# Raking For Drying Hay - Anyone Do This Anymore????



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Edit - meant this to go into the Alfalfa/Hay section - been a long day...

Grass hay - timothy, orchard grass, teff....

Laying down some thoughts going into this Summer's hay season and how best to approach it for "us" and our time schedules after the day job is finished for the day/weekend.

With tedders on the scene - pretty much everything I read and see is - folks ted their hay, then another day rake and immediately bale - same day. Baling right behind the rake.

"Windrow" comes to mind. Is the concept of using a windrow to dry down hay obsolete now with a tedder?

As an example, I'm thinking we are going to (again around the day job schedule) cut/condition via haybine on a Thursday evening after work, ted the next morning after the dew is coming off, rake on Saturday and bale on Sunday. 4 day turn around.

All of the above assumes the weather cooperates.... 

Want the hay to be dry and want to retain as much color as possible.

I'm not sure we can make 3 day hay in our mountains, but we are open to it - especially with having a haybine now. Also considering adding some propionic acid too. 3 day hay would definitely be new territory for us.

But - fluffy windrows - only purpose these days - for you're operation, just to get the hay lined up for the baler - drying was taken care of by mower/conditioner and tedding. Are you baling right behind the rake?

Is the idea of raking - for drying, the day before just an oblosete idea from days gone by when there were no tedders?

It would free up a lot of labor, tractors and utilize available time around the day job to rake the day before baling - and MAYBE utilize the "wind" to dry out the windrow.

Just curious.

Thanks!

Bill


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

It's only obsolete if you want it to be... Of course a lot of it depends on your local climate and conditions...

For us here on the Gulf Coast, I can typically cut one day, rake the next, bale the third day, and have good dry hay at storable moisture without any problems. Most other guys around here like to cut the hay, lay it out flat with a disk mower, leave it set 3-4 days, then rake and bale one right behind the other... IMHO their hay looks like wheat bedding straw and personally I wouldn't give a plug nickel for it. I'm not talking coarse stemmed stuff like sorghum/sudan either, I'm talking fine stemmed bermudagrass hay. I've grown haygrazer in the old days with no conditioner and yeah you have to leave it lie for 3-4 days to get the stems dry enough to bale... sometimes more.

Personally I like drying in the windrow... I read years ago that really the proper moisture to rake at is about 50%-- which is visually, wilted flat. I put it in a nice fluffy windrow (well, nice as I can get out of a 256/258 NH rolabar dual rake setup, which ain't as nice as those rotary rakes, but they cost about 1/10th as much too) and let the wind have at it... I like to minimize the sun bleaching because that does more to burn out the color and overdry the leaves than anything IMHO. Air movement is what dries the crop. When I can do the 'twist test" and not come up with any moisture or smell of moisture, it's ready to bale.

Works for me. If I were putting up alfalfa or lived in a markedly different climate, I'd certainly do things differently... key is finding what works for YOU where you are and what will make a good product for you.

later! OL J R


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

A few times, I have raked a day before, then flipped the windrow the next day when the hay had been rained on after being tedded. I did this to get the hay up off the wet ground and allow the ground to dry out a little.

My thinking was that tedding a second time over wet ground would mashed the hay into the ground under wheels as well as keep the ground wet when it came time to bale.

The hay under these circumstances made excellent ditch hay!

Ralph


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Bill, other than there are simply no weather related absolutes in hay farming other than drought always equals reduced yields here goes:

For best quality horse hay I typically cut in the morning one day, ted either that afternoon or the next morning after dew burnoff, ted again in 4 dry hours then wait and see the following day. We often have to rake hay to get it off damp ground and short of raking it, just won't cure. Last year was a nightmare with all the rain and damp weather, well into July. Only had one field really get rained on, 3 straight days right the morning after cutting in the afternoon. Was forecast to be a passing shower-right, the showers passed and passed and passed. Tedded it 4 times and lots of it was still greenish, I fed it to horses without issue and it had a good smell. I think your weekend schedule is a bit optimistic, I only had one or two batches out of 15 that I was able to make on the weekend last year. I have a hay buddy who follows your schedule only longer, cuts one weekend with a discbine or sometimes mid week at night with the intent of baling on the weekend. He made a lot of worse that Ralph's ditch hay last year from some fairly respectable fields.

short answer is my hay always dries some by raking, I count on it. Sometimes if we are fighting a short weather window I will rake hay that is still not cured to keep it from getting any wetter than necessary from a coming shower or heavy dew and then ted it out in the morning to let it finish drying. rick


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

We always look at raking as the final step in getting hay dry enough to bale vs. just looking at it as getting hay into the form of something that can be put through the baler. Unless we have extremely good conditions (low humidity, breeze, bone dry ground, etc....which rarely all line up together) I just don't see how we would ever rake right behind the baler. Even if we let it lay an extra day or so if the ground is the least big damp the hay will never be perfectly dry until you get it up and air moving through it. A bigger thing we watch is how big of a windrow to make depending on the moisture of the hay and when we want/need to get it baled. In other words, if hay is pretty dry and we aren't worried about the weather that day we might make a bigger, thicker windrow. If the hay is a little damper and needs some extra help drying we may only rake a single or 1.5 windrows together so it airs out better once raked up. I've seen plenty of monster windrows raked up and there is no way there is any air getting into the middle of that windrow, so in those cases the hay is probably either tough or must have been bone dry when it was raked to begin with.

