# To weave or not to weave.



## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

So just finished cutting a field lastnight and it was pretty thin. Wounder what you guys would do. Make one pass with rake and make a half width windrow. Or spend more time raking and combine 2 windrows and get a full width windrow? Seems i sure make a better bale with a full width windrow.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

As long as you can get the full width windrow consistent, you should make a very good bale. You’ll spend the time on the rake tractor or baler tractor either way by making extra trips, so it may come down to whether you’re losing any hay having to rake it farther or even which tractor you prefer to operate.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

I'm going to go all schoolmaster here and say you should rake for a half width windrow, just to keep in practice for weaving. You can get a tighter bale if the windrow is half width also . . .


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

I personally try raking windrows about 32"-34", and weave making my bales. Then again I'm making 5' wide bales (actual a 5 foot 1 1/2 inch bale width, where as a 4' wide baler is usually about 3 foot 11 1/2 inches wide). By making a 32-34 inch windrow, I can either RB or small square bale same windrow (much different speeds however). YMMV

If you are weaving, try to weave like what is shown on page 5 of attached piece. Try not to get in the habit of weaving 'too quick', would be my advice.

Larry


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Just get a bigger rake $$$


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

If I had to rake 62 foot of hay into one windrow, my tractor could straddle the windrow and I don't know if I could drive slow enough, let alone have room to drop the next RB!!  And I surely wouldn't want to be hand stacking on a wagon behind a small square baler. :lol:

Larry


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Lol! Use a merger? 75' of hay on one windrow.


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## Beav (Feb 14, 2016)

If the hay is light we almost always make full windrow rake faster then I can bale less fuel too


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## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

I'd go with a full windrow much faster to bale.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

Ah but the faster you bale, the less hay in that bale. I prefer to weave and build the edges, I can't stand bales that look like they are tipping over.


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## Lewis Ranch (Jul 15, 2013)

Cheaper to run a rake than a baler...


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

If one makes a good,flat windrow one doesn't have to weave & the bale edges will be firm especially if baling with a mega-wide equipped pickup baler


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Tx Jim said:


> If one makes a good,flat windrow one doesn't have to weave & the bale edges will be firm especially if baling with a mega-wide equipped pickup baler





Tx Jim said:


> If one makes a good,flat windrow one doesn't have to weave & the bale edges will be firm especially if baling with a mega-wide equipped pickup baler. That probably works well where you're at it does not work that way here on hills and rolling ground especially after you've run to Tedder once or twice, then it's really hard to guarantee the left side of the road will fill just like the right side and of course if you're going along a steep Hillside . I believe some places a full-width Windrow will work and then there's places where it won't you're going to have to build the bale


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## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

Wide wind rows gathering wheels= good tight squar shoulder bales.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

There is a lot to what endrow said about hills and their influence upon all facets of making hay. My bottom lands are tabletop flat and it is not a problem to make the perfect round. But when I get to my uplands it can be a whole different ballgame.....especially on the steep side of a hill with gravity and speed working against you.

It can take me twice as long or longer to mow five acres of steep hillside than it would 5 acres of bottomland.

It has been stated over and over again, one size does not fit all in making hay.

Regards, Mike


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

Ended up just making a half windrow after trying to merge windrows. It was too much hassel. Field made a whopping .75 bales to an acre 5x5.5 bales. Sure need a rain. On a side note I never had any net feed problems. But on the first bale i had to reload net guess it wouldn't get sucked onto the bale. Then a few times while baling it would flash some sort of net feed code real quick too quick to read it. Had some spots with quite a few sabdburs wondering if that could have been the issue? Also when looking at the belts from the tractor some hay was getting stuck between the belts and various spots on the baler. Is that anything to worry about? I had that issue the other day when i baled some monster windrows that hardly fit under the tractor and when i went to grease thebearings and lube the chains before starting one of my outside belts has so much hay wedged around it it was touching the adjacent belt a little... Pulled it out and ran it slow while lubbibg chains and it was all good after that.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Vol said:


> There is a lot to what endow said about hills and their influence upon all facets of making hay. My bottom lands are tabletop flat and it is not a problem to make the perfect round. But when I get to my uplands it can be a whole different ballgame.....especially on the steep side of a hill with gravity and speed working against you.
> 
> It can take me twice as long or longer to mow five acres of steep hillside than it would 5 acres of bottomland.
> 
> ...


Mike

I'll bet the OP of this thread will have a difficult time locating any "steep hills" in his hay field in South Texas. LOL


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

Not sure how steep is steep but we have some pretty good rolling hills here south of shiner. My dads place has about 80-100 foot of elevation change. But hills in dry climates are not exactly where i would be cutting hay. Too fast of water runoff or way too many terraces, not ideal hay making spots.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

What you feeding stx, either way those burrs need to be taken care of.....they already headed out?


