Square Baling unraked hay

SHALER

Member
A few weeks ago I mowed some very heavy first cut. Tedded it a day later. A few days later I raked up a few windrows that I estimated would fill a wagon with square bales. I filled that wagon and had one windrow left over that I estimated would be about 20 bales. I did not want to drag another wagon out just to do 20 bales. I could have raked more hay but it was late. Since the hay was so heavy I thought about just driving around and baling the un-raked hay. So the question is- have you baled unraked hay and how does it bale? Are the bales less than perfect in form because I have always read on here the driving factor of good bales is a nice windrow.
 
question is will it fit the pickup of the baler or is it too wide as in a 7' swath from mower? If wider than pickup will not work as it cannot be seperated by pickup to feed in. If narrower than pickup it will do OK.
 
I tried that one time but found it did not work well due to the way it feed into the baler and the hay tended to be wet on the bottom
 
Did it all the time when working off farm had to cut corners.First thing measure pickup adjust haybine swath just a little smaller second thing if possible leave a high stubble that leaves the windrow up providing that you don't drive on it and allows air under the windrow. Benefits are saves gas and machinery wear then also saves on leaves if you can rake with proper timing you can save leaves but working off the farm didn't allow that. Remember tough hay won't burn but rained on will if hay got rained on i would rake.
 
Thanks guys, I almost always ted my hay, so in the event I had to bale unraked hay, moisture or width of windrow would not be an issue. As I tried to point out, what I going after on my question was bale consistency and form. Whenever hay baling questions come up on these forums, raking and windrow preparation get a lot of credit for good looking solid bales. no sense in baling unraked hay if you are just going to punch out a bunch of marshmallows....
 
It's an old saying but yes it will mold but for some odd reason it won't spontaneously combust. So if i get some wet slugs around corners where the haybine might have bunched it i don't worry. I always used a hay tester just to make sure.
 
Windrow prep is a factor so is ground speed and baler rpm. I had a guy raking ahead of the baler and it was thin hay my dad was driving the baler and i was stacking i told him to kick it up a gear he wasn't happy but we ended up around nine miles an hour baling fun on the wagon but it was the only way then to make decent bales .
Wedges in the bale chamber is a second key factor baling out of the windrow the wedges have to be in. Different times i would gear up and throttle back to get a bigger wad in on the plunger stroke.Also ever load i would turn the crank down one at the end of the day back it of as many loads as had been baled and good for the next morning.
 
Check it....is the bottom hay dry? Tedded hay is usually uniformly dry (vs non-tedded where the bottom layer is less dry than the top layer). Tedding also gives the ground a better opportunity to dry. You will have to be a little careful that the pickup doesn't plug pulling hay around the edges, but other than that, it will bale and I don't see much difference in bale uniformity. Besides, the horses never say much about what the bale looks like or uniformity....they just eat it.

PS: I do find that the last couple hours up in a windrow with the sun and wind on it really makes a difference in the level of moisture in the hay.
 
Put it this way.... if I had the rake in the field, I'd rake it. If I had to drag it 20 miles for 20 bales I'd probably make do with what you propose.
The baler will pick it up... usually in slugs... because the end of the pickup will drag hay. It also tends to wind in the pickup sometimes rather than just feeding. So yeah, you can do it... but ti will be about as aggravating as going and getting your rake.

Rod
 
We never had a problem with it. Someone's it would dry just fine without having to be raked. Other times we'd have to rake it. If the fields were just a little bit tough in the am, we'd rake the outside rounds and maybe a portion of the field, but not the whole thing. Once we baked what was raked, the rest that wasn't would usually be ready.

Our windrows were the same size or just a hair smaller than the pickup on the baler (Massey #12) and it never had a problem making a bale. It always fed into the chamber just fine. We had both a 9' haybine, and a 14'machine. Either one was just fine to bale behind, especially grassy hay.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Actually feeds into the baler much better and faster if you don't have to rake. On my baler the pickup is wide enough to pick up the swath left from the mower. The only reason that you have to rake is to first off flip the row for drying, the other reason is to merge row narrow enough for the baler pick up. If the weather is hot and dry and I can dry without raking then I don't rake, does not happen too often but if you can skip raking you are saving a lot of time and money. Most mower conditioners now drop a swath at about 70% of cut width and on a 9 or 10 foot cut adjustments can be made to lay narrow enough that the baler can pick up.
 
I had the very same thing happen to me on this hay crop. Was rolling and had cut half the field early and it cured faster than the rest so I prep'd it and baled it. On the final bale, I was about ? full and wanted a full roll so I went over to the most mature of the later cut and did as you did. Turned out to be the best looking bale I rolled that day. If your hay is heavy, why not. Only reason for wwing is to increase volume per trip to cut down on run time of the baler.
 
I have found that without raking it goes into the baler like carpet.. it will just keep pulling and running carpet of hay into the baler.. sometimes it brakes and a clump goes through.. all depends on how heavy hay is..

I replanted my hay field years ago and have a heavy thick stand.. so I open the swather up and let it fly wide.. when I finish mowing I basically only have the width of my tires showing ground in the field.. Dries alot faster spread out and then v rake into baling rows.. Has worked very well for me doing this.. saves a day of drying in most cases. All this is also relative to the temps, dew, wind. etc. Just have to know what works this day may not the next..
 

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