Flushing Bar Project

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

Active member
This is a great concept that needs to grow and expand. The project champion has done a great job to launch this. Feel free to contact him directly and get on his communication update list.

I plan to deploy a flushing bar on my farm to help save ducks, pheasants and fawns.

Here is a link to 2 videos on the site of which the 2nd video shows a flushing bar in use while haying.

http://www.theflushingbarproject.net/#!videos


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All,
I pleased to announce we have 5 flushing bars deployed for the season in South West Michigan. We'll have two more placed with area conservation districts for folks to try shortly. I have been getting some preliminary results which seem pretty promising. I have a you tube channel set up at "savegrasslandbirds"and have posted a video explaining the project while viewing the bar in action and a short interview with an operator. The videos link off the project website which is at http://www.theflushingbarproject.net/ . I should post more as the season progresses and am gathering data from what the farmers report observing as they mow.
Enjoy!
--
Mark P. Ludwig
Allegan Conservation District
Conservation Technician
Projects:
Balancing Agricultural Production and Grassland Bird Reproduction
The Flushing Bar Project - Designing Wildlife Protection for 21st Century Forage Mowers
http://www.theflushingbarproject.net/

Macatawa Watershed - Targeting Critical Agricultural Areas With Best Management Practices
http://www.the-macc.org/watershed/agriculture/
Please use the cell phone for all Macatawa calls

269-673-8965 ex 4
616-240-7135 cell
mark.ludwig@macd.org
http://www.allegancd.org/
Let's try it! How will we know unless we do?
 
Notice you did not see him swing his mower to the other side like he would have had to do when he cut the majority of the field. Making the flushing bar ineffective.
 
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UGUIDE said:
you probably better explain a little more for the majority of us here that don't know a thing about haying a field.
Click to expand...

The mower that he is using, a very common design in modern hay production, is designed to hydraulically swing to the other side of the tractor. This allows you to turn around and cut going the opposite direction that you just same from. Driving to the other side of the field in order to keep your cutter on the same side of the tractor is not realistic, it might require driving a long ways while not accomplishing anything.
 
moellermd said:
The mower that he is using, a very common design in modern hay production, is designed to hydraulically swing to the other side of the tractor. This allows you to turn around and cut going the opposite direction that you just same from. Driving to the other side of the field in order to keep your cutter on the same side of the tractor is not realistic, it might require driving a long ways while not accomplishing anything.
Click to expand...

That helps. I will check and see what they have come up with for this as far as design goes.
 
Thanks for posting Chris. I forgot about this product. This could be something for PF and others to pick up on for an article explaining what it does/how it works and could benefit pheasants/ducks/deer/ect. That is if it does indeed work. Like moe is saying, it may have some bugs yet, or, maybe not? Time will tell.
 
The machine hes using is a JD 9 ft rotary mower. Not a hydroswing.
The common way to cut hay is to "open" the field. Go 4-6 swaths around the perimeter so as to have "headlands" like in cornfields and most all row crops. The headlands will be for turning machinery and then it's back and forth. In larger fields there will be more "openings" so as to not waste much time in the headlands. Most farmers use the same method with the "hydrswing" standard Haybines, and swathers.

This gadget is a good thought, as least thier trying. Thing is a pheasants will have no trouble outrunning a hay cutting devise. You can't cut hay all that fast and all types of hay cutters are noisy as heck. Pheasant will usually take off with just the sound of the tractor. I've over the years have only hit a couple hens [nesting]
Hens on eggs or with young chicks are the ones at risk, I don't see the flushing Bar being worth a crap here.
 
Here's a response from the project manager. I will send him link to forum and we may be able to get him to participate directly.


"That mower is not a hydro swing type, though I do know what he's talking about. I am pondering possible designs for such a mower, basically I think you could swing a bar a number of ways; centering the bar on a loader and using hydraulics or an electric motor or using a double bar which could be hydraulically folded when a side is not in use. Its definitely going to be complicated. In my area however the hydro swing is not all that common and there are plenty of regular one side mowers to go before I run out of customers! An even bigger challenge are all the front mount and multi deck mowers coming into service especially on large farms. I would welcome some engineers taking a whack at these problems, the current bar is pretty simple and easy to build, adding hydraulic cylinders and motors makes things much more complex. Go ahead and share this, if you could send me a link to join your forum I'd be happy to address any other questions.
MPL"
 
I can see how the difference in farm size might dictate the success of this project. In WI the average farm size is less than 180 acres in SD it is more than 1400 acres. Smaller farms usually means small equipment like what is being used in the video. Personally in the age of quick detach loaders I am not a fan of bouncing around a hay field with a loader on the tractor.
 
moellermd said:
I can see how the difference in farm size might dictate the success of this project. In WI the average farm size is less than 180 acres in SD it is more than 1400 acres. Smaller farms usually means small equipment like what is being used in the video. Personally in the age of quick detach loaders I am not a fan of bouncing around a hay field with a loader on the tractor.
Click to expand...

I agree with not having loader on when not needed. I am proposing something similar to the bar that would be like the 30' boom on my sprayer. Comprised of center section that would cover width of front of tractor, and then swing away booms that make up rest of 30' width. they could swing up and along side cab of tractor for transport. Would mount to front of tract and can be lifted by 1 person and assembled in maybe 4 pieces. My mechanic in town here is excellent at fabricating things like this. Probably should design some kind of quick hitch for the thing for the front.

