# When would you ted



## farmboy9510 (Feb 16, 2009)

Hi Everyone

I have a question that I would like to get some imput on. This hay season I have a new job that requires me to start around 5:30am and I get off work around 2:30pm. My plan is to cut hay rate after work but I was wondering when the best time to ted it out would be. Would it be ok to spread it out rate after I cut it the same day or should I wait till after work the next day. The tedder is a double basket kuhn.

Thanks guys im new to using this style of tedder so any help is greatly appreciated.

Alex


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## wheatridgefarmMD (Sep 14, 2008)

I usually ted immediately after I cut to get maximum drying time and exposure

BE


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I'm assuming that you must be up north. I rarely need to tedd, I'll usually rake it the next day and bale it on the third day. I'm doing grass.


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## farmboy9510 (Feb 16, 2009)

Thanks guys

Sorry i did not mention I work with straight alfalfa.

Also live in south western Ontario


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## retcol (May 11, 2010)

When I was small square baling alfalfa, I would cut one day, ted the next and bale the third day


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

The problem with alfalfa is the leaves. All of the mechanical work to that plant needs to be done when the leaves have enough moisture in them to make them stay attached to the stem. I think you'll have to ted right after you mow. I like to do it right after we mow, and the early am (sometimes the tires are wet yet) of the day I rake. We baled this PM, and that stuff was tedded 3 times - each day I would start around 8am.

Rodney


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

FarmBoy9510, 
If your management style works for you that is just fine.

Cutting in the afternoon may be a real advantage for you.

A few University trials have shown that hay cut in the afternoon has more nonstructural carbohydrates (Sugars), than hay cut in the AM. 
This is an idea that has yet to meet the approval of our Texas Cow College on the Brazos, but it appears to be valid. 
Here in my Central Texas Climate, if I cut by about 3 pm Central Daylight Time, AND have a wide swath laying on the ground, the hay will be dry enough to stop respiration by sunset. You have a longer day but here the sunshine is more intense. 
I assume that from first light to 3 pm the standing hay will accumulate over 4% extra sugars. The crop will burn off 2% between cutting and when the hay is to dry for respiration. That is supposedly at 48% moisture.

That is a net again of 2% additional sugars. It does not sound like much, but the animals know the difference.

This brings us to when to use the tedder. Answer as soon as possible behind the conditioning mower. Unless you are using a New Holland Disk Conditioner. They have an add on that encourages the hay exiting the rollers to fly out to cover 100% of the available ground. For this to happen the windrow shaping doors on the machine have to be removed.

Next point. For rapid dying down of hay, roughly 30% of the moisture will depart the plant through the breathing holes in the leaves. These breathing holes stay open as long as the leaves are exposed to direct sunshine.

I wonder if by 3 PM your humidity will be too low to bale with out loosing leaves. But than again if your humidity never goes below 50%, it may not be until mid afternoon before the humidity will be low enough to bale!

_Now here, if I irrigated, so as to have a July and August cutting, HERE with this climate I could cut in the morning and bale that night as the dew or humidity goes high enough to hold the leaves. There has not been any irrigation on this farm for at least 50 years now. For out late March early April cutting, we get to enjoy a humid climate, but with a short day length. Some years our month of May is a good hay month, but there are also years that it rains often enough to make hay curing difficult. June is usually a really good month for hay production, except for those years that we flood in June. Some years we have enough moisture to make a September Cutting but it is not guaranteed. Fall of 2009 I had the makings of a really good October cutting. My hay is bermudagrass or alfalfa. Each has it's advantages. Over the life of this farm I have baled hay in November, December, January, & February. Not all the same year, and then only every 10 or 15 years or so.
Weather in this part of Texas is a Perpetual Drought, broken by random flooding. 
In about 1953 it was determined that WE made more with alfalfa than with cotton, corn, or milo. I am just to darn old to try anything other than hay. 
Have a Grand & Glorious Season. 
Bill_


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## farmboy9510 (Feb 16, 2009)

Thank you so much for your help guys you are all life savers.

Hope everyone has a great harvest.

thanks again

Alex


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## wheatridgefarmMD (Sep 14, 2008)

Haywilson,

My new discbine actually has an adjustable deflector immediately behind the rollers that will spread the hay out across the width of the rollers. If i raise it all the way up it shoots the hay into the chute off the back, if its all the way down it goes right to the ground. No removal of anything needed. I do leave the chute wide open even with the deflector down

BE


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## Haymike56 (May 3, 2010)

I am in a similar situation. I work a regular job and I try to time the cuttings so that I can bale on Saturdays or Sundays if it is too damp. I am running a NH Discbine and a 4 basket tedder.Normally I will cut on Wed. night from 5pm till about 9 or 10 depending on the size of the field. I will hook up the tedder when I am done cutting so it is ready for the neighbor to ted the next morning when the dew is off. I will play the weather and if it is going to have a slight change of light showers on Thursday I will not ted untill Thursday night or Friday am. Over the last ten years I have found that if the hay is left as cut and it gets rain that night or the next day you wont loose as much greeness from sun bleaching. I normally don't ted more than once since the leaves tend to get knocked off as the crop gets dryer. I will then use a rotary rake for windrowing as they tend to make a nice tall row that air can get through.


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## rank (Apr 15, 2009)

Depends on the weather.

1. Lay the swath out as wide as you can get it.
2. Let it sit for all of day 2.
3. Tedd early on the morning of day 3 while the dew is still on. This shakes the dew off and saves the leaves.
4. Bale in the afternoon of day 3 or on day 4.


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## man of steel (Feb 1, 2010)

When to ted, or even not ted, the hay is nothing but a game with the weather. I've tedded my hay from the time it's been mowed to the morning before baling. All depends on ground moisture-humidity-sun-wind-time available.

It's a day by day experienced wild a$$ guess here in SW MI


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## Randy Litton (Jan 21, 2018)

Bermuda: We use a JD 630 Mower Conditioner and open the throat up to allow max wind row. The leaves are not as problematic as with alfalfa. We ted every morning at dew rise.


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## Beav (Feb 14, 2016)

We bale both grass and alfalfa cut with the NH 7230 with deflector kit, ted 6 to 12 hours later depending on weather. Alfalfa usually needs 12 to 24 hours more drying time, cut in the late afternoon, ted next morning rake and bale on third or forth day depends on weather. Grass hay cut morning ted evening and rake and bale next day. We use a Vemeer 6 basket tedder and Kuhn rotary rakes, I think the rotary rakes help dry the hay as much as tedding.


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