Hay mergers have been around for a couple of decades. Yet some manufacturers and dealers say interest in this type of equipment has begun to pick up some serious steam in recent years.
“Compared to the more traditional wheel rakes and rotary rakes, mergers can still be viewed as a newer concept that is still coming along,” says Travis Wolf, product specialist for hay and forage equipment at Kuhn. “Mergers also cost more than those traditional gathering implements. As farms continue to become more advanced and look for more efficient ways of doing things, something like a merger starts to fall into place. We’ve really seen this concept start to take off over the past 5 years.”
Hay mergers do precisely what their name implies. They merge multiple windrows into one, helping reduce the number of field passes needed to harvest those windrows. The associated cost reduction in labor and fuel is perhaps the best way for a dealer to articulate the ROI. It’s not always an easy sell, though.
Dealer Takeaways
- Interest in hay mergers is growing as dairy farms and custom choppers seek efficiency gains and tighter hay production windows.
- A merger requires a considerably larger investment than a rake, so the ROI should be based on a combination of economic and agronomic benefits.
- Economic benefits include reduced time spent harvesting, reduced chopper use and faster hay production.
- Agronomic benefits include reduced soil compaction due to reduced number of field passes with a harvester, reduced ash content in the forage, faster dry-down and overall better forage quality for a higher-quality feed.
- Helping customers choose the right size merger for their operation largely depends on the size of mower and harvester they are using.
“There is a lot of awareness of hay mergers in the market,” says Jordan Kriesel, product manager for Oxbo Forage, which manufactures Oxbo and H&S hay mergers. “Both brands have been leaders in the merger market for over 20 years. Now there are getting to be more and more names in the market. Regardless, there is nothing easy about a dealer convincing the customer to buy a hay merger. A hay merger is a very expensive piece of what farmers need to put haylage up in the bunk.”
It’s typically easier to make the case to larger operations that can generate an ROI in a shorter timeframe.
“With the dairy expansion and growing of herd sizes, we’ve also seen an increase in land base. That has led to more dairies purchasing self-propelled choppers and mergers in recent years,” says Jake Meier, an outside sales rep with Johnson Tractor’s Baldwin, Wis., store. Johnson Tractor operates 11 locations scattered across Illinois and Wisconsin. The dealership has sold H&S mergers for years. Now, with its recent acquisition of St. Joseph Equipment in La Crosse and Richland Center, Wis., Meier says they’ll also begin selling Anderson and Kuhn mergers.
The desire for more productivity isn’t the only factor driving interest in hay mergers. Feed quality is just as important to a lot of customers, including smaller dairy operations, and hay mergers can help create higher-quality forage material.
“All dairy farmers are wanting higher-quality silage with increased relative feed value and an increase in micronutrients,” Meier says. “ROI on a hay merger (for a dairy farmer) really comes down to a decrease in cost on choppers and an increase in milk production and weight gains. With today’s merger offerings of many different sizes, there is a merger for just about any size operation, from the guy running a pull-type chopper to a 1,000 horsepower self-propelled chopper.”
A 14-location dealership in northeastern Wisconsin has also had success selling mergers to smaller operations. Used equipment is helping to expand the market.

Kuhn’s MM 701 is a trailed twin merger with 24 feet of working width. It’s capable of merging to the left, right or 50/50. A floating windguard ensures smooth windrows to make the harvester more efficient. Crop netting improves leaf retention in the windrow. Mechanical flotation of each head eliminates the need to engage float via the tractor’s hydraulics. Kuhn
“We’re selling mergers to everyone from your large custom operators all the way down to 100-cow dairies,” says Craig Wilkens, regional sales manager at Riesterer & Schnell, a John Deere dealership that also sells Oxbo mergers. “A lot of farmers end up buying a used merger because they’re preparing for the future and what they’re looking to do down the road, but not spend quite so much money right away.”
“It’s clearly a growing market,” adds Dan Ramker, owner of Cherokee Garage in Colby, Wis., a New Holland dealership whose product offering also includes Kuhn and H&S mergers. “As choppers get bigger and everybody wants to make their hay faster, everybody needs a merger. It’s just a matter of trying to justify a $150,000 investment if you’re only doing 100 acres. But for the guy doing 500 acres or more, it makes a lot of sense.”
Economics & Agronomics
Cherokee Garage primarily sells larger mergers that have 2 or 3 pickup heads, referred to as twin and triple mergers. It had primarily sold single mergers years ago. But nowadays, the dealership’s biggest customer segment is custom choppers who want big productivity.
“We have some customers who are doing 1,200-1,500 acres and want to make their hay in 3 days,” Ramker says. “Weather windows are getting tighter and more unpredictable,” adds Nathan Lieders, a sales rep at Cherokee Garage who will likely take over the business in the near future. “The faster a custom chopper can get their hay off the field, the better.”

