# Which rake is more gentle? Rollerbar or Fingerwheel



## sread (Nov 9, 2009)

Gday

Just looking for opinions on which rake will be more gentle on a lucerne hay crop, nh rollerbar rake or howard/sitrex trailing v10 finger wheel rake


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## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

I think the wheel rake is a more gentle then the bar rake. The bar rake hits the hay opposite direction of the path of travel and the wheel rake sweeps the hay back behind direction of travel.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Wheel Rake


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

The Wheel Rake has the reputation of kicking dirt into the hay. Supposedly the rake can be adjusted do only one wheel will be touching dirt the others use the building windrow for power.

A wheel rake will wrap a windrow into a rope about equally with a roll bar rake. The best windrow to bale from is one built with a rotory rake.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

> A wheel rake will wrap a windrow into a rope about equally with a roll bar rake. The best windrow to bale from is one built with a rotory rake.


If you are making a rope with a wheel rake the hay is to wet to be raking.

Rotary rake are nice but $$$$$


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I've heard slower with the rotary's as well.

Depending on the brand , the wheels_ can_ be adjusted so just the stubble is turning them with no contact to the ground. must be a very level and smooth field though, most of the time I can get away with the tines just barely touching the ground.

For those that run rotary's what's you're average ground speed? I've run anywhere from 8-12 mph with my v rake this year depending on conditions.


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## Cannon (Aug 18, 2009)

A wheel rake is more gentle.


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## maknhay (Jan 6, 2010)

followed a neighbor on the four wheeler while he was putting two swaths together with a Kuhn gyro rake......you best be gittin' er done before the leaves are dry or you'll be leaving (no pun intended) the good stuff in the feild. He was only able to run 6 to 8mph. That's when I went with a Darf.....


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

maknhay said:


> you best be gittin' er done before the leaves are dry or you'll be leaving (no pun intended) the good stuff in the feild. ..


In the humid east we want to rake first thing in the morning. Here by 8 or 9 am the humidity will be too low. If you rake with 90% RH at the hay level, fully cured hay will test 40% moisture. Leaf shatter is then not an issue. 
If you are one of the fortunate few who has 80% RH at 3 pm you need to think about haylage. 
If you are one of the fortunate ones where the humidity never goes above 50% then you need to rake the hay as the hay starts to wilt. You want it raked before the leaves become too dry.

The neighbor was a perfict example of what not to do. We can rake with the humidity, at the hay, down to 80% but when it gets to 70% it is time to be going to the field with the baler.

Here I usually have to be finished baling by 1 seldom later than 2 pm. The hay baled today was raked yesterday morning, early. 
There are some simple principles to observe in baling hay. Disregard the principles and reduce the yield by a third and quality by a half. 
That is not to say some custom balers do not roll into a field after eating a noon meal. They rake the hay when they arrive. When the hay is raked they bale the hay. There is even a machine with a long drive train that pulls the baler behind the V rake for baling. That way you can leave half the hay scattered over the field.

If you get greedy you loose it all.


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## maknhay (Jan 6, 2010)

Up here, especially the last two seasons, I NEVER rake the day before I bale....small square or 3x3. With all the moisture we have had, we get heavy dew every night, and high humidity will bleach out what green we have left in the hay. Just today, we had some 3rd cut that was put down thursday mid day. Checked it last evening and it was all but 10% cured. We had high humidity and a hot south breeze too. This morning......heavy dew, no wind at all, and dew points in the 70's.........well by noon the top of the windrow was just crispy and overcast and showers 100 miles to the west. I did not feel good about raking and hoping it would go before rain could hit. I did rake the headlands and baled those off. Good thing we didn't try to roll..........the Gazeeka was showing a low of 16% and a high of 20%. So, by 4:00 PM we had 30 hundredths on the ground. I'm really hoping to get to Lexington to the NHA convention to hear that meteoroligist speak......I'm hoping she has good news for us in the hay biz.


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