# Tedder Operation



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

So you got your disc mower (or in my case a sickle mower) - no conditioning rolls, just a straight cutting mower.

You got grass hay like timothy or orchard grass vs alfalfa where leaf loss is a concern with tedders.

In as much as you don't have any roll or flail conditioning the hay off the cutter - what to do to speed up drying time?

When you ted your grass hay, do you run your tedder at full 540 rpms such that it not only spreads/fluffs the hay, but beats the crap out of the stems and in doing so, gives you some measure of conditioning.

Anyone use their tedder as (for lack of a better word), a poor man's flail conditioner?

Just curious.

Thanks!
Bill


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

If alfalfa is tedded at the proper time, you won't lose any leaves.

Almost everybody has a tedder around here, without it you could forget about making any kind of hay the last three years or so.

Ted alfalfa early in the morning while it still has plenty of dew on it, growing a grass along with it seems to protect the leaves as well. If alfalfa leaf loss is a problem then very likely the leaves could have been over conditioned when mown.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Some tedders can be adjusted for aggressiveness as well. Reel type tedders and the combo machines such as the nh 254/255 have pitch and cam settings from flat out beating the tar out of it to a gentle fluff. Bigger tedders also can be adjusted but its more of a time angle rpm thing. I've heard good things about Vermeer's hook tines.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

A couple of suggestions.

Run the tedder with no more than 350 rpm's better 300 rpm's. The idea is to stir up the hay & not sling it a half mile.

Rake or run a tedder immediately after mowing or at first light with a dew.

I Note Alfalfa will have less leaf shattering than bermudagrass hay. My baler collects way more bermudagrass leaves than I ever have with alfalfa.

The idea is to have the leaf moisture down to 40% by the start of the first night. 
We want the sun to shine on the hay. It will heat the sap, raise the vapor pressure in the stems, sot the steam will drive the moisture out the nearest openings.

We want to start baling when the humidity is down to 70% for small bales or 65% humidity for larger bales.
We want to be done baling before the humidity goes down to 50% humidity, AS measured Down Next To the hay. I use a large/Jumbo Display Hygro-Thermometer $28 plus shipping and handling


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I try to run my tedder at about 400 RPM, give or take. I want the hay flung so that it just overlaps into the next windrow a little. If it is heavier, wetter or thicker, I might run a little more RPM. Lighter--a little slower.

Ralph


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

I believe that the speed is subjective. I run a 4 basket Krone tedder. Krone also claims their tedders to be rakes...and they are...sorta. They rake a little (not evenly spread) when tedding and ted a little (crappy windrow) when raking. The manual, while not giving specific RPMs, advises to run high PTO rpm and slow ground speed (4-6 KmPH) when tedding and higher ground speed (6-8 KmPH) and slower PTO speed when raking. I only relay that to illustrate that different tedders ted best at various RPMs/ground speeds. If I were to run my tedder at RJMoses' speed, I would have 2 crappy windrows. I have to run 540-560 RPM pto speed at 3-4 MPH to get a good spread. I am DEFINATELY not saying that RJMoses in incorrect. I believe he and I are BOTH correct as we have different equipment and probably different crops.

Just food for thought.

73, Mark


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

glasswrongsize said:


> I believe that the speed is subjective
> 
> .....
> 
> ...


Right on!

A lot of it has to do with the angle of the tine basket--a steeper angle will tend to throw further. My moco runs about 20' for two windrows. Two of my moco windrows are about 16' edge to edge when I have the gates fully open. My tedder is about 19'. I set the tines so that they run about 1.5" off the ground.

This combination then allows me to spread the two windrows pretty evenly over the full 20'. I vary the PTO speed and ground speed so that I am not throwing too far and not too narrow depending on the crop and density.

Ralph


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## krone.1 (Jul 28, 2013)

This is to clarify our tedders ability to rake. We offer a nightswathing gearbox attachment for our larger tedders. The purpose is to bring the crop in to a windrow to minimize the amount crop exposure to dew. After the ground and crop dries off, the tedder is used to spread the crop back out. This process is more popular in Europe than here in North America. Feedback from customers indicate that it has merit. The attachment is a reduction gearbox that slows the rotor speed down. I don't think you would be able to bale the windrows due to the close distance between them.


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## JayTN (Jul 12, 2015)

Like Hay Wilson stated, I run my tedder at a lower rpm and generally as soon as my mower leaves the field. I just want to fluff the Bermuda a little and get it off the ground to get better airflow. If the ground has a lot of moisture and I feel the need to tedder a second time, it's in the morning before the dew burns off.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Regarding the notion of revving up the tedder to use it as a conditioner: I think if you want to make a conditioning pass after the mower, you should just find an old pull type conditioner.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Krone 1, Thank you for that explanation. I have the 4 basket (IIRC without getting out of my chair to go look or get the manual KRONE KW5.52/4x7) and I really like it. I think I could split firewood with it, if I were to run over a log. I have baled behind it when baling far from home and not wanting to transport a rake. I adjusted the angle and slowed the RPMs&#8230;worked just fine for my application and saved another round trip to fetch a rake. I read another post about adjusting the angle of attack on the tines&#8230;can't wait to try that next year!
73, Mark


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## RobertFYoung (Sep 23, 2021)

glasswrongsize said:


> I believe that the speed is subjective. I run a 4 basket Krone tedder. Krone also claims their tedders to be rakes...and they are...sorta. They rake a little (not evenly spread) when tedding and ted a little (crappy windrow) when raking. The manual, while not giving specific RPMs, advises to run high PTO rpm and slow ground speed (4-6 KmPH) when tedding and higher ground speed (6-8 KmPH) and slower PTO speed when raking. I only relay that to illustrate that different tedders ted best at various RPMs/ground speeds. If I were to run my tedder at RJMoses' speed, I would have 2 crappy windrows. I have to run 540-560 RPM pto speed at 3-4 MPH to get a good spread. I am DEFINATELY not saying that RJMoses in incorrect. I believe he and I are BOTH correct as we have different equipment and probably different crops.
> 
> Just food for thought.
> 
> 73, Mark