The UF6136 Ultra-Flex from H&S is a triple-head merger with 36 feet of continuing working width. It’s ISOBUS-ready with Aux-N capabilities. Other features include a wide 42-inch cross conveyor belt, self-contained hydraulic system so no tractor remotes are needed, and a patent pending self-contained steering system. H&S Mfg.
The big economic benefit for these big operators is the reduction in passes across the field. Reducing the number of windrows by one-half to two-thirds, if not more, means the chopper can harvest more in less time.
“When you get down to it, the harvester is the most expensive machine to run,” Ramker says. “The less hours a farmer can put on the harvester, the better off they are.”
The consistent windrows a merger delivers also makes things easier on the chopper. “Smooth windrows help increase chopper speed while reducing the amount of fuel it burns,” Kriesel points out.
There are also agronomic benefits to using a hay merger. It starts with those consistent windrows.
“Windrow consistency helps ensure more consistent dry-down as compared to what a wheel rake or rotary rake provides,” Wolf says. “That consistency leads to more consistent material being fed into the chopper or baler. That leads to more consistent particle length which improves the quality of the final feed.”
The gentle lifting and inverting of the forage onto the hay merger’s conveyor belt also improves forage quality.

Anderson’s MergePro915 hay merger features a camless 6 row pickup reel means, no unnecessary bearings, control rollers, curved tracks and tine carrier profiles. The camless pick up also allows for maximum working speeds of 0-18 mph. And, adaptive true ground speed technology allows the pickup and belt to be constantly monitoring the ground speed and adjusting themselves to deliver constant and equal crop on the belt, ensuring consistent swath. Oxbo
“Rakes tend to pick up a lot of dirt and rocks, which can be hard on a chopper,” Wilkens says. “That doesn’t happen with a merger. It’s all about how the pickup comes up. You’re not flinging it as fast. A rake creates a lot of friction because you’re dragging it across the ground. A merger flips the crop up on a belt. The ultimate goal is less leaf loss because the nutrition is in that leaf. A merger accomplishes that.”
Reduced ash content, resulting from less dirt making its way into the windrow, is another benefit of using a hay merger. “Less ash in the cow feed means the cow is going to live longer,” Kriesel says.
“With a ground-driven wheel rake, every wheel is scratching the dirt,” Wolf explains. “Some of that dirt ends up getting incorporated into the windrow, which then affects the quality of the feed. A merger, on the other hand, utilizes pickup tines that do not come into contact with the ground. And with the merger belts being able to carry that window a certain distance, there is no contact with the ground during the transition, either.”
Sizing Up New Buyers
The economic and agronomic benefits of utilizing a hay merger apply to any farmer. For those who’ve never purchased a hay merger before, the versatility of today’s more advanced equipment is important to touch on.
“A good merger can handle just about anything today,” Ramker says. “Looking back 10 years ago, you might have had trouble with something like rye. Not anymore. We even have some customers who are using a merger to merge corn stalks when they make corn fodder. They’ll go out behind the combine with a merger.”
There are different types and sizes of hay mergers. Helping the customer choose the best option for them requires an understanding of the other machinery they’re using in their hay operation, the types of ground conditions they are contending with, and what their personal preferences are with respect to windrow delivery.
“ROI on a hay merger for a dairy farmer really comes down to a decrease in cost on choppers and an increase in milk production and weight gains…”
First of all, there are trailed mergers that are pulled by a tractor. As touched on earlier, they are offered in single-, twin- and triple-head configurations. More heads mean more working width and larger windrows. There are also mounted mergers, which attach to the front of a self-propelled chassis. They are offered in a twin-head configuration. Mounted mergers are unique to the Kuhn brand at this point, and are currently designed to work with select models of MacDon self-propelled windrowers.
Wolf says trailed mergers are by far the most common style. “Any mid-size tractor in the 200- to 250-hp range will work well,” Wolf says. “Trailed mergers follow the ground really well, so they are effective on rolling terrain. Farmers also have the option of larger working widths when running a trailed merger.”
Mounted mergers are a relatively new concept. Wolf says they tend to be most effective on flat terrain, such as in flood-irrigated fields. They also provide enhanced visibility because the merger is in front of the machine. Many larger dairy farms already own a self-propelled windrower, so they’ll sometimes opt for a mounted merger if those other conditions also exist. The one downside is that the farmer is limited on their working width. Case in point, Kuhn’s twin-head mounted merger is offered in a 24- or 30-foot working width. Their twin- and triple-head trailed mergers can go as large as 36 or 42 feet.
Working width is a key consideration when helping a farmer choose the right merger. In fact, Wolf says the first thing a dealer should do is ask about the customer’s current mower size. Knowing that working width will help match up the windrows and enable the farmer to deposit the forage onto the next windrow.

