raking corners with a side delivery rake

I am having a problem getting all the hay raked when making a corner with a side delivery rake. I am leaving about 2 feet of hay that does not get raked. What should I be doing to get the total corner raked?
 
it is difficult to turn corners with a rake as sharply as you turn the mower. You might try just raking out your corners when you're finished. That is a matter of raking out at an angle from the center to each corner of the field then back to the center.
 
I assume you are using a drawbar pulled rake vs 3pt mounted one? When you cut the corners, are you using a sickle bar mower or some sort of haybine?
 
Once your corners get close to 90 degrees you have to run out the corner and then come back in,with too large a tractor you won't have room some time to make the corner neat.My dad was a stickler for a neat raked hay field and I can't stand to bale behind a sloppy rake job.
 
When finished raking around the field, rake a windrow from the center of the field to the outside corner and back to the center. Do this on all 4 corners. That's the way we used to do it.
 
If you have this problem on all 4 or more corners you can do like the others said and rake from the center out then back to the center. But if it's only on one or two corners, and your field isn't over 10 acres, just take your hay fork out and rake the parts you missed into the nearest windrow. Doesn't take long and better than leaving hay in the field. Since not all fields are perfectly square you may have some corners that you will leave some hay while raking, so clean up those corners with a fork. That's the way we do it and works good.
 
Are you straddling the windrow with the tractor when you are raking? or are you way over to the side (just enough to just turn the windrow over)?
 

Should have zero issues making a perfect 90 when turning left. Rake with a 240 MF and NH 256, rear tractor tire tucks into the rake nicely (you can pivot the rake on one of it's rear wheels and make a near perfect 180). Turning right means making a sweeping turn.

bale guys hate 90 degree turns in windows....I know I do!
 
I use a 3-point SD rake and almost never make a good corner. It tends to sweep all the hay in the turn and leave a huge pile when I straighten out. The only way I can get it is to start into and exit the turn gently. Takes practice.
 
Takes a lot of practice, and varies with rake. I raked a lot of hay growing up, and dad would not stand for any hay left in the field, and he wanted the field mowed up against the fence posts, and no rounded corners left standing. He always backed his sickle mower into the corner to get it all if he had to. He grew up during the depression, and wasted little of anything including hay.
 

2X what Traditional Farmer said. You should be raking across the ends only your first five times around. After that you keep going to that fifth windrow, run along beside it, then turn back in at the other side of your field. This gives you a more gentle turn for both raking and baling.
 
you are raking the wrong direction. When you rake the windrows out to the outside of the field you will make a nice sweeping turn and windrow and pick up all the hay. If you are raking towards the center then you will leave some hay in the corner of the turn. You will have to rake the field again the opposite direction to clean up the corners of the turns. My dad always raked that way, but I started raking the John Deere way after I saw one of their pamphlets. So you only had to rake once! Hope this helps. John
 

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