# windrow size



## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

As many of you know I have a nh super 66 (low capacity baler) Last year I had issues with large windrows which caused me to have to travel super slow... at times even barely moving I'd clog up the pickup. I do have a motor on my baler which means I can stop and have full power still... That does help but still have issues.

I have 2-3 weeks until my field will have a chance of being dry enough to cut first cutting. The back field is already very thick and tall - mainly OG. I am already dreading managing the big windrows.

Does anyone have any advice to help me keep the windrow size down so I can travel at a respectable speed and make nice uniform bales. I rake with a nh 256 if that helps with any advice.


----------



## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

I don't recall if you Ted or not. If so, don't rake the full width. Make two smaller windrows close to each other but not touching. You will still have to contend with a full size windrow either in the middle or outside depending on your raking pattern


----------



## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I don't have a tedder. Maybe next year I'll be able to purchase one.


----------



## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I was thinking about raking the first loop in like normal and then doing the second pass outward to make that a double. Then try doing half bar length windrows and see how far I get until I run out of room. My issue is to much grass in to little of an area. I just don't have enough room in my small field to spread it out as thin as I want.


----------



## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

If you are raking 2 swathes together, that's your problem. I've always brought 2 swathes together with my 256 and never thought twice. I worked my way from the inside out. There are occasions I had to roll in neutral downhill on thick stuff when using the 269. Round baling there is never an issue except when the yield is so big in low spots I'd have to creep through at about 1-2 mph.

Just go clockwise the entire field if you start from the outside. Counter clockwise if you start from inside.


----------



## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Being you are cutting with a 6 or 7 foot mower (IDR), here is what I would do.

Start raking clock-wise raking second swath on top of first (second swath laying on top of outside round that you cut going counter-clockwise). Continue to rake clock-wise same as you cut, raking only one swath (6-7 foot cut) into a windrow. Going around and around in a circle doing all or almost all the field. Start baling on what was your third cut swath. Once you have baled most / all the field, go counter-clockwise baling swath number two but before baling this swath (cut swath number 2 the first one you raked), lift up your hay pickup so it is just about getting all the raked hay, leaving most of the outside un-raked swath. Then rake the outside swath, counter clock wise and bale.

Even with tedded hay you could do this, just don't take all the width of the rake into each windrow.

Kind of a PITA, but two tractors help (one on baler and one on rake), two people also a help, but could be done with less of each. As a kid, once in a while we had to do this, with the old JD14 and 24T, with ridiculously heavy hay, as a FYI.

The very outside round maybe a little 'tougher' in spots, so with weather permitting, leave it a while, to cure more could be in order.

My two pennies today.

Larry


----------



## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Instead of raking then baling, you could just bale, rake, bale. Bale the hay without raking; the pickup will pickup most of the grass and only as wide as the throat on the baler versus the rake-width worth of hay. You might leave a little grass behind, but, after you get the bales picked up, you can now rake the left-behind hay into double windrows and clean the field up nicely. The baler will do a surprising job of picking most of the hay up.

Mark


----------



## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

MyDaughtersPony said:


> I don't have a tedder. Maybe next year I'll be able to purchase one.


Being you a cutting with a sickle bar mower, you are 'spreading' your crop fairly wide already. IMHO, a tedder wouldn't give you as much bang for the buck as a mower/conditioner would (flail type, most likely better with grass, IDK if they made such a beast however).

The conditioning would help on the later part of the drying process (tedding helps with the first part of the drying process, with hay going from around 80% moisture to around 48% moisture).

Where my rational for this opinion comes from is a little info I gleaned from a guy who called himself HayWilson. I will try to attaching a little piece I saved of his wisdom, regarding the drying of hay (pan evaporation), spread at different widths and tonnages.

Larry


----------



## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Your baler is low capacity but it should be able to bale 8' of hay that your rake gathers if you go slow enough. You want to go slow anyway for best results. It may also help to go slower when raking. The baler will take more hay if windrows are in a shape more conducive to feeding into the pickup than what I remember seeing in your video last year.


----------



## kurt1981 (Apr 18, 2017)

I dont think it matters as much on a square baler but rake and bale to where your picking the heads of the crop up first maybe your knotting the hay up raking it and then feeding it stem first through the baler.. dont double windrow... make sure the knives on your baler are sharp and your knife clearance is correct if a 66 is a square baler. Make smaller windrows raking. Dont put down so much fertilizer.


----------



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

I have a New Holland 68 which I think is a low capacity baler - compared to newer balers like my JD348. However, don't tell the stacker on the wagon it's a low capacity baler as I can bury them if not careful.

We have a 7ft JD rake and this year a 8ft New Holland 56 rake. These old balers IMHO were made for a 7-8ft single windrow. If you limit the size to that AND run your baler full out at 540 PTO they will IMHO take most any single 7-8ft size windrow. You'll get bigger flakes and some variance in length with the bigger flakes, but the baler should handle it.

Question: How do you know you need to slow down and/or your windrows are to large? Have you jammed up the baler or stalled the engine? If not, I'd plow right through it.

YMMV

Good luck,
Bill


----------



## MyDaughtersPony (Jun 12, 2016)

I have an on board motor and I run it full throttle. I have jammed the pick up a couple times but I've also jammed it up and busted the wadboard drive chain.... On my 66 there is a access door so you can look in the area where the wadboard transitions into the chamber... I've had had just backup and busting that door wide open... which I'm guessing gives the wadboard no where to go and under all that pressure... it just busts the chain.

I do rake with a nh 256. I think instead of raking the outside pass in and then the next pass out to make a double. I'm going to rake the second pass outwards onto of the first swath. And from there just try to do 1/2 to 3/4 bar length windrows. I'm trying to avoid baler issues... and at the same time make a nice uniform bale.

I love baling but with this old baler I feel like every bale is a tiny miracle and I'm just waiting for something to fall apart.... I wish I could enjoy it more.


----------



## thendrix (May 14, 2015)

At some point they're all going to break. Enjoy a smooth runner while you have one and worry about fixing it when it breaks. Things are a lot more enjoyable that way


----------