The 2340 Forage Merger from Oxbo features a 40-foot pickup and 40-inch-wide conveyor belt for handling large volumes of even heavy, dense crop. An innovative hydraulic float system helps this triple merger smoothly follow the ground. Single-switch control makes it easy to raise, lower, fold and unfold the heads. Oxbo
“A 30-foot disc mower and 30-foot merger would match very well,” Lieders cites as an example. “But some mowers are cutting over 30 feet now. Then we’ll push that customer up into a 36-foot merger. It all depends on what they are mowing with.”
It’s arguably even more important to determine how the farmer is planning to take the forage out of the field. Wolf says most farmers like to follow the merger with a chopper. Choppers can handle more volume, so it might be advantageous to lean toward a larger merger. That said, there is always a limit.
“You don’t want to merge too much together if you’re still running a small pull-type chopper,” Lieders points out.
“If the customer will be coming in with a smaller 400-horsepower harvester, a 40-foot merger is going to be too much for them, especially with those heavier crops,” Wilkens adds. “We’ll explain how the right size is going to be a 34-footer, or maybe the 28-footer Oxbo came out with a couple years ago.”

The PÖTTINGER MERGENTO VT 9220 has a working width of up to 30 feet for a center swath, or up to 28.2 feet for a side swath, combines maximum versatility and unique reliability when raking any type of crop to deliver the highest quality forage, the company says. Pöttinger
Dealers should also inquire about the customer’s longer-term goals. “If the customer tells me they are planning to grow, we might go ahead and size them a little large for their current operation because we’re sizing them for the future,” Wilkens says.
It’s also important to understand the types of crops the customer is working with. While mergers can generally handle just about anything, some crops pose more challenges than others.
“Some cover crops like triticale or peas and oats are big, heavy and hard to merge,” Wilkens points out. “A smaller merger might be better in that type of situation so you’re not trying to move so much. The problem is that the farmer might be undersized if they are also doing other types of crops. A good approach is to size the merger for their main crop, which around here is alfalfa. Then with some of those heavy crops, the customer just needs to recognize that it may not take two passes. They may just merge 34 or 40 feet and flip it all by itself, just because it is such a big crop.”
Along those same lines, if the farmer is looking to bale their forage, a single-head merger will be the best fit since the baler needs to be capable of handling the throughput. A single-head merger will combine two windrows into one, so the final windrow won’t be so large.

A unique feature of PhiBer Mergers is the high rear drapers. This allows operators the clearance to install inverter chutes directing your windrows under itself, which greatly reduces drying time. Take the inverter chutes off and merge windrows for forage harvesters. From inverting single rows to merging five rows into one this is truly a versatile machine. PhiBer
Windrow delivery is another factor to discuss, because it essentially comes down to personal preference. A traditional hay merger delivers the windrow to either the left or right, which Wolf says is the most common choice for farmers. But some models also allow for center delivery. Wolf says that is becoming more popular now that awareness is improving.
“Center delivery could be an option on some twin-head mergers because each head can slide in/out, enabling the operator to run the windrows ‘in’ if they want,” Wolf explains. “It’s a good idea for the dealer to ask the farmer what their end goal is, because a center-delivery merger might support that goal very well. For example, center delivery can be advantageous in heavier crops like winter covers because the operator doesn’t have to deliver that heavy crop the entire width of the merger. Some farmers also like center delivery when they’re planning to bale dry hay. Center delivery also acts more like a traditional gathering method where a rake is going directly behind the operator. So for someone new to hay mergers, center delivery makes the transition from a rake a little easier.”
Innovation Helps Entice Existing Users
Even though the market for hay mergers is still developing, there are plenty of farmers and custom choppers who’ve been using them for years. When those experienced customers are looking to upgrade or replace their equipment, they’ll probably have a pretty good idea of what they need from a spec standpoint. That said, it’s always a good idea to revisit what their current operation looks like, and make sure they’re aware of how this product category continues to evolve.
“I have a customer who had two 34-foot mergers,” Wilkens relates. “We recently switched them over to two 40-footers. They experienced a 17% savings just from having to make fewer passes across the field every day.”