Mark, which tine angle setting and wheel height settings are you using? With my new Krone KT5.52T I'm using the most aggressive sweeping angle (which unfortunately still looks vertical) and the third highest wheel height (for the second steepest throw angle) and at 540 rpm when the long hay is mostly dry it still windrows pretty badly on long leafy second cut hay even at 540 RPM and low ground speed (3mph or lower). Worse with higher ground speed or lower rpm. I also tried all the other wheel heights -- didn't help. The less aggressive tine angle was worse. With mostly dry stemmy originally long stemmy first cut hay has been beat to death so that it is broken into shorter pieces somewhat shorter, win which case at 540 RPM and 3 mph ground speed I eventually get a decent spread. In contrast, my old Sitrex ST520 T, which is missing 2 arms on one hub and 20% of the tines and with a lot of play in the hubs that results in self-destruction if I put all the tines on, spreads almost perfectly at 320 rpm at 8 mph ground speed. Fast, fuel efficient, more relaxing, and very effective. Too bad the bearings are failing. It seems that many people don't ted once hay is mostly dry moisture wise, which occurs about half way through the drying process time-wise. Some rake before it's completely dry. For those types the Krone may be fine. But in my climate, especially when there are thick patches, I usually need to keep tedding almost dry hay to get it dry enough before the weather window closes. It seems clear that the Krone tedder was a mistake, except for the angle tedding feature that is very helpful to move hay away from tree lines. I'm hoping there's some way to modify the Krone to make it work well -- maybe texturing the tines so the hay doesn't slip off as fast? Maybe some clip or tines that allow the tine sweep angle to lead with the tips to help hay stay on the tines longer to get flung wider. I'd like it to work, because I really like the oblique tedding feature, and don't want to take a loss on resale either.


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## Edd in KY (Jul 16, 2009)

Wow...I guess I have been pretty naive about this whole tedding process for the last 20 years. I just run a tedder at a moderate speed to get to mower clumps ripped part, bottom hay flipped to the top, and to raise the hay up off the ground to let the air blow under it. It seems to work pretty well. I've made thousands of bales of very nice thoroughbred horse hay in my naivete. I think I'll just keep doing it, turning my hay over, spreading it out, and getting it off the ground to let the air blow through it, and the sun dry it.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Edd in KY said:


> Wow...I guess I have been pretty naive about this whole tedding process for the last 20 years. I just run a tedder at a moderate speed to get to mower clumps ripped part, bottom hay flipped to the top, and to raise the hay up off the ground to let the air blow under it. It seems to work pretty well. I've made thousands of bales of very nice thoroughbred horse hay in my naivete. I think I'll just keep doing it, turning my hay over, spreading it out, and getting it off the ground to let the air blow through it, and the sun dry it.


Everything in hay can be summarized in two words: "It depends...."

Consider that you are always playing off objectives against one another--like drying time vs color vs ground moisture vs crop density vs...get the picture?

Usually, I'm going for drying time while sacrificing product color. Spreading a windrow edge to edge helps speed drying but sun bleaching lowers product color (eye appeal for the casual horse customer). I can get away with this because I produce primarily for my own use while selling surplus to other horse customers.

BUT, if the ground is wet, I might go for more fluffing to get the hay up off the ground and allow more airflow.

Hope this helps.

Ralph


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

RobertFYoung said:


> Mark, which tine angle setting and wheel height settings are you using? With my new Krone KT5.52T I'm using the most aggressive sweeping angle (which unfortunately still looks vertical) and the third highest wheel height (for the second steepest throw angle) and at 540 rpm when the long hay is mostly dry it still windrows pretty badly on long leafy second cut hay even at 540 RPM and low ground speed (3mph or lower). Worse with higher ground speed or lower rpm. I also tried all the other wheel heights -- didn't help. The less aggressive tine angle was worse. With mostly dry stemmy originally long stemmy first cut hay has been beat to death so that it is broken into shorter pieces somewhat shorter, win which case at 540 RPM and 3 mph ground speed I eventually get a decent spread. In contrast, my old Sitrex ST520 T, which is missing 2 arms on one hub and 20% of the tines and with a lot of play in the hubs that results in self-destruction if I put all the tines on, spreads almost perfectly at 320 rpm at 8 mph ground speed. Fast, fuel efficient, more relaxing, and very effective. Too bad the bearings are failing. It seems that many people don't ted once hay is mostly dry moisture wise, which occurs about half way through the drying process time-wise. Some rake before it's completely dry. For those types the Krone may be fine. But in my climate, especially when there are thick patches, I usually need to keep tedding almost dry hay to get it dry enough before the weather window closes. It seems clear that the Krone tedder was a mistake, except for the angle tedding feature that is very helpful to move hay away from tree lines. I'm hoping there's some way to modify the Krone to make it work well -- maybe texturing the tines so the hay doesn't slip off as fast? Maybe some clip or tines that allow the tine sweep angle to lead with the tips to help hay stay on the tines longer to get flung wider. I'd like it to work, because I really like the oblique tedding feature, and don't want to take a loss on resale either.


Lol. Doesn’t like Krone. You can bet your ass the arms won’t break off the Krone.


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

I run a Krone 4 basket right behind my MOCO. I am amazed at how evenly the tedder lays out the grass hay. No clumps or lumps. I don't have the wheels jacked up. They are set at the next to lowest setting and run the tedder at 540.


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