# flat out or in a big winrow?



## rank (Apr 15, 2009)

How do you leave your hay when there's rain on the way?


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## hunt2r (Dec 4, 2008)

I like to see spread out with the tedder. Seems to start drying better and less of a chance of heating up when it does start to dry.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

HERE I would put it in a narrow windrow.If I put it in a wide windrow and get a pounding rain it can get pounded thru the stuble and not be able to get it all raked back up.And if its in a wide windrow and gets a rain it realy gets bleached out.This is for alfalfa, grass always wide windrows 10' wide with a 13.4' head.


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## rank (Apr 15, 2009)

Last week we went the tedded route with some 2nd cut alfalfa and it got pounded in the ground just like you say SWNM. This time I'm thinking a narrow winrow and tedd after the rain.


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## Ridgerunner (Jul 10, 2009)

Is it difficult to tedder a big wet windrow?


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## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

Ridgerunner said:


> Is it difficult to tedder a big wet windrow?


Ridgerunner i think it is hard to get it spread out good. I like mine spread out with a tedder if its going to get wet, It dries better spread out besides by the time the fields dry enough to get back on it in a windrow it will get real hot here. My hay once it gets wet is cow hay anyways here. My wheel rake cleans it off the ground pretty good also and if their is alittle dirt in it the cows dont care .
THOMAS


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## rank (Apr 15, 2009)

Ridgerunner said:


> Is it difficult to tedder a big wet windrow?


Yeah, if they're too big they are. I was tedding straw windrows last year....30' head on the combine. Fun.


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## Hayguy (Jun 4, 2008)

swmnhay said:


> HERE I would put it in a narrow windrow.If I put it in a wide windrow and get a pounding rain it can get pounded thru the stuble and not be able to get it all raked back up.And if its in a wide windrow and gets a rain it realy gets bleached out.This is for alfalfa, grass always wide windrows 10' wide with a 13.4' head.


Why do you treat grass hay any different than alfalfa? I've always thought the grass seemed to bleach out more than the alfalfa besides drying about twice as fast.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Hayguy said:


> Why do you treat grass hay any different than alfalfa? I've always thought the grass seemed to bleach out more than the alfalfa besides drying about twice as fast.


If I put grass in a tight windrow it will not dry out.That would be slew grass or Ryegrass which can be huge windrows 2.5-4 ton acre on first cut.There is also more stubble to hold it up than straight alf.With Alf/Orch mix I put it in windrow like alf.


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## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

I wonder if putting a presentive on at cutting would help any with the bleaching. Personally I would spread it wide, get it dried down quicker, and put it up as wrapped bales if the rain was coming. But if you don't have a market for wrapped bales then you stuck between a rock and a hard place. Great question Rank, definitely not a quick and easy answer.


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## Hayguy (Jun 4, 2008)

I think the bleaching effect after a rain depends on the size of the windrow and how much of the hay is exposed to the sun when it is wet. Also, the number of hours of sunlight, the intensity of the sun and if you have high humidity affect the bleaching action. I can remember several times when we have had real high humidity and temps in the high 80sor 90s and the hay just seemed to broil. It went from a nice green color to an ugly greenish brown in no time at all. I have found that our tedder does a better job in windrowed hay than in hay that was laid out in a swath - especially in shorter stemmed hay and hay that was rained on. Seems to me that the small diameter baskets on a rotary tedder just don't have enough ground contact to effectively pick up the hay in those conditions.


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## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

Got a neighbor whose swears by what you described Hayguy-windrow and come through next day with a tedder. He sells a lot of dairy round bales.

Seems the wide swaths would fit better in a silage/balage situation where you weren't leaving the hay lay as long in the field. But if a guy had an inverter he could probably get in and pick the wide swath up and lay it over fairly easily and then get it dried.


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## stevemsinger (Jul 8, 2009)

Personally I like it tedded out. It doesn't take as long to dry and therefore is not exposed to the sunlight as long. We have left it in windrows when we get caught but it is harder on the hay, I think. Tougher to get it spread back out and then it does seem to bleach more.


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## 4020man (Jun 21, 2008)

We let outs sit in the windrow if its going to rain, then tedd it after the rain dries off. We have had pretty good luck doing it that way. There is still some bleaching, but its usually not bad(unless it has to sit through 2 or 3 rains.


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