I was out doing some very small mowing around buildings today with 10' bush hog and ran into 3 broods in course of less than hour of mowing time. Some chicks were flyers and some not. Flushing bar would definitely make a difference in early detecting either of broods that can fly or in case of those that can't the hen of brood usually is what I notice first and she sticks as tight to brood as possible.
 
Most hay in the western pheasant belt is cut with swathers, self propelled mower conditioners. 12-18 foot swaths. Hydoswings are also common 12-16 feet.
To the East where there's more precipitation and humidity 9 ft mower conditioners and the 9 ft rotary shown in the video are more common.
After drying the 9 ft swaths are raked into larger windrows for baling.

So why isn't the flushing bar attached to the machine? All hay cutting machines are hydraulically raised and lowered.
I don't see where the flushing bar added would cause a problem. Out in front about six feet, built with aluminum or kept fairly light weight.

Mower conditioners are built with a bar out front a few feet parallel with the cutting sickle. Why not just add a few short lengths of chain from this bar, would do the same thing and be a "flushing bar":thumbsup:
 
Bars for bigger more complex mowers

Folks,
Nice to be back on your forum. A few thoughts I have on these bars. First there are still a lot of the single side trailed hay mowers out there which will continue to be used for years to come. These tend to be on smaller farms with more relaxed hay cutting schedules and they may be more willing to add the bars. The hydro swing mowers also seem to be pretty easy to address, I think a simple swing mechanism or some kind of double bar which could be folded when one side is not in use could be used. While it's convenient to put them on loaders, I agree it's not always desirable and the original design from DU Canada was meant to bolt to the front of the tractor directly. My design with the big chain spreader would probably need to be pushed forward a bit to accommodate the double chain that keeps the bar centered. A much bigger challenge is how to flush for front mounted swathers or multi deck units which are very popular on bigger farms. My best idea so far is looking at multi stage hydraulic cylinders to allow bars to be extended and retracted. Expensive, complex and possibly easy to damage. I'd love to try it, but it sure would be nice to have an OEM build the prototype and try it out. JD can you hear me? AGCO? As for the notion that it’s redundant since the birds will flush from the noise, the bars are much more effective on game hens which are notoriously sticky on the nest. The extra lead time from the bar also gives the chicks a much better chance of moving or being spotted by the operator in time for them to stop. It is not perfect of course, but it's much better than nothing. How much? Get me a graduate student and we'll get serious about collecting the data, till then we'll have to be happy with anecdotes and older studies.
Mark P. Ludwig
Allegan Conservation District
Conservation Technician

Projects:
Balancing Agricultural Production and Grassland Bird Reproduction
The Flushing Bar Project - Designing Wildlife Protection for 21st Century Forage Mowers
http://www.theflushingbarproject.net/


Macatawa Watershed - Targeting Critical Agricultural Areas With Best Management Practices
http://www.the-macc.org/watershed/agriculture/
Please use the cell phone for all Macatawa calls

269-673-8965 ex 4
616-240-7135 cell
mark.ludwig@macd.org
http://www.allegancd.org/
Let's try it! How will we know unless we do?
 
Pictures

Photos of my favorite bar so far. I had to build a JD style quick attach plate which was a little expensive, nearly $240 in materials. I used a pretty heavy plate to provide counter weight to the bar which has tremendous leverage when extended as well as pretty significant weight.
MPL
 
mnmthunting said:
So why isn't the flushing bar attached to the machine? All hay cutting machines are hydraulically raised and lowered.
I don't see where the flushing bar added would cause a problem. Out in front about six feet, built with aluminum or kept fairly light weight.
Click to expand...

I think you need more distance to be effective. At 8mph that distance is covered in 1/2 sec.
 
Distances to mower

Agree this is really a big factor. The distances with the trailed mower are great with the bar up front. With the mower in front there is a very fine line between what has good potential to be effective and what the operator is willing to tollerate. I was thinking 8-10 feet. Another factor is how nose heavy these swathers already are, adding more weight far out in front of the mower is going to make that even worse. Might have to add some weight on the hind end to compensate. This is why I'd live to find some hunting engineers in Atumawa IA to start hassleing Mr. Deere into building some yellow and green prototypes. I suspect really doing it right would benifit from looking at the construction of the whole header and integrating the bar right from the word go rather than figuring out how to add it later.
mark
 
moellermd said:
I think you need more distance to be effective. At 8mph that distance is covered in 1/2 sec.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree. I'm just saying MOST pheasants and other grassland birds old enough, strong enough to get away. Running. flying are seldom going to get caught in a mower.
It's the nesters and hens with young chicks that I'm talking about.

Oh yeah, I have cut some hay in pheasant country.:cheers:
 
Flushing Bar Project said:
Agree this is really a big factor. The distances with the trailed mower are great with the bar up front. With the mower in front there is a very fine line between what has good potential to be effective and what the operator is willing to tollerate. I was thinking 8-10 feet. Another factor is how nose heavy these swathers already are, adding more weight far out in front of the mower is going to make that even worse. Might have to add some weight on the hind end to compensate. This is why I'd live to find some hunting engineers in Atumawa IA to start hassleing Mr. Deere into building some yellow and green prototypes. I suspect really doing it right would benifit from looking at the construction of the whole header and integrating the bar right from the word go rather than figuring out how to add it later.
mark
Click to expand...

So how heavy is this thing?
I'd say get it off the tractor and get it on the haying machine.
Other wise, just ain't gonna work.
Few are going to want this contraption on there tractor while haying. For instance tractors are also used for raking, baling, moving bales and whatever.
Trust me.:)
 
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