The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: porterar on January 23, 2019, 12:22:32 pm
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Hello,
I am new to the forum (and relatively new to smallholding!)
I have a MF35 and I am contemplating buying a hedgecutter as I have a fair number of hedges to keep in trim.
Just wondering if anyone has experience of using a hedge cutter on MF35 and if so any advice as to which model to look at? Also would you suggest weights (either wheel or front) are necessary?
I have been looking at the following models:
https://www.mdlpowerup.com/product/powerup-a80-hedge-cutter/ (https://www.mdlpowerup.com/product/powerup-a80-hedge-cutter/)
https://www.siromershop.com/product-page/hedge-trimmer-2-5m-reach (https://www.siromershop.com/product-page/hedge-trimmer-2-5m-reach)
Any advice much appreciated
Thank you!
Andrew
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Does your tractor have a cab? A lot of debris can get thrown about.
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Sorry, cannot advise on the tractor. However, do you have any hedges on the road? The reason I ask is that both the examples that you show work on the wrong side, in as much as they will put you working against the traffic.
Chris
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Both look like the same machine ,just different labels ? For the price could you get a local farmer /contractor to cut the hedges every year cheaper over the long term ?
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For the price could you get a local farmer /contractor to cut the hedges every year cheaper over the long term ?
I'd agree with this contracting rates with a big tractor and hedge cutter are between £30-40 an hour including fuel. All my hedges cost me around £100 a year for quite a long run of hedges. Those small machines are never going to compete with a big contractors machine and will need maintaining and probably be subject to breakages. personally I'd only consider doing it myself if I had a few hundred acres to warrant the capital outlay.
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Don't most contractors use a flail for hedge cutting? If you want a half decent appearance then you need a finger cutter bar, or discs. Discs are way too expensive but cut through thicker stems. We bought our own trimmer with a finger bar three years ago, when laying all our hedges by hand was clearly going to be impossible. Ours is a Siromer, with a standard linkage and yes it costs (but 2/3rds the price of the one you are looking at), but it will pay for itself quickly. Don't forget hedges take three to six passes to cover all sides and top. Ours take a week of good weather to complete, maybe a couple of hours a day - 12-14 hours for a contractor (if there was one round here, or even a 'kind local farmer', but there are few hedges anywhere near us) Our hedges are not straight forward to work on, with standards along the length, plus friendly and otherwise neighbours to negotiate access with. All in all, we are really pleased with our finger bar trimmer and the results we get with it. Worth every penny.
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We bought our own hedgecutter with interchangeable flail and cutter bar. After the first year when the cutter bar was used we have only used the flail. However as we originally only wanted the cutter bar the flail was a freebie as it was standard and the dealer just sent it.
As we do the hedges every year they do not suffer any real damage from the flail and quickly recover.
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Hello, l am in the same position as you were last year. ie looking for information on the purchase of a hedgecutter. I'm inclined to go for a finger bar machine because I reakon it would do a neater job . I have viewed alot of machines online. There are quite a few coming in from China at what seem attractive prices but as I haven't seen any of them on the ground or working, I'm quite sceptical. Most of the finger bars seem to be for compact tractors so I don't know how practical they would be on a MF 35 or a MF 290 2WD.Any thoughts or particularly experiences would be much appreciated.