# Rake Twice???



## Daner (Jun 18, 2008)

What Is your procedure for raking?

Do you cut one day leave it sit the next day than the 3rd day rake and bale?

If you rake and find that the hay Is just not ready to bale do you rake It again the next day after the dew Is off,Or do you just leave It for the next day and bale It?

Also what time of the day do you start to rake?

Daner


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

there is no answer for your question. making hay has so many variables that just take a lot of time to learn. for example if the soil is dry when you cut, you can leave the hay in the swath and let it dry there, then rake and bale, but if the soil has any moisture, you may need to ted the hay out, sometimes daily then rake and bale. conditioners help tremendously. wind is a big factor, so is humidity, cloud cover, dew in the morning, and all of these factors are different with each region of the country. Some fields are different than other fields even on the same farm. You have to give the hay a lot of attention and make a lot of mistakes.


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## Itsalwayssomething (Aug 19, 2008)

It saves a lot of time if you have someone knowledgeable to learn this stuff from. And, even then, you'll have to add in your own lessons and best practices. I've found that I have to take notes. The notes are a huge help the next year, especially if you're doing more than a couple different fields.


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

We have a general way of doing things, but the many variables listed above can change things dramatically. We typically mow one day, ted the next morning, and rake and bale on the third day. In early May and september and October, we normally mow one day, let it set the next, ted on the third morning and rake and bale on the fourth day. These are the ideals, but things change constantly. I have tedded the same hay up to four times. I have raked hay, then flipped it the next day. We have swathed hay, we have windrowed hay tight to try and help wet ground dry. I guess I would just say that haymaking is more of an art than a science.


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## Daner (Jun 18, 2008)

Thanks for the tips...your all helping me out a ton...and I know what you meen by It being a learning experience...I have learned by some mistakes here and there.

Guys, I think I need a tedder, some of you told me this way back...and I think It s the way to go I have a 1411 new holland disk bine...I thinks its a 10' cut
and I have that Khun Rotary rake...what tedder would you recomend...I guess it would have to take two windrows after cutting and fling them all over the field??


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## jd6400 (Jun 3, 2008)

After 4 yrs. of my NH163 falling apart and waiting on parts, I used a 4 spinner Sitrex hyd. fold, seems alot tougher. I would not be without a tedder. Last few days on 2nd grass we cut 1st day ,ted 2nd AFTER DEW HAS LEFT,rake by 3 same day baling right behind rake quit at 7 dew is falling. Other dat we had alf.,timothy, cut first day ted 2nd WITH DEW ON,ted 3rd day with dew on, baled 4th day. As you can see there are so many variables,experience is the best teacher. Watch some of the oldtimers in your area and see what they are doing with different weather conditions.One thing we have done different this yr is to leave my four outside rows tedded out and come back and single row them after I`m done baling the field. Seems to work a little better for us.Good luck....Jim


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

buy the best and largest tedder you can afford. we use a 50' Krone. we bale a lot of grass hays and can get pretty aggressive with them, tedding after the dew on 1st cut for 2-3 days, and on alfalfa mixes teding only on day 2 with the dew and very gently. had cheap co-op 17' tedders - constantly broke, had a kuhn 34' tedder - it carried the transport wheels in the air as you tedded and thus was too heavy on the smaller tedding wheels, the kuhn was in the shop at least every week. Went to a 50' Krone and have had execptional good luck with it - have probably spent $1000 on parts in 2 years. if it takes too much time to tedd, you won't put the effort into it. the dealers told us here in TN that we couldn't even turn that big a tedder around in our fields - we have a lot of 5-25 acre fields. but we would never go back to a small machine, we can go slower and do a better job with the bigger machine adn some days, we are needing to cover 250 acres, and that is the only way to get'r done :.)


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

Production......

That's interesting about the Kuhn..... I'm not 100% certain, but that sounds like what we were thinking of getting...... We run a Kuhn full 3pt (8501), and it's a little heavy for a 3pt, both the tractor and the tedder are showing some wear, and we were thinking of going semi-mount, like what you had.... And you say the rear tires were too heavy for the little tedder wheels?

Rodney


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## Daner (Jun 18, 2008)

That was tough to get that hay dry yesterday,It was very humid up here
Some areas were still at 20% so I just round baled them ,and I will feed the cows today with those bales.
One thing I'm doing now Is cutting the whole outside of all my fields with my 72" mower(lawn mower) that way I'm not raking against weeds.
So I raked everything out on the 2nd day than raked It all In On the 3rd and 4rth day ,so I had a path for the tractor on the outside perimeter.

I did some traveling around here In the pickup checking out what the other guys are doing north of me, I did run Into 1 large field maybe 100 acres that was all tedded, all the rest were just wind rowed.

As far as buying a tedder my funds can't exceed 2000 and It will have to be for next year, I may be able to get a deal on one this winter.
Thanks for the Input guys

Daner from the bear country


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## FlynnFarms (Aug 24, 2008)

In general, we will cut day 1, ted day 2, rake in the AM day 3, and bale in the PM day 3.

You run into problems if there was a recent rain or the ground is wet; if the ground doesn't dry, you will have wet hay somewhere. It is imperative to have a tedder for these such occasions. Not only does it help dry out the hay, but the ground too which affects the moisture content of your hay.

In other instances, when its dry, we can cut on day 1 and rake and bale the next without tedding. It just depends on the moisture content of hay and ground.

As for raking in general, we do not rake until things are close to being ready. If for some reason, that hay gets raked and is still not there, then we will roll it over, but we try not to. If the windrows get wet from rain (heaven forbid) we will ted everything out and re-rake when it gets good and dry.

We try to limit the number of times the hay has to be mechanically manipulated. It leaves more leaves on the stem and thus, better hay.


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

And you say the rear tires were too heavy for the little tedder wheels?

Rodney[/QUOTE]

If all your fields were runway smooth with no ruts or places where the fertilizer truck got stuck, etc. it would probably be fine, but the axles to the two center small wheels broke many times - they probably needed to be an extra 1/2" in diameter. Additionally when we first got the tedder, we could not keep the two center tires inflated, they would constantly burst - and always with hay on the ground. We eventually foam filled the tires and that solved that problem; we have been told that foam filling the rest of the tires would lead to other problems as the foam is so heavy.
The tedder teeth also required constant attention due to continual breaking and we also had a lot of problems with the tedder arms getting out of adjustment and having to bend them straight ocassionally.
We use a tedder a lot and this krone has been very good - the teeth have an extra 2 loops on the spring portion and we have not replaced one in two years. the tires from the manufacture were defective and teh dealer came out and put all new tires on the tedder. There is a main kingpin that each arm pivots on and each side has broken now. about 2 hours to fix and the pins were waranteed. for my money, kuhn can have someone else's money, krone can have mine


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I appreciate the reply, and I have to look the Krone over. It sounds like you had a real lemon of a machine there...... Knock on wood, but we've gone 5 years with nearly no breakdowns on the Kuhn.....

Rodney


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