MC rotary scythe cutting corn stalks and weeds

mathews company rotary scythe 9E and Ford 8000 cutting/windrowing weeds in a corn field.

[@mr.mcewan9261]

I owned one of the MC Rotary Scythes just like this one in the 1970s. I actually cut 50 acres of Alfalfa Hay 3 times a year. Because it cut the plants at ground level and broke the stems in the middle it would dry the hay just as fast as hay run through the rollers of a haybine. Another advantage was that you could drive almost twice as fast as the sickle cut machines. To cut the hay cleanly, I sharpened the swinging cutters about twice a year with a right angle grinder. If given the choice, cows will eat a bale of hay cut with this machine and leave a haybine cut bale until last. It has something to do with the sharp stems a haybine leaves on the end of the stems. It did a great job on chopping corn stalks. If you got enough dry days in late fall you could actually make windrows for baling stalks. All of my neighbors wanted to borrow it for chopping stalks. The MC Rotary scythe had one major draw back. It would level gopher mounds. It wasn't that leveling the mounds was so bad, it was that it mixed the dirt right in with the cut hay. When you came along with the chopper to make haylage all if that dirt and gravel went through the chopper knives. We ended up sharpening chopper blades every day and twice a day in heavily infested gopher fields. Mine was 540 RPM.

[@LindaSmith-op5vs]

Cool machine

[@johnathonbrase1842]

is that 540 or 1000 pto??

[@LVFFarmVlogs]

Hell of a good machine for corn stalks. I like my Cutditioner but if I ever see one of those for sale I'd buy one

[@fyrciakfarms199]

They rarely come up for sale here in Michigan, its really close to the New Idea 279. only down side is it use's two 3/8 shear bolts instead of a slip clutch, and no over riding clutch.

[@michiganhay7844]

Yeah I’d say he moved on all right

[@derrick1340]

❗ P-R-O-M-O-S-M!!!