# Tedder or not?



## Toddcr134

I am fairly new to farming and am renting 60 acres next year to cash crop high quality alphalfa for dairy farms around the area. I am looking for some advise on how to quickly get the hay to dry, and yet produce the highest quality hay. I would like to know if cutting with a 16 ft discbine and then tedding, would speed up my drying time? I believe it would, but wouldn't it also affect my quality of hay by using a Tedder? The other option would be to cut the hay with a 9 ft haybine and let it dry in a row. But, wouldn't that take longer to dry than tedding it? After, both I would end up raking before baling. I appreciate the advice.

Todd B


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## urednecku

I don't know anything about alfalfa, but wanted to welcome ya to the forum. There are lots of good people that do know about all there is to know about it, they should be by before long.


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## somedevildawg

Welcome to haytalk Todd, one rule of hay is real simple, it's only gonna dry if its on the ground...that being said if I could run a 16ft discbine or a 9ft haybine, the answer is fairly simple irregardless of any tedder action. There are others on this site more suited to tell you the advantages/disadvantages of a haybine vs a discbine in alfalfa....there seems to be significant advantages to each. In grass hay, in my locale it's a no brainer, the discbine of any size is better than a haybine of any size. Alfalfa has to be tedded at the correct moisture to prevent excessive leaf loss, but I believe you are correct that any amount of tedding action will lose some leaf and hence lose some quantity, albeit probably insignificant if done correctly, probably not any quality. A lot of people put wide swath kits on their machines to throw the forage over as much ground as possible leaving as wide a swath as possible to eliminate tedding as much as possible. Tedding affects your bottom line, here it's a necessary step, in your climate perhaps not as much.

Others will be along from your neck of the woods to let you know the pros/cons of each method used to grow and harvest prime quality alfalfa......it won't be an overnite learning experience however, this stuff looks fairly easy from the road but it can sometimes be a bear.....good luck in whatever you decide and once again, welcome to haytalk


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## urednecku

One thing dawg's post reminded me of, *if* you tedd, you do NOT have to turn the rpm's up on the tractor to the 540 mark. Just watch the job it's doing -spreading, chafe (leaves, etc.) flying,- & adjust throttle & ground speed accordingly.


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## Toddcr134

Thanks for the advice! I will probably start with the cheaper option of using the 9 ft haybine without the Tedder. I didn't think of making the row larger by opening up the back. That will probably help the alfalfa to dry quicker. Thanks again for the advice!


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## Grateful11

Many people around here open the back up to make a swath just to the point to where the tractor tires aren't running over the cut crop. This also allows the ground to dry out some between the swaths. If the ground is already dry and the crop is sitting up on the stubble that alone will help with drying. We've found it necessary to Ted here, knocks at least a day off drying time. Like urednecku said you don't want to beat the crop to death, just stir it around. We do a lot of soybean and millet hay here and if not tedded correctly and at the right time you knock a lot leaf off the soybeans and and lose a lot millet seeds off the millet. Sometimes my son gets a little carried away with the tedder and we have tell him slow it down.


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## deadmoose

Not many ted around here. But unless I was making low yield grass I wouldn't want to be without a tedder. Those guys out east know their stuff about tedding. If I lived where it doesn't rain like many out west I am sure the story would be different.


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## mlappin

Much prefer my 13' discbine over my 12' haybine to the point that even if you gave me a new 12' haybine I wouldn't use it.

That being said, here a tedder can range anywhere from knocking a day off the drying time to being indispensable in getting the hay to dry, in other words, no tedder, no dry hay.

Ted your hay while the dew is still on the plant in the mornings and leaf loss won't be a concern, over conditioning of the plant will cause more leaf loss than proper tedding.


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## eastsidehayguy

I would not run a haybine after running my diskbine, night day difference, pull my diskbine with a Mt525 at 12mph and make excellent time.. Cant do that with a haybine, at least I never have been able to do it. In 2013 I ran with all the diflectors off the back of my 1411 and spread the hay out at about 9.5' of the 11f' cut. did a very nice job of drying down..2014 tried it could not get hay to dry ground in eastern Michigan never dried, never got any heat this past summer either.. That being said I bought a tedder, it helped alot, and paid for itself because I saved what seemed to be a day of dry time.. One of the biggest problems I had this past year was no matter how hard i try I always run over hay. Generally not a big deal but, when the ground is wet the hay that was drove over would "stick" in the ground, and never dry. Then when I would rake it would pull up and give me wet clumps in my bales.. Before the end of 2014 hay season I was raking all my headland rows before they would get tedded just to bring the hay up that was stuck in the ground.. I know it may sound crazy but, our ground eastside Michigan never got dry this year..So answer to ted or not, I personally would prefer not to but, becomes a neccesity more times then not.


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## urednecku

> I know it may sound crazy but, our ground eastside Michigan never got dry this year.


I feel you. I have about 12 acres lower ground that was last cut in June. Every time I think I'll get to cut it we get another couple inches rain, takes a while for the ground to dry enough to drive over, much less dry hay. I did get to cut the higher ground the last week of October.


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## CaseIH84

What type of conditioner do the mowers have if any?

We do quite a bit of alfalfa here and we have had good luck mowing with JD 9' discbine with the flails. We windrow the hay up trying to minimize running over it. Then as soon as we are done mowing we ted the hay out. Our tedder does good job spreading the hay out over field to increase surface area to atmosphere. This seems to really help and minimizes leaf loss because hay is still wet. Then we will ted one more time the next morning right before the dew comes off. Then the alfalfa sits till about 30% moisture. When it reaches that we will rake and let drying finish off in windrow.

I agree with comments up above also about running tedder at 540 speed. We never run it that fast. Just fast enough to get a good spread on field.

I would think making alfalfa would be very difficult without tedder. At least here in our area as it is very difficult to get four or five days in a row of decent weather. Just my thoughts. Also welcome to the site. You will definitely find this site resourceful. I know I have.


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## rjmoses

Seeing that you're in Greenleaf, WI, I would suggest mowing today, tedding within 12 hours as a basic plan.

You're far enough north that your day-time temps and your ground temps will tend to be cooler, thereby making drying time longer. I would think that 4-5, maybe 6, days would be about average in your area. This, of course, depends on the time of the year, ground moisture, crop density and local humidity.

This being the case, it won't make too much difference what size mower. But I would suggest a mower-conditioner to crack the stems.

Hope this helps.

Ralph


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