Our typical process, assuming decent weather, is mow in the evenings (works better with my schedule plus gives it a little extra drying time), ted the next morning or early afternoon, ted again the second morning (if needed) and then start raking as soon as the dew is off on day 3 and then bale later that day hopefully.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Trotwood2955 said:


> We always look at raking as the final step in getting hay dry enough to bale vs. just looking at it as getting hay into the form of something that can be put through the baler. Unless we have extremely good conditions (low humidity, breeze, bone dry ground, etc....which rarely all line up together) I just don't see how we would ever rake right behind the baler. Even if we let it lay an extra day or so if the ground is the least big damp the hay will never be perfectly dry until you get it up and air moving through it. A bigger thing we watch is how big of a windrow to make depending on the moisture of the hay and when we want/need to get it baled. In other words, if hay is pretty dry and we aren't worried about the weather that day we might make a bigger, thicker windrow. If the hay is a little damper and needs some extra help drying we may only rake a single or 1.5 windrows together so it airs out better once raked up. I've seen plenty of monster windrows raked up and there is no way there is any air getting into the middle of that windrow, so in those cases the hay is probably either tough or must have been bone dry when it was raked to begin with.
> 
> Our typical process, assuming decent weather, is mow in the evenings (works better with my schedule plus gives it a little extra drying time), ted the next morning or early afternoon, ted again the second morning (if needed) and then start raking as soon as the dew is off on day 3 and then bale later that day hopefully.


Nicely put Trotwood-sounded like va hay making to me


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## TORCH (Jan 7, 2012)

Isn't that how the saying came from?????

Make Hay when the sun shines?

The weather does not care if it is the weekend or not.

I would set up something with Boss to let you leave to do your hay and make up the hours!


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

I noticed a typo - "how we would ever rake hay right behind the baler"...that would be a pretty interesting trick to watch . But you know what I meant.

As someone who works a full-time job off the farm I can testify that having a job with flexible hours is very important to putting up quality hay. If I didn't have one with flexibility plus a wife at home on the farm full-time who can ted, rake, start baling as needed, there is no way we could do what we do and we'd probably be buying our hay instead of making it.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Our alfalfa we mow and let lay 2 sometimes 3 days then rake in the morning when its raggey. The fluffy windrows then allow our ever present ND wind to blow through and dry down nicely. Usually I can bale that evening but sometimes have to give it an extra day. depends on the weather.

Grass hay is generally mow one day rake and bale the next. rake right in front of the baler. That can change to depending on weather and how thick of crop there is. Oat hay cut in the milk to early dough stage takes 3 days plus to get dry up here. Oat hay is another one I like to rake and then wait a day to bale. Allow the wind to blow through and dry it more.

I honestly didn't know what a tedder was till I came on this site. Never seen one around here.


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## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

If there is a lot of clover or lespedeza in my hay, it gets raked way before leaf loss is much of an issue. Just figure if the baler shatters it most will go in the bale anyway. I learned that from my granddad, I remember him going to check the hay every hour on the hour to determine the best time to rake saying it's always better to have it dry in the windrow than to have a lot of shatter. Another plus is that it gives those tall big windrows in heavy hay some time to settle a bit. So yes, it's still done by some.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Yep, if I left my hay lay till it was dry clear thru than I'd loose all the leaves from the alfalfa or would have to wait till the next morning to rake which means more bleaching from the dew.


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

Yes, definitely get a more flexible off-farm job. Mine is in research, very flexible.

Air movement does more to evaporate moisture than warmth. I do use a tedder but I like to leave hay in a windrow for at least half a day before baling. I am in an area where it is not easy to dry hay.

Roger


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

In a perfect world I V rake 2 swathes together when it has dried down to around 40% rake the following morning with the dew or as its comeing off as not to make a rope if to dewy.Let get bone dry that day and bale with a dew at night or following morning.Stems are bone dry but leaves are damp and save all the leaves.


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## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

Hear if mother nature is on board I like to cut late evening and night Ted the next morning and then again the next morning and then rake the next morning and then by the time I get it all raked start bailing.


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## tjandrews (Mar 13, 2016)

We just got our first tedder a few days ago, so yeah, we definitely use the rake.

We used to cut with a sickle bar mower, then follow up with a conditioner, but we always left our hay spread out so the sun could do its job on it. We still do the same now that we use a haybine. We grow an alfalfa/grass mixture, mostly heavier toward the grass. When baling first for horses, under "normal" weather (still waiting to see some of that), our preferred procedure is to mow in the evening, then let the hay sit through the day. The next day the hay is ready to rake when the top feels dry, usually by around noon. The rake rolls the top of the swath into the center, leaving slightly damp hay on top and bottom. Depending on humidity, amount of sun, and wind, the hay will be ready to bale into small squares an hour or two later. It will be very dry on all but the very bottom surface, unless it's very heavy hay. The dry hay will take up the small amount of moisture still there while in the bale. Wait until all the hay is bone dry, and the hay loses all its "life," making it very difficult to make the good, heavy bale our customers like. (It takes years of experience to know when it's "right" by feel alone.) Easily as important as baling at the right time is stacking it in the barn correctly to finish the curing process.

Later in the year, when the days are shorter and the temperatures cooler, it takes longer. But, we still do it the same way.


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