The R1 Merger Attachment from RCI Engineering allows merging of windrows with a John Deere self-propelled windrower in front of a self-propelled forage harvester, or in conditions that do not require wide swaths for dry-down. The R1 can eliminate the need for raking or merging passes through the field. RCI Engineering
“Since H&S came out with their new 36-foot merger, we have developed some marketing education because this is the largest merger H&S has ever offered,” Meier shares. “It’s also important to build awareness of technology changes like ISOBUS and new mechanics. Also, with new product offerings, manufacturers are always improving serviceability and uptime for the end-user. Those types of features can be explained during demos.”
Wilkens tends to focus on one thing: simplicity.
“Oxbo mergers in particular are very simple,” Wilkens says. “They also seem to have really good resale value due to their simple, yet stout, construction.”
Resale value is something worth pointing out to customers who are on the fence about investing in a merger. Solid resale value helps blunt some of the upfront sticker shock, at least for farmers who can see the bigger picture and understand total lifecycle cost.
Dealers can help customers see that bigger picture, all while educating new buyers and helping to facilitate a healthy secondary market for used mergers. And when those used buyers are ready to go all in on a brand new merger, they’re likely to come back to the dealer they can trust.
The Evolution of Modern Mergers
Hay mergers have continued to get bigger and better over the course of their 20-plus-year existence. Here’s a look at what some leading manufacturers and dealers say are among the most valuable product innovations that help convince hesitant buyers to ultimately pull the trigger on a hay merger purchase.
Crop Control
The ROI on a hay merger ties to cost savings from more field productivity, along with improved animal health and milk yield from helping to deliver a higher-quality forage for feed. Features that improve the process of efficiently creating clean, consistent windrows are good for dealers to highlight.
With respect to H&S’s triple-head UF6136 Ultra-Flex merger, the 12-foot pickup head and cam-center drive design enable even crop flow. “That reduces bunching and wadding of hay,” says dealer Jake Meier of Johnson Tractor, which operates 11 locations in Illinois and Wisconsin. “H&S mergers also have a soft shoe suspension, which decreases scuffing and field damage. That allows the crop to come back quickly.”
H&S mergers, along with sister brand Oxbo, also feature a large-diameter pickup cam, which makes things gentler on the crop. Additionally, a larger conveyor belt comes in handy when merging heavier crops. “The merger won’t plug, and it also helps ensure smooth windrows,” says Jordan Kriesel, product manager for Oxbo Forage.
Kuhn mergers feature a unique curved windguard that helps create fluffy, well-formed windrows by keeping the crop close to the pickup and delivering it to the center of the belt. “Windrow consistency helps ensure more consistent dry-down,” says Travis Wolf, product specialist for hay and forage equipment at Kuhn.
Simplicity & Ease of Operation
Staying with the Kuhn brand, the IntelliMerge ISOBUS control system allows the operator to conveniently control the entire machine from the monitor in the cab. “It’s essentially plug-and-play right into the tractor, and is standard on all of our twin and triple mergers,” Wolf says.
ISOBUS controls are also standard on H&S mergers. “This allows operators to control all machine operation with the auxiliary joystick,” Kriesel says. “Operators are able to adjust the float system on the fly, which helps in changing field conditions throughout the day. Operators can also change the speed of the pickup tines from the cab of the tractor. This is helpful when merging light crops.”
With the Oxbo brand, Kriesel points to the simple design and easy toggle switch control box that makes it easy to fold and unfold the merger. “The folding system uses a compound angle which eliminates the need for 2 cylinders to do the folding sequence,” Kriesel says. “This is a popular feature because it’s 1 less cylinder.”
When selling to farmers, Meier likes to call attention to the larger, self-contained hydraulic system on an H&S merger. “No tractor remotes are needed,” he says. “The merger also doesn’t require huge amounts of tractor hydraulic capacity like some other ones do.”
Serviceability & Reliability
Kriesel also points to H&S’s self-contained hydraulic system, only from the standpoint of system reliability. Because the system is self-contained, it eliminates the opportunity for contamination.
Another feature Kriesel points to is how the steering system on an H&S merger can be locked out for road transport, which makes the machine more stable when driving at higher speeds.
Dealer Nathan Lieders, a sales rep with Cherokee Garage in Colby, Wis., likes how Kuhn has improved their pickups from a serviceability standpoint.
“There’s a poly band between the teeth that pick up the hay,” Lieders explains. “It used to be all steel. That forced you to take the entire band off in order to change a tooth. Now you just have to remove 1 bolt, fold the poly band open, and change a tooth if one happens to break.”
Also in the area of serviceability, Lieders likes Kuhn’s 2-piece bearing. “You can change a bearing on the pipe that holds the teeth, without having to take the entire head apart,” Lieders says. “It’s super slick and a huge time savings. Customers love that.”