Horse Progress Days Featured Innovative Front-Mount Mower

Horse Progress Days Featured Innovative Front-Mount Mower LIVESTOCK Horses/Mules Jonas H Schlabach’s front-mounted cutter- bar mower was one of the most eye-catching ideas at this year’s Horse Progress Days The unique design can cut into tight corners back out make a right angle cut and turn on a dime for a return swath The 24-ft cut makes fast work of even large fields and having the mower ahead of horses and operator is safer than any trailing mower “I’ve mowed 20 acres in 2 1/2 hrs with horses ” says Schlabach Family Farm Innovations He credits a neighbor for the original idea “He had the brains and we had the tools ” An 8-ft center section slightly overlaps two 9-ft fold-up wings Hydraulic motors drive the blades and a cylinder lifts and lowers the bars Hydraulic power lets the operator on his platform to the rear easily steer both front and back axles Both the operator’s platform and the cutting bars are self-leveling “When you hit a bump instead of a jolt it just floats ” says Schlabach The center stem that connects the front and rear serves as a hydraulic reservoir A tube that runs along the top houses hydraulic hoses that are fed by a pump on the 20 hp Honda engine on the rear platform Horses to either side of the stem provide motive power “If we have a problem with the blades on either the left or right bar we simply swing it up out of the way and keep cutting ” says Schlabach Safety matters to Schlabach and his sons A battery-operated foot pedal on the platform floor has to be stepped on or the sicklebars disengage However the outstanding safety feature has to be the platform-mounted hitching post “We mounted a 2 by 3-in solid steel post vertically inside a sleeve on the platform ” says Schlabach “If there is a problem or if the operator simply wants to stop they release the post so it slides down through the sleeve and is driven hydraulically 10 in into the ground “We developed it because the horses being in the middle can’t be tied up ” adds Schlabach “We needed to secure them However having seen it in action I think one should be mounted to every horse-drawn power cart It adds several hundred dollars to the cost but you could save a whole rig from a runaway ” An unexpected feature of the front-mount mower is how easy horses adapt to it Schlabach has hooked several teams to it for a first time with no problems “The horses can see everything that is happening and the mower is always moving away from them ” says Schlabach “When horses see something behind them it scares them and they try to get away ” Schlabach and sons are now building the mower for sale Base price is $33 000 Hydraulic brakes are available for an additional $1 050 Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Family Farm Innovations 4549 TR 156 Millersburg Ohio 44654 or Horse Progress Days www horseprogressdays com

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