Drying hay poll

Farmallb

Well-known Member
Which way will hay dry quickest. Mowed and laying all over the field, or mowed and raked into windrows?
 
Ted it out til it's pretty dry then get it up in a nice high fluffy windrow for finish dry. Basket type/rollbar rakes do not make nice high fluffy windrows. Sweep type rakes do.
 
It depends.

If it's sickle mowered and dropped flat - better to rake it into windrows to fluff it up. Roll the windrow a few times since the lower half will be shaded and compacted.

Cut and conditioned - maximize the surface area and keep it all spread out.

Either way - a tedder is the best solution to keep it fluffed up and spread out.
 

Depends on some variables. Out west where air and ground tend to be dry they just swath it then rake, then bale. Here in northeast where air and ground usually both have plenty of moisture we need multiple passes with tedder to keep it spread and lifted up. In my area we all swath narrow then after a few hours of sun on the bare ground we tedd it out. This is followed by another pass with tedder, then raking and baling 2-4 hours after raking to allow any wet bunches underneath time to dry. In Sept. Oct. doing second or third cut we rake after 2nd day to reduce exposure to the heavy dews that we get this time of year. third day we turn it, double windrows, then bale.
 
TxJim has this absolutely correct. Much research has been done on this the last few years. Wide swath vs narrow. When hay is placed into a narrow windrow, not only does it take longer to dry, but the plant actually continues to "respire" (live), burning up valuable carbohydrates, effectively lowering the nutritonal value.

Dr. Tom Kilcer was the pioneer with this research. He is (was?....not sure now) with Cornell University and he did exhaustive research into this. Look him up on the internet. VERY eye opening and informative. His work was so conclusive that many companys started adapting their equipment per his suggestions. I have personally spoken with him at length in the past regarding his work. Fine man.
 

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