Update to Tedding Question

Thanks again to all who posted how they get hay to dry down. I wanted to give everyone an update on a successful weekend of making hay. I tried the tedding behind the cutting and it really helped speed up the drying, in fact, I was able to bale 24 hours after cutting. I know that there may have been other factors like the wind and how much sun versus cloud cover and so on, but in this case it at least cut 24 hours off of my normal routine.
Btw, I have bush hog brand 4 basket style tedder. I think someone had mentioned the type of tedder could make a difference.

Surely on brand and type. I use the Morra Brand el cheapo I bought from ASC about 15 years ago. I did modify it to suit me but it does a fine job, having never had one for a comparison. Tines last a lot longer if you adjust the 3 pt up to get them into the hay only, not dirt too.

Gave my tedder a work out this past week, got 3 inches of rain Saturday night and the fields where still wet Monday but weather forecast was for only three days of good weather before more rain.
Mowed 44 acres Monday tedding behind the mowers figuring with the wet ground we'ed reted Tuesday and bale Wednesday.
Weather forecasters got it wrong and we got 3 tents of a inch of rain 5:00 Tuesday morning adding more water to the fields, waited till 1:00 for the sun to dry the top of the hay and retedded everything.
Started raking Wednesday but the unraked center of the windrow was still high in moisture so retedded to lift and stir the hay for better drying followed by raking windrows a couple hours later to begin baling, but due to the late start we only got about 50 rolls before evening moisture made the hay unbaleable, good news was weather forecasters had pushed the rain chances back.
The fields we where working in are the type that hold moisture and take a long time to dry plus the hay was thick and heavy thus shading the ground, due to this the unbaled windrows had to be tedded back out Thursday to dry resulting in another late start but we did manage to bale 140 more rolls before evening moisture stopped us.
Friday only light moisture in the bottom of the windrows so we decided to use the roll bar rake to flip the windrows over and started baling a couple hours later finishing up the final 83 rolls.
Although the hay was good it yielded 50 rolls less than last year but talking to other farmers that seams to be the trend this year.

Without a tedder we would not have been able to bale those fields for another week or so due to the wet nature of the ground, also with the additional rain after cutting, without a tedder we would have had a mess and most likely lost a good portion of the hay. There where a couple of places that where to wet to bale so we tedded those windrows back out and left them to rot, didn't amount to half a bale and won't kill the grass like it does if left in a windrow.

I've had my tedder for over 20 years and consider it a important piece of haying equipment.

All depends on how much moisture is in the ground. As I posted earlier, if the ground is dry I can ted soon after to speed it up. If the ground is wet, I can speed it up by letting the ground dry before tedding.

I have had the same thing happen with windrows setup and having to tedd them back out to dry more then re-rake. I agree, it has saved
me some barn fires for sure......getting rid of my sickle bars and going to a drum mower has helped on that account too. My hay patches
are highly irregular with turns at one end exceeding 90 degrees. No way can you get even drying in a situation like that without a tedder.

I'm getting ready to cut some tift-85. Tuesday will be 4 weeks since fertilizing with 3"growth. Over knee high now and got an 1" of rain today. Supposed to clear out on Tuesday and wanted to cut Wednesday. My cutters don't put in a tight windrow. Do y'all think it would be best to dry have out some on top before tedding?