# sickle cutting alfalfa



## drewman11

how will sickle cutting alfalfa work for me? what is the difference in drying time in comparison to a conditioner? i only plan to do this for one year so i can save up some extra money for a sp swather. is this a good idea? i currently have a 7 foot sickle and plan to buy a rake. maybe somebody can give me some advice on my different options with rakes and the pros and cons to wheel type and pto driven side delivery rakes. any help would be much appreciated


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## Nitram

My dad cut alfalfa for many many years with a sickle mower, I got pretty good at it when i was young 40 yrs ago! It all depends on avaliable drying time so where you are at will make a big difference...speaking of which please add your location in your profile it would really help us help you. Yes a conditioner is a BIG plus nomatter where you live. Martin


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## mlappin

Another thing, you'll lsoe a lot more color the longer it's on the ground. It's not impossible to make alfalfa with a sickle bar depending on your area, but like I pointed out, you'll lose a lot of color and will have to be very careful not to knock all the leaves off as they be over dried before the stems are.


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## dbergh

Ditto the above comments. I would really try to come up with a conditioner / swather-look at pull types if money is an issue. You can get into them pretty reasonable. You will bleach very quickly sickle cutting alfalfa. Not saying you can't do it that way but quality may be hard to maintain. So it depends on your market. If you plan to feed it yourself probably does not matter but if you are going to market to customers they will want to ding you for the off color hay. Conditioner makes a 1 to 2 day difference for us in dry down time depending on time of year. Could be the difference between getting hay in a bale before a rain event a lot of times! Making quality hay is all about timing and timeliness.


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## NDVA HAYMAN

If you can not buy a conditioner, I might rake the hay in a windrow soon after you cut and let it dry in the windrow. Since I do not know where you are from, it might not work so well. Mike


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