside the 4020 and the discbine to mow hay. Not saying I’d want to do all our hay that way but it sure would be fun to pull that out in second cutting once in a while. Sure makes me appreciate a nice discbine after running a sickle bar for a couple hours though. Good to see some hay getting made the old way. Can’t wait for the raking and baling videos.

Cool vid

Looks like it is doing a good job.

Another thing. Do not run a skunk or dead animal if you can possibly avoid it at all costs. Been there and done that.

went to get the hose i spoke about on last video and it will cost 44.00 and i had to wait for hose ends what happen to crimping behind the mower

You'd think that since you cut hay, it would rain. You need to wash your truck too.

Cutting square corners : when your back tire gets to the corner turn sharp right and step on the right brake at the same..

The only thing missing from hay cutting video's is Smell O vision............

I have a Hesston 9260 swather with double conditioner it dries hay fast.

Watching a sickle mower cut down tall grasses is extremely satisfying

You need new guards. They are just as important as your section. They work together as a scissors. Not sure if you can get new ones for it. I hope so. I’m buying a 415 trail mower. Guessing same guards.

Looks good! Do you plan on pulling the conditioner behind the mower or run them separately?

Tiny current flow in the ground alfalfa does not like? Strange.

Mowing with cycle mower is fun. But get a windy day or down stuff they will test your patience in a hurry.

Don't need to get all worked up Farm Boy. Every body on this side of the screen knows your prep work is gonna work just fine!!

📈

How many hay fields do you have? Do you sell your hay? I like the older equipment that you use. This field you cut in the video how many small bales will it produce?

OK I'll give you an at ta boy on the Cutter rebuild that's one thing you do when you do rebuilding equipment you really do a great thorough job on the rebuilds there's so many channels that I watch they just have half ass everything

21:45 when I first saw that I thought it was a stalk choper

wow very impressive , i have never used one but been told there is a art to it , i remember watching you put muck on that field and then ploughing it , love watching you with these fantastic machines , a bit more shine on that cutter bar and she will purr like a pussy cat

Doing landscaping when you hit high spots, was there factory attachments to shape your windrow when you crimp?

Probably know this but for horse hay don't bale till it passes the twist test

A conditioner with one steel roller and one rubber roller is light years quieter. In my opinion.