# Cutting and raking widths



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

How important is it to match your mower width to the raking width? Going to be buying a new mower and rake this year and was getting ready to pull the trigger on the rake but not sure yet on what size of mower I will be getting. I am considering a mower anywhere from 10-13 foot cut and the rake I plan on purchasing is available in either a 27 or 30 foot max raking width. Most of the time my grass hay and oat hay is tedded out so I don't think it would make a difference on that but I usually don't Ted alfalfa.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

If I had flat ground it might make a difference. All of our hay ground is terraced so we cut with the contour of the ground.

Nothing matches up for us. Every terrace has some left overs.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

My rule of thumb is rake 2 windrows at a time. I don't Ted so I will get jumped on for that. 10 foot, use a 21'. 13' use a 27'


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

If you buy a slightly larger mower than you normally would you can just cut a foot or two less if needed in a heavy crop. Sure is nice to have the extra width in lighter crops. I would buy the 13' model.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

At first I was kind of leaning towards buying a Hesston 10 foot discbine but then I got to thinking on my alfalfa which isn't tedded I would be raking 3 windows together with the one in the middle not getting turned at all which wouldn't be good.....with tedded hay it wouldn't be an issue since it has already been turned/fluffed. Right now I'm kind of thinking about buying a used NH 499 haybine with a 12 foot cut and then in a year or two upgrading to a 13 foot discbine or maybe even a self propelled unit. I just want to be sure that the rake I'm buying would still be fine to use if I get a bigger mower in a couple years.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

I rake two 15' windrows together with a 27' rake. That should not be an issue.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

carcajou said:


> I rake two 15' windrows together with a 27' rake. That should not be an issue.


 That's good to know......I had planned on buying the 27 foot rake but started second guessing myself when the rake manufacture told me that 95% of the rakes they sell are 30 footers. On the other hand if your raking two 15 foot windrows together with a 27 footer I don't guess that the 27 foot rake will be too wide for a 12 foot mower? I suppose I could angle the baskets in to narrow up the rake but I'm not sure how well the baskets would rake at a steeper angle?


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

The angle will need to be adjusted to get the windrow that works best for you, but if the outside overlaps the 2 windrows your raking by a couple feet thats good too. It will help you on the headland corners and also going around obstacles. Less missed hay. Lots of times we will drop down to 12 feet in low, heavy areas and we never adjust the width of our rakes. I'm more interested in consistent sized windrows to get even drying for baling.


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

Farmercline I'd say our weather is a lot the same. How do you get away with not tedding your alfalfa? I Ted mine once right behind the mower. If I dont I get absolutely no dry down and after a couple days the alfalfa starts to get funky. I wish I could get by without tedding!


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Nate926 said:


> Farmercline I'd say our weather is a lot the same. How do you get away with not tedding your alfalfa? I Ted mine once right behind the mower. If I dont I get absolutely no dry down and after a couple days the alfalfa starts to get funky. I wish I could get by without tedding!


I'm purty sure the consensus on here would be the same.....I'm not a big fan of tedding, it's just a necessary evil here


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## E220 (Feb 10, 2016)

Which type of rake are you considering? Does it have the option of a center splitter? Also are you planning to wide-swath with the mower? Most conditioners will pull the windrow in +/- a foot on each side.


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## hay rake (Dec 31, 2011)

if you are tedding go with the size rake that will make the windrow you want with as few passes as possible. our mowers go from 10 to 16 to 30. as long as we tedd the right way raking is not a problem. but when someone(usually my father) tries to pick up an extra row with the tedder it makes a mess


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Nate926 said:


> Farmercline I'd say our weather is a lot the same. How do you get away with not tedding your alfalfa? I Ted mine once right behind the mower. If I dont I get absolutely no dry down and after a couple days the alfalfa starts to get funky. I wish I could get by without tedding!


 I can't always get by without tedding but if the weather cooperates I can. I have found that without tedding it takes an extra day to dry so I need 4 days of hot, sunny weather to do it. My main reason trying to avoid tedding alfalfa is to prevent the hay from bleaching as much. I found that if I Ted with some dew on it the leaf loss is minimal.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

E220 said:


> Which type of rake are you considering? Does it have the option of a center splitter? Also are you planning to wide-swath with the mower? Most conditioners will pull the windrow in +/- a foot on each side.


 Looking at a Twinstar hydraulic basket rake. No center splitter option but if I can pull two swaths from the mower together onto open ground and not on top of another swath that hasn't been turned I shouldn't need a center kicker......for tedded hay here it is not needed. I do leave the hay in a wide swath behind the mower.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

One other thing to consider would be the "wide thin fin kits" that NH has for their mowers. I haven't dealt with them myself, but I would think this would come as close to tedding as you could get without actually tedding. Maybe one of the other folks on here has used this kit and could shed a little light on the performance.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I don't ted. I use a conditioner, cut at about 6", lay the hay out as flat as possible behind me.









Can't get much prettier


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## E220 (Feb 10, 2016)

TL;DR Long conditioned crop windrows don't split well. Buy the widest rake that fits your budget, because you will be glad for it in thin crop.

We sell quite a few wheel rakes to Amish guys who are raking 2.5 10' windrows with 24' rakes. The wheel rakes do fairly well splitting windrows. But they do not always run conditioners so the windrow is not tangled. They run center splitters so the windrow they straddle is turned. It is easier/cheaper to design a center splitter for a wheel rake than a hydraulic drive though.

With Vermeer rollerbar rakes, my experience is that long first cutting swaths do not split cleanly so we run the rakes partially closed to match the mower width. The steeper angle of the baskets actually does a smoother raking job but can rope the windrow a bit more.

In later cuttings or tedded hay, the windrows split much better. In that type of crop we want as much as we can get on a windrow.


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## Nate926 (Apr 6, 2014)

I've tried going wide and it doesn't help. As you all know I'm not pleased with my NH discbine and that may have a lot to do with it. At current time I have to scalp my alfalfa in order for it to cut remotely decent so it's laying on the dirt pretty much. I know that has a lot to do with it. But I'll be fixing that problem in the future


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

The problem with trying to rake two rows next to each other together is that it's tough to do a good job, especially when you're adjusting the radio, a/c, or talking on the phone, and lets face it - folks always call when I'm doing sort of work, and if the phone doesn't ring I don't make any money. That said, I used to cut alfalfa with a 1499NH, and it was a 12ft cut, and I used to run it nearly full. I would rake 2 rows with a NH 216 rake and it worked very well. BUT, the guy on the haybine (which is why I did it), was very important - when you're cutting a field that will not be tedded, you have to cut the hay in such a way that will minimize unraked hay. I used to do everything in sets of 2 so things would work well for the rake. It may take 2 extra minutes to cut 10 acres, but it'll make a BIG difference in the ease of raking, and you could go so far as to say the quality of hay will be better, if it all gets rolled around.

Rodney


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

http://www.haytalk.com/forums/topic/38857-cutting-and-raking-widths/

It appears no one is considering spreading out the hay behind the mower in a wide swath.
Not in a windrow or a tedder following a mower conditioner.

Dr Dan can explain the joys of managed swath width for better drying.

Dr Rotz and put a number to the leaf loss from using a tedder and from raking a formed windrow Eastern Style.

Believe it or not West Virginia http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/pubnwsltr/TRIM/5811.pdfCan present the advantage of working with the relative humidity, Down next to the hay.

We are all working with the same Universal Truths, but our management styles will be different according to our climate conditions.

HERE I mow only as much as I can bale in a day.
Lay the hay out as wide as possible, usually from 50% of the ground covered to 90% covered.
Rake with the dew the day before baling.


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