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Pasco WA. | Rotarys and Sickles both have their advantages and disadvantages. All depends upon what your needs are. If your cutting grass get a rotary. If your cutting alfalfa a sickle could be your best choice. I would say the biggest factor is how much hay do you need to cut per day? In my case I replaced two 16' sickle's with one 15' rotary. The rotary has to run a few more hours per day to cut the same acres but it sure lowered my costs. A rotary is more expensive than a sickle but a lot cheaper than 2 sickles. I have also found that the repairs are a lot less on a rotary. As for the fuel I am willing to bet that a rotary will not use any more fuel on a per acre basis. Sure they have more power but thay are also cutting lots more. Overall I would say that I am getting just as clean of a cut as the sickles. Better in some conditions but not as goo in some. This is in irrigated alfalfa. Rotarys do not like dirt though. If your fields are full of gopher hills stick with a sickle, the rotary will make a mess. The rotary also takes a little more setup and adjusting. It's easy to do though.
So the bottom line is what are your needs? If you don't need the speed of a rotary why spend the money. If you do need the speed they work.
Something no one else mentioned is how rotarys like to pick up twine thats in the field. A rotary will find every piece of lost twine and wrap it around the shaft under the turtle shells. We pick up all the lost twine we can find but still have to remove the shells every cutting and clean out the twine. | |
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Sickle bar or rotary
