18-Ft Clipper Cuts 17 Acres Per Hour

18-Ft Clipper Cuts 17 Acres Per Hour HAY & FORAGE HARVESTING Mowers (38) 18-3-11 Roger Foster, Tower Hill, Ill., mows 16 to 17 acres per hour with this 18-ft. cutterbar clipping machine he built out of Deere over-the-counter parts. Foster doesn't call the machine a mower. Because it works as low as 5 in., he calls it a "clipper". He primarily uses it to cut clover which he interseeds with his wheat crop in order to build up organic matter. After the wheat is harvested, in late summer or early fall, he uses the clipper to cut back the clover and then let it grow back again. He doesn't make hay from it. Foster notes that the machine would also be ideal for cutting grass on CRP acres. He made the clipper frame from steel tubing and fitted it with an 18-ft. cutter-bar from a Deere 220 combine head. The bar is fitted with Deere guards and bolt-on sickle sections for easy replacement in the field. A Deere wobble box mounts behind the tractor. Foster equipped the cutterbar with a hydraulically-controlled wheel at the end of the bar. He used small diameter steel hydraulic brake line to get hyraulic fluid out to the end of the mower. There's also a dolly wheel about two-thirds of the way out the bar to help take the "whip" out of the cutterbar. There's also a wheel mounted behind the tractor to support the other end of the cutterbar as well as the wobble box. To go down the highway, there's a large hinge on the entire cutterbar and wobble box assembly behind tractor so it can swing 180? to trail behind the tractor. Foster has used his "clipper" for 5 years. "Clover being cut looks like a waterfall," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Roger Foster, Tower Hill, Ill. 62571 (ph 217 567-3417).

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