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

Just beef cattle. Yea just got the place coastal field in pretty poor shape. Need to disc it up this winter and spray pre-emergant on it mid feb. Probably have to feed out that hay in that field this winter to keep from spreading them as bad.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

StxPecans said:


> Just beef cattle. Yea just got the place coastal field in pretty poor shape. Need to disc it up this winter and spray pre-emergant on it mid feb. Probably have to feed out that hay in that field this winter to keep from spreading them as bad.


You can spray them this year, I would.....wait just a bit after reemergence from your cut and hit it with 1.5 oz of Pastora follow up 10 days later with 1 oz....it will stunt the Bermuda for your next cut just a bit but not too bad. It will eliminate the burrs tho....
We don't normally see burrs headed out this time of year....they will be in every cutting you have this year and the battle will be much tougher next year. I wouldn't rely the yellow stuff to stop them, get em while you can see them. I'll give you a couple of pics of a couple of patches I treated a few years ago with Pastora.....it'll smoke em
Discing the field next year may be a good idea if the fertility has not been maintained.....check ph first and work on that. Next, I can about guarantee that it's gonna need potash and lots of it....go ahead and get a jumpstart this year with your NPK applications....hth


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

somedevildawg said:


> You can spray them this year, I would.....wait just a bit after reemergence from your cut and hit it with 1.5 oz of Pastora follow up 10 days later with 1 oz....it will stunt the Bermuda for your next cut just a bit but not too bad. It will eliminate the burrs tho....
> We don't normally see burrs headed out this time of year....they will be in every cutting you have this year and the battle will be much tougher next year. I wouldn't rely the yellow stuff to stop them, get em while you can see them. I'll give you a couple of pics of a couple of patches I treated a few years ago with Pastora.....it'll smoke em
> Discing the field next year may be a good idea if the fertility has not been maintained.....check ph first and work on that. Next, I can about guarantee that it's gonna need potash and lots of it....go ahead and get a jumpstart this year with your NPK applications....hth


Well we are really dry right now will pastora kill coastal if its really dry. Like i mean dry. Cut it becuase if i didnt it would have just burned up and thats saying alot for coastal bermuda that isnt being grazed and we get a wet dew pretty much every morning. 
Pastora will kill bahia grass too? There are 2 spots in there with burned up bahia but i would like to eleminate that too. I put down about 70 units of nitroyen earlier but would like to dump a ton and a half of chicken manure on it too.
Also this wouldnt be a spot spray for sandburs as its throught the whole feild.

Would be nice to get about 5 inches of slow rain. The weather channel app on my phone says 97 or higher temp and no rain out 15 days though.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Ya, if the field is really stressed I wouldn't spray with a selective until wetter weather arrives. But Pastora doesn't do a lot of stunting....but I still would be cautious if really dry....that's probably why your burrs have headed out, they tolerate dry conditions. I didn't spot spray that field, that entire field was sprayed, that pic was taken about 5 days after the second application, and yes it'll smoke Baha'i as well, cimmiron will get the Baha'i as well but not like Pastora. I would say it controls Bahai, but I think repeat applications even with cimmiron would probably get it, I don't notice any stunting with cimirron. That's my go to herbicide for Bermuda. The main reason for Pastora is burrs, but if I had a field that I was cleaning up for the long haul....there ain't much better than Pastora and still get some decent cuttings.....
This field that I'll put a pic up was taken over by Bahai, burrs, and other weeds...it's also very sandy. But, within 2 years the field was completely filled in and is now a beautiful field of Bermuda.....ill see if I can find the pic, it's been a few years.....looked like Chernobyl afterwards. Iirc you'll be able to see what it didn't get....crabgrass. 
Last pic is two years later and a bunch of $ later  after tons of lime and NPK


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

As u can see, that field was in tough shape....years of no spraying and only applications of AN and no liming is what leads to that....you'll have to look closely but perhaps you'll see the small sprigs of Bermuda left behind, it was enuf....

Lol, went back and looked, you can also see where I missed a strip, I was working with foam turds at that time, hadn't made the switch to GPS yet or it woulda been worse


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

Coastal bermuda is probably the hardiest plant i know. I have tilled a field 2 years strait and spraying roundup and paraqute too ti where it was gone. Planted a thick stand of ryegrass and there are already spots of this stuff coming back. Glad we dont have to lime soil around here. But a little p and k now and then helps.


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