Harvesting
Equipment Maintenance
Mower Maintenance
Before you head out to mow, confirm that your cutting components are in good shape. Read More. It is time to check the rest of your machine over. Check your machine for any loose bolts and missing hardware. Make sure that all safety shields and curtains are in place and in good condition and clean your machine of any foreign objects. Check gearboxes for any sign of oil leaks and check the oil level in the cutter bar (see Operator's Manual to determine method and amount) and lubricate your mower-conditioner as necessary (see your Operator's Manual).
Setting Cut Height
Always read your Operator's Manual before making adjustments. View or purchase Operator's Manuals for your John Deere machines.
The height that your mower should cut depends on your crop type, field conditions, and personal preferences. Knowing how to make these adjustments is important. For example, if you have a rocky field and want to spare your cutting components extra wear, you can raise your mower off the ground and tilt your cutter bar back to keep the front edge of your mower out of the soil. Or, if you want to get all of the hay that you can in the windrow and if you are not concerned about a little wear on your cutting components, you can lower your mower all of the way to the ground and/or tilt your cutter bar forward and get a closer cut. Some experts will say that cutting some crops too short can stunt re-growth. For example if you cut too low on a plant like alfalfa that grows from the crown of the plant you might damage the plant, and that the extra length that you gain is only the thicker, base part of the plant that is less nutritious anyway. Still other hay growers prefer the extra hay gained by a short cut. There is no right way or wrong way to adjust your cut height.
Most mower conditioners give you cut height options. With a 3-point mounted disc mower you can adjust the center link arm length to change the angle of your cut and adjust how close to the ground you mow. Some pull-type mowers and mower conditioners offer gauge shoes as a means of coarsely adjusting your cut heights. The mower unit rides on the gauge shoes so by adjusting them one way or another you are able to raise the mower off of the ground and get a taller stubble height or lower the mower and get a closer cut. To adjust cut height on machines that don’t offer gauge shoes you can adjust the tilt of the cutter bar. The great thing about mower conditioners that offer gauge shoe adjustment and cutter bar tilt adjustment is that you have a course adjustment with the gauge shoes and a fine adjustment with the cutter bar tilt adjustment so you can get just the cut you want. Most mower conditioners offer a hydraulically adjustable tilt angle option so that you can make your angle adjustments from the cab. This is especially beneficial if you have small ditches or patches of small stones in your field because you can roll your cutter bar back to get a flatter cut. Doing so will help keep your cutting components out of the dirt and stones, without having to lift your machine out of the crop to avoid such obstacles. For the best quality of cut, look for a cutter bar with a low profile for even flatter cutting to protect your cutting components and to improve the quality of your cut.
Setting Machine Float
Now that you have adjusted your cut height, it is important to set the float of your machine. Machine float is just what you would think it is. Making adjustments to your machine float is what determines how light or how heavy your machine rides through the field. If your machine float is set too heavy, it can act like a scraper and drag along the ground, damaging your fields. If the float is set too light, the mower will bounce too easily and even the smallest rock or mole hill can make the machine lift up and leave crop standing in the field. In fact, if you are traveling through the field at 8 miles per hour you are traveling at 12 feet per second and if you hit a mole hill that causes your mower to lift off the ground. That's 12 feet of crop for every second that your mower is off the ground left standing in the field! This is one reason why following the instructions in your operators manual can be so important. John Deere recommends that your float setting be about 130-150 pounds. That way the machine will float over larger obstacles with ease, saving your cutting components without slowing your tractor and 150 pounds is heavy enough to keep your mower on the ground over small obstacles that do not pose a threat to the performance of your machine. For specific instructions, see your mowers Operator Manual.
*IMPORTANT!
John Deere Mower conditioners, like many other manufactures’ machines are designed in such a way that the tilt
angle of the machine affects the float setting.
ALWAYS set your gauge shoe and/or cutter bar tilt first and then set your float. If you change the angle of your
cutter bar, ALWAYS recheck the machines’ float settings and re-set as necessary. If you use hydraulic tilt
adjustment to avoid obstacles while mowing, make sure to return your machine to the tilt angle to the position it
was in when you set your float. Most machines will have a cutter bar tilt gauge to help you out.