mtjohnso--hay left in field

mtjohnso, I only do small fields, with lots of corners, thus quite a bit of hay left. I rake with a John Deere 670 side delivery rake. Leftover hay is a problem on a subsequent cutting as I'm mowing with horses and a sickle mower which often "plugs" on leftover hay. On one small field last month I got 73 bales and after raking with a dump rake, baled up 14 more or about 19%. This month on another small field I had a baler breakdown at 54 bales. After 3 donkeys ate on it for several days and the baler was fixed I baled 7 more bales for about 12% more hay. kelly

Not to be a smart butt but you need to do a better job raking. Just because the hay is mowed one way does not mean you have to rake it that way. Kind of straighten up the windrows as you rake. Make another pass with the rake if you have to on some windrow to get that little bit of hay into the windrow. Also rake your ends better. So you have room to turn when raking the middle of the field.

I usually rake the ends out so there is more room when I rake the main part of the filed.

You also want a tractor that will turn tight to rake with. When I use my bar rake I usually use a JD 5210 or my JD 4010 narrow front. With either of them I can double back on an end of a windrow and leave zero tail on the ends.

I have a place that is all odd shaped fields, small. 16 acres total, in 7 fields. Only one is larger than an acre and a half. Not really worth it but when your working a friends fields you don't say anything.
I have a 9 foot basket rake on a Farmall A and can't turn tight enough to rake everything clean. Follow it with a 336 JD baler on an 806 IH and leave a bit at every corner it seems.
Little fields are a pain no matter how you do it.

JD Seller, I realize I'm arguing, but I cited FACT of amount of hay from raking scatterings and yours seems to be opinion (that you get all your hay). Have you ever gone over your fields with a good old dump rake after baling to see how many bales you've missed? That'd be FACT. Please don't be insulted by my disagreement, just that I kinda like to argue too. LOL. Anyway, I do appreciate your taking the time to respond. What is your favorite farming activity? Is it making hay? That's mine. Sitting and looking upward at the big butts of a couple of draft horses while that old, old, old mower just clicks away is a real treasure to me. Now anybody who'd like to do that for several hours has gotta be nuts--you got me pegged. Regards, kelly

Kelly: I rarely use a bar rake any more. I have a twelve wheel Sitrex wheel rake. There is not much hay left in my fields I look that over real close. My hay is almost all either waterways or contour strips. So I may have 75 acres of hay on the ground with the largest continuous field being 4-5 acres. None of that in a straight or square field. Using a dump rake on my strips would be not fun.

One big difference is that I have not mowed hay with a sickle bar mower in over forty years. So the hay mowed with a mower conditioner is in more of a windrow than yours will be laid out clear flat. Then that windrow is not traveled on other than the ends. Where yours is walked on if it is mowed all with horses.

Also my hay would be nightmare to mow with a sickle bar mower. It is just two thick for those old mowers. I usually get 2-3 tons per cutting with 3-4 cutting a year.

Your hay is more than likely more of a grass type and not that thick. Thin hay is harder to clean rake the field.

You should try a wheel rake some time. I do mean a newer style ones not the old farmhand models. Those old style wheel rakes did a poor job of raking. The key is large diameter wheels and long rake teeth. that allows the rake to sweep the ground with out raking dirt and rocks into the windrow.

Now for you liking to look at a horse's butt. That really, really sounds like a serious personal problem to me. LAMO

We still used horses some when I was a kid. I celebrated the day the last work horse left the farm. Dreadful creatures to have to do serious work with.

Grand Daughters drug some pleasure horses back to the farm two years ago. As long as I do not have to take care of them the horses can stay. If the grand daughters quit doing the work the horses are GONE!!!! LOL

J D Seller, glad you took my disagreement humorously! And . . . I'll keep my eye out for a small (not very wide) wheel rake with big wheels. I'd like to be able to pull it with the "real" horsepower, using a forecart, of course. As of now I truly like my Deere 670 side delivery rake with the rubber teeth. It is quiet and smooth. And, you're right, my hay is all grass, mostly coastal bermuda grass. Since it is pretty dry now (south central Texas) it is especially light and dry and in fact some of my problem was wind blowing the windrows apart before I was able to bale 'em up. Again thanks for being a good sport AND FOR THE GOOD INFO. kelly

Been 35 years since we baled but never had any left. Do a good job raking and unless the wind blows it you will not have any left. If there were any spots we just took the baler to where they were and baled them up, never more than 2 bales. And this was with the old steel wheel New Idea No. 4, 4 bar rake-tedder or a 4 bar David bradley. No parallel bar for me as they would not make a nice tight narrow row but a wide fluffy row. Baled for uncle that had that and his row was too wide for baler